John Woodworth, senior vice president for supply chain operations at 3M Company, has an enormous challenge. The Minnesota-based manufacturer produces about 65,000 different products in 214 factories located in 41 different countries. Those products are as varied as Scotch tape, Post-it notes, asthma inhalers, films for coating solar-energy panels, laptop computer screens, and television screens. With sales growing slowly in the current economy, Woodworth hopes to cut costs by looking for ways to make products as efficiently as possible.

Woodworth is finding that he has his work cut out for him. Many of 3M’s production processes are lengthy and complex. For example, the previous 100-day process for making Command self-adhesive picture hooks started with the preparation of the adhesive at a Missouri factory. The adhesive was then shipped to Indiana, where it was applied to a foam backing. The foam was then transported to Minnesota, where a contractor printed labels on it and cut it into the needed sizes. Finally, a contractor based in Wisconsin packaged the strips of adhesive along with plastic hooks in blister packs.

The main reason production processes have been so complex is that 3M has taken a cautious approach to expansion. Rather than build a new facility each time a new product launches, 3M’s management searches for the existing capacity to make the product while also investigating whether the product will sell. Adding new product lines to an existing facility can make that facility more efficient by minimizing idle time on production lines. However, the total cost of production is higher when materials and components must be shipped hundreds of miles to complete the production process. When supply lines are long, the company also pays for keeping extra inventories of raw materials.

Under Woodworth’s leadership, 3M is implementing a new effort to lower costs. To this end, 3M has established a committee that is responsible for identifying which products’ supply chains have the most potential for improvement. The committee’s goals include shortening the average cycle time by 25 percent; methods for reducing cycle time include eliminating unnecessary steps and carrying out more of the steps at locations that are near one another. To help this effort, 3M turned to a firm called Expert Choice to provide consulting services and decision-making software.

As a result of these initiatives, 3M is trimming cycle times by arranging production processes in fewer, larger facilities—“superhubs” that can make dozens of products serving a particular geographic region. So far, 3M has established 10 such hubs and is planning 6 more. The Minnesota hub now makes Command hooks as well as Scotch tape, Nexcare bandages, and other products. Producing the hooks in one location has cut the cycle time to one-third of what it was. Using Expert Choice’s software has streamlined the decision-making process itself, and choosing a supplier or a production location, which once took months, now can be completed in weeks.1