Most challenges manufacturers face involve the assembly process of one or more of their products. Sometimes, though, a company struggles with where to locate its headquarters or build another plant for market expansion.
Musical-instrument maker Korg Inc. faced the latter situation in the mid-1990s. Founded and based in Tokyo since 1962, Korg considered building another plant in many European cities before picking Osimo, Italy, in 1995. The company opened a facility there because of the area’s tradition of manufacturing electronic music instruments, such as the famous console organ (a forerunner of today’s digital keyboards).