Harbour Consulting Opens New Office to Serve Manufacturers in Asia-Pacific Region

TROY, Mich., Oct. 14, 2004 -- Harbour Consulting, the leader in manufacturing productivity, quality and total cost improvement, has opened an office in Bangkok, Thailand, to expand Harbour's services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Vice President Laurie Felax said the new office will enable Harbour to better serve manufacturing clients throughout Asia as well as expand Harbour's ability to track manufacturing trends in the region.

"This is a critical time in manufacturing, especially as China and India ramp up and build capacity," Felax said. "We want to help these manufacturers better understand quality and efficiency challenges as they grow and add production volume."

Harbour Consulting also is well known for publishing The Harbour Report, the authoritative guide to automotive manufacturing and a leading competitive- analysis tool used by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers.

From the new Asia-Pacific office, Harbour will provide a broad range of consulting services to manufacturers in numerous industries, including automotive, appliance, garment and motorcycle manufacturing. The company's areas of expertise include development of lean business operations, cooperative benchmarking studies and competitive research, with a focus on strengthening a manufacturer's overall competitiveness through improvements in quality, productivity and lower cost.

Kevin S. Smith is director of Harbour's Asian operations. He previously was president of Productivity Inc. in Shelton, Conn., one of the leading lean manufacturing consultancies in the United States.

"I've spent many years in Asia, watching the tremendous growth in manufacturing throughout the region," Smith said. "The Asia-Pacific market presents enormous opportunity for Harbour Consulting, both in the automotive manufacturing sector and other industries that can benefit from Harbour's methodology for improving manufacturing efficiency."

Auto manufacturers that already work with Harbour in North America and Europe will now be able to include their Asian manufacturing operations in The Harbour Report, considered the authoritative guide to automotive manufacturing and a leading competitive-analysis tool used by OEMs and suppliers. By including Asian operations, especially in the key markets of China and India, The Harbour Report will provide OEMs with an even clearer understanding of their rankings as best-in-class manufacturers on a global level.

Since 1980, Harbour Consulting has provided manufacturing management consulting services focused on strengthening the overall competitiveness of manufacturers through improvements in quality, productivity and lower total cost. The company continues to study and service manufacturing organizations throughout the world in a variety of industries. Its annually published The Harbour Report serves as the influential scorecard for manufacturers in the automotive industry.