Bridgestone Americas, Inc.

Bridgestone Americas, Inc. is the subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation, the world’s largest tire and rubber company. Bridgestone and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture and market a wide range of Bridgestone, Firestone and associate brand tires. The global company had 2011 revenue of ¥3.024 trillion, 140,000 employees and a SAP ERP.

Chazey Partners as engagement partner led a team that completed the feasibility analysis, location analysis and comprehensive Business Case to move Bridgestone Latin America countries into a Shared Service Center. In-scope functions included finance, human resources and property management. As a result of this analysis, the company is implementing a Shared Service Center in San Jose, Costa Rica supporting 7 countries in Latin America. This is a complex project due to the multiple countries and size. The business case identified US$36 million in cost reductions over 10 years based on a reduction in headcount by 28% (over 20% in cost savings).

This Common Services Transformation review and implementation has attracted the interest of specialized Shared Services and Latin America media. The deliverables included change management, organization design, process mapping/design, business analysis, benchmarking and best practice analysis.