Construction and Industrial Manufacturing

With IHS Consulting, you are able to set realistic and optimized planning targets, make smarter investments and tell a compelling story to the investor community. From predicting your product's market potential to understanding the most nuanced shifts in your key market drivers, we deliver the objective data and analysis you need to hone your decision-making processes.

• Market sizing and segmentation  
• Market potential and market entry research
• Sales and revenue modeling and forecasting
• Cost analysis and forecasting
• Business-to-business and business-to-consumer surveys
• Analysis of regulatory environments
• Corporate dashboards and market indexes
• Economic and policy impact studies

IHS Consulting services enable you to:

• Size and segment markets
• Create strategic plans for entering and expanding markets
• Set regional sales targets
• Formulate savvy investment strategies
• Achieve your revenue targets
• Remove the guesswork from crucial decisions
• Uncover risk and opportunities in new markets
• Anticipate and negotiate cost and regulatory changes
• Plan production and inventories

Learn more about our services, or contact us for an exploratory meeting.

Market Sizing and Segmentation

• Size markets by product, region, country or other defined segment
• Build a custom market model using proprietary customer data
• Measure market penetration by segment
• Target new markets
• Allocate sales and marketing resources
• Set performance benchmarks
• Create accurate sales forecasts and build targeted sales and production strategies
• Conduct what-if scenarios among market segments

See Case Studies #1 and #2

Market Potential and Market Entry Research

• Identify new and emerging markets
• Avoid poor performing markets
• Formulate improved investment plans and more realistic performance targets

Sales and Revenue Modeling and Forecasting

• Build a customized model to predict sales at the industry or company level
• Create realistic forecasts to anticipate production needs, manage inventory, plan staffing, inform capital investments and build accurate sales plans
• Forecast demand drivers for your markets
• Simulate scenarios and risk factors that might impact sales
• Monitor market reports to anticipate risks and opportunities

See Case Studies #3 and #4

Cost Analysis and Forecasting

• Negotiate supplier quotes
• Improve project cost estimations
• Create and maintain budgets
• Track company performance
• Make purchasing and procurement decisions
• Obtain market intelligence
• Perform strategic planning

See Case Studies #5, #6 and #7

Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer Surveys

• Create customized surveys of your customers, suppliers, distributors and the competitive landscape to:
  • Provide a clear understanding of customer needs, interests and likes
  • Anticipate market trends
  • Predict supplier and distributor requirements
  • Identify the competitive products recommended by your distributors
  • Determine what your global suppliers know about market conditions  

See Case Study #8

Analysis of Regulatory Environments

• Ensure legal compliance for your project’s entire life cycle through:
  • Identification of project-applicable legislation, policy, regulation, standards and certifications
  • Design and implementation of sophisticated regulatory compliance management solutions
  • Comprehensive legal review of all company obligations
  • Analysis of a regulatory risk and consequences of non-compliance
  • Comparative reviews of international, regional and national legislation
  • Peer review of compliance documentation
  • Comprehensive regulatory framework and monitoring, specific to individual companies and products

See Case Study #9

Corporate Dashboards and Market Indexes

• Construct a customized corporate dashboard, expressly designed to track the current and future health of your markets
• Access detailed market analysis by segment, industry and world region, track rapidly changing markets, respond to turning points and stay current with evolving business conditions
• Receive summary forecast views of drivers most important to your business segments, allowing you to take a balanced portfolio approach to planning your business
• Compare your divisions across the same set of metrics

See Case Study #10

Economic and Policy Impact Studies

• Quantify the impact your operations have on employment, income, wealth and purchasing power
• Identify effects on your operations from changes in economics and demographics
• Determine subsequent impact on tourist traffic, tax revenues, materials availability, trade routes and infrastructure
• Measure changes in any one aspect of your industry and the effect on other parts of your business
• Quantify the economic and social impact of your operations

See Case Study #11

Country Risk Analysis

• Quantify the level of country risk in financial terms for your business and calculate the additional return or premium needed to compensate for that risk
• Identify specific risks to your company's investment returns from a set of over 50 sources of risk, evaluated quarterly in 146 countries
• Integrate this service into other key IHS offerings above

Contact us for an exploratory meeting.

Case Study #1: Strategic Segmentation of Market Growth Forecasts

Challenge: A machinery components firm needed a more rigorous estimate of its global market size--segmented by product department and world regions--for planning and investor relations purposes.

Solution: IHS Consulting developed a US market-size model based on product category usage rates by end-market. We then extended the model globally, using our World Industry database.

Results: Our client gained critical knowledge of and a consistent measure for its market size outside of the United States, enabling the company to refine business strategies and tell a more compelling story to investors. See Market Sizing and Segmentation.

Case Study #2: Sizing the Rental Market

Challenge: A major trade association needed to determine the size of the equipment, tool, and supplies rental market, and be able to forecast future rental revenue and industry investment.

Solution: IHS Consulting compiled estimates of revenue and annual investment in rental inventory through 2008 and developed forecasts through 2013, based on the integration of public data, primary research, and our proprietary models of national and regional economies.

Results: The client gained a customized forecast that provided industry benchmarks for further understanding and analysis of the rental industry's size, structure, and trajectory that could be used for their members' planning and investment needs and for informing government relations. See Market Sizing and Segmentation.

Case Study #3: Ensuring Adequate Supply without Inventory Overhang

Challenge: A construction equipment manufacturer needed to forecast production of its machinery by product line in order to ensure adequate, but not surplus, supply to its dealers and to better manage the size of its manufacturing workforce.

Solution: IHS Consulting created a customized econometric model, incorporating critical demand and business drivers unique to each product line. Our model also incorporated the relationships between product sales, construction activity by building type and key economic factors.

Results: The product line construction equipment sales forecasts enabled our client to set factory schedules to maximize productivity and minimize inventory overhangs or shortfalls. See Sales/Revenue Modeling and Forecasting.

Case Study #4: Objective Assessment of Market Potential

Challenge: A rotary screw air compressor firm needed an unbiased assessment of its market potential--by building market segment and by geography--so it could set realistic sales goals for its territories.

Solution: IHS Consulting developed a market potential estimate for the client by integrating construction investment data and building segment and usage factor estimates for the client's building products by structure type. We then forecasted sales for each product category--by building type and geography--by benchmarking the estimate against national industry sales. We extended our analysis to the county level.

Results: The client gained a customized forecast of market potential by county, enabling the company to reassign sales resources and set performance expectations based on market demand. See Sales/Revenue Modeling and Forecasting.

Case Study #5: Negotiating a Favorable Price Adjustment

Challenge: A transportation equipment manufacturer who bought engines from automobile makers turned to us for advice when its supplier raised prices.

Solution: IHS Consulting leveraged IHS Global Insight’s Pricing and Purchasing Service to demonstrate that the price of motors had been falling in previous years and would continue to do so for several more years. This finding, combined with our forecast of flat or declining engine components prices, clearly showed the absence of cost pressure to justify the supplier's bid.

Results: The transportation equipment manufacturer was able to negotiate a favorable price adjustment—a $2.2-million savings. See Cost Analysis and Forecasting.

Case Study #6: Formulating a Company-Wide Cost Management Program

Challenge: As part of a company-wide cost containment initiative, an electronic equipment manufacturer's purchasing department needed to develop a formal cost benchmarking model that would track and forecast material cost inflation by commodity, equipment component, or service.

Solution: IHS Consulting developed a customized model for tracking historical and forecast prices for each of the department's 500 buys, giving the client an objective measure against which to track purchasing performance.

Results: The benchmarking model reduced materials procurement cost by an estimated at $60 million in its first year. See Cost Analysis and Forecasting.

Case Study #7: Finding the Best Location for New Manufacturing Facilities

Challenge: A large energy services company was looking for the most cost efficient site for a new facility. They came to us looking for information on cost escalation for a long term construction project in different countries.

Solution: IHS Consulting analyzed the primary components of the plant, including construction labor and developed unique cost projections for each component for each country of interest to determine the client's risk exposure to prices.

Results: Our analysis determined the lowest cost site for the plant that was still geographically close to the markets it would serve. See Cost Analysis and Forecasting.

Case Study #8: A Changing Distribution Landscape

Challenge: A semi-durable products firm needed an estimate of volume loss in the event one of its retailer discontinued selling the company's products. The client also wanted an objective assessment of the consumer and retail marketplace to better understand the viability of its products.

Solution: IHS Consulting and the client combined their joint industry knowledge and insight by establishing a biweekly study group over an eight-week period. Each side presented findings, which for IHS included a comprehensive survey of category-buying households, channel and retailer profiles and assessments, and category and demographic forecasts. The company contributed consumer buying (panel) behavior, sales data, and retailer interview findings.

Results: The collaborative process resulted in a go-forward plan for the client, based on our model scenarios of the impact of a category de-listing. The client learned more about the landscape for its products, the overlooked channel opportunities, and the product development direction it would have to undertake to compete more effectively. See Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer Surveys.

Case Study #9: Understanding Global Regulatory Effects on Multiple Products

Challenge: A major manufacturer of industrial products was looking for a systematic approach to anticipate changes in the regulatory environment for critical products in key countries.

Solution: IHS Consulting reviewed regulatory trends and monitored the legislative drafting process, reporting on applicable forthcoming legislation, as well as policy developments and initiatives that were relevant to the products of interest. It then devised a system that could deliver updates through a customized information portal that could store the information and distribute it weekly, as mobile alerts to key individuals in the organization.

Results: As a result, the client gained the ability to inform and influence policy and regulations affecting their products before they were instituted and act on advance warnings of changes that might require re-design or re-positioning of their products. See Analysis of Regulatory Frameworks.

Case Study #10: Setting Fair Targets in a Multi-Divisional Organization

Challenge: A building products manufacturer needed help setting annual targets and evaluating performance across its manufacturing divisions and geographic market units.

Solution: IHS Consulting developed and validated a set of custom market indexes for the company overall and each division, which were further sub-segmented by customer end-market and geography. The indexes incorporated the critical element of new demand from either OEM or customer investment and the impact of replacement demand from existing business relationships.

Results: Our client received a customized corporate planning dashboard with divisional and geographic market indexes, enabling management to focus on developing competitive strategies, aligning division targets with expected market growth and improving annual planning and quarterly performance reviews. See Corporate Dashboards and Market Indexes.

Case Study #11: Demonstrating Economic Impact

Challenge: A global high-tech manufacturer needed to educate policymakers on its contribution to the US and EU economies, arising from both its manufacturing operations and the productivity gains attributable to the widespread use of its technology.

Solution: IHS Consulting combined both traditional input and output impact models with growth economics frameworks to produce a comprehensive assessment.

Results: The client was able to demonstrate that its business had stimulated the creation of over 820,000 jobs and influenced 1.1% of GDP in the United States. In the European Union, the corresponding findings were 330,000 jobs and 0.4% of GDP. See Economic Impact Analysis.