Workzone: Move of MSA's HQ boosted collaboration
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Operators at the MSA call center in Cranberry have equipment close by to assist any caller with a problem with a product.
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Ask most CEOs about strategic tools they'd want in their arsenals, and chances are architecture would not be high on the list.
But that's what MSA president and CEO William M. Lambert had in mind when the safety products company decided two years ago to move its headquarters from an aesthetically outfitted building in RIDC Park in O'Hara to a 212,000-square-foot building in the Cranberry Woods office park.
Mr. Lambert wanted to reduce the cost of running headquarters. But he also wanted to increase collaboration by having corporate staff work alongside the workers already at the Cranberry building who are developing and producing the breathing equipment, protective helmets and other safety gear MSA makes.
The company had moved into the RIDC building in 1987, before computers and other technologies revolutionized the workplace. "It was very different from the way work is done now," he said. "We needed to reflect that, and we have in this space."
MSA had considered the move as far back as 1999, when it put the RIDC building on the market. But the change was delayed by the Sept. 11, 2001, events, which created an enormous demand for MSA's products from the military, firefighters and other markets.
The surge resulted in five consecutive years of record sales and earnings. After business cooled in 2006, the headquarters project was moved toward the front burner.
A comprehensive cost-cutting plan called Project Magellan was launched in 2007. A feasibility study for moving the headquarters began as the nation's financial crisis intensified in the fall of 2008, and directors approved the relocation in November 2009.
While the old headquarters was beautiful, it was large and costly to operate, Mr. Lambert said. Expenses included about 300 printers linked with desktop computers, or nearly one for each employee in the building. Shifting to larger, shared printers and reducing storage space allocated to each corporate staffer by 50 percent are part of the $2.8 million in annual savings MSA expects to realize from the $14 million project.
First Published September 11, 2011 12:00 am
