Case Study: Business Case Development for Warehouse Relocation and Service Expansion

The challenge

BCWS is a sub-group of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, responsible for wildfire suppression in the province. BCWS was in need of a decision framework to justify a business case to the Ministry to secure additional funding to relocate its existing warehouse. Part of this business case was also exploring the possibility of building additional warehouses to expand the firefighting and give the organization all-hazards capabilities.

BCWS approached MNP to aid in developing a decision criteria and an Excel-based scoring model to determine the optimal number of warehouses and the ideal locations across the province. The organization wanted to enhance its ability to respond to wildfires, mitigate risks to respond to all types of hazards year-round, and ensure the best value for dollars invested.

The approach

MNP conducted interviews with staff members across the organization, including frontline administration, firefighters, logistics planners, and inventory specialists. The goal was to better understand the key metrics in measuring a successful fire response from an inventory and supply perspective, as well as the key constraints.

Data compiled for each location and potential location included:

• The valuation of land and estimated construction costs
• Logistics data such as proximity of locations to highways, railways, and airfields
• The number of interconnections between types of transportation available

MNP built a scenario analysis model to mix and match results from different jurisdictions to find the optimal set of locations.

The result

MNP provided BCWS with a comprehensive scenario-based model and decision framework based on the inputs collected from its research as well as stakeholder engagement across the organization.

BCWS was able to create a business case from these inputs for the Ministry to justify the expansion of its logistical support network for its firefighting team.

As a result of the scenario analysis, BCWS was also able to better understand its own key metrics and existing constraints and how they applied to the long-term strategy of transforming from a firefighting response team to a year-round all-hazards emergency response organization.

Next steps

Contact an advisor to learn more about how MNP can help your organization effectively deploy limited capital and resources to manage assets you own.