Global competitive pressure forces companies in the German machinery sector to radically reshape their value creation and location structures. The previously pursued combination of a manageable reduction in value creation (outsourcing) and direct measures for efficiency enhancement (product and process optimizations) has largely been exhausted. However, the influence of location structure on cost structures is often either underestimated or overestimated - in both cases leading to significantly negative consequences for the competitiveness of companies. One reason for this is the lack of suitable evaluation tools. While large companies take advantage of the regulatory mechanism of internal competition, smaller companies are particularly reliant on the use of such tools. Although there are existing solutions for the design task.