A core plant should be a centre of excellence, have a central role for production development and should ensure that latest knowledge is to be diffused in the organizations production network. This paper widens the core plant concept by exploring the core plant role including perquisites required for acting as a core plant and challenges faced of being core plant. Based on a multiple-case study with seven manufacturing companies our findings extent current knowledge about the core plant. Although the core plant concept is not new, our findings show that the core plant role is unclear including how to achieve a strong networking capability and specifically with regard to coordinating the network of different plants all over the world. Core plants do not want to lose control while at the same time local development activities of subsidiaries should be supported. The findings also reveals the urgent need of a core plant the handle the trade?off of being both process innovative and cost efficient to stay competitive and also to secure the core plant role in the future.