Manufacturing Location Decisions and Organizational Agility

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 14469
Author(s):  
Gregory Theyel ◽  
Kay Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Location Decisions ◽  
Organizational Agility ◽  
Manufacturing Location

Manufacturing location decisions and organizational agility

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Theyel ◽  
Kay H. Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Location Decisions ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Organizational Agility ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Manufacturing Operations ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Manufacturing Location

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the strategic consequences of manufacturing location decisions, with a focus on understanding the link between collocating manufacturing with other value chain activities, via reshoring or retaining and organizational agility. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses qualitative data from 115 interviews with executives from UK high value manufacturing companies to explore the recent phenomenon of reshoring and the strategic effects of manufacturing location. Findings The location of manufacturing is operationally and strategically important for multinational companies. The spatial dispersion of manufacturing is determined by firm-specific and external factors, both of which are subject to constant change. The analysis shows that concentrating on manufacturing in their home countries enables firms to increase organizational agility and stimulate innovation. Better integration with and more extensive collaboration between related value chain activities, such as research and development, sales and marketing, leads to higher flexibility, speed and responsiveness to customer requirements. However, under certain conditions, firms also continue to benefit from the known advantages of offshoring. Originality/value This research sheds light on possible strategic downsides of global value chains, characterized by dispersed activities and intermitted processes. The results provide evidence that retaining manufacturing or bringing back manufacturing operations to a company’s home country can increase organizational flexibility, speed, adaptability, innovativeness and responsiveness to customer requirements. As these capabilities are critical for long-term survival, especially in dynamic environments, firms need to review their global factory configurations and determine whether the short-term advantages of foreign locations continue to justify offshoring practices.

Reshoring drivers and barriers in the Swedish manufacturing industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Engström ◽  
Kristina Sollander ◽  
Per Hilletofth ◽  
David Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Location Decisions ◽  
Location Decision ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Manufacturing Location ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Insight Into

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore reshoring drivers and barriers from a Swedish manufacturing perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a case study, including four Swedish manufacturing companies, with focus on drivers and barriers from the context of the Swedish manufacturing industry. A literature review of previously established drivers and barriers is used to map out the empirical findings and thereby identify potential gaps between the current body of literature and drivers and barriers from a Swedish manufacturing context.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that quality issues continue to be one of the strongest reshoring drivers. Except for product quality, quality is also connected to host country’s infrastructure, communication and service. The supply chain perspective is a source of several drivers and is identified as a perspective often overlooked in offshoring decisions. Barriers related to firm specifics were more elaborately discussed by the companies, especially concerning calculation of location decision and the need to invest in resources, which allows for a higher level of capacity at the home country facility.Research limitations/implicationsThe study develops a structured table of reshoring drivers and barriers which can serve as a base for future research. Future research on the calculation of location decisions is deemed as a crucial step to further understand reshoring and aid companies in the decision-making process.Practical implicationsThe drivers and barriers identified in the study can give practitioners insight into reshoring from the perspective of the Swedish manufacturing industry and thus aid in future manufacturing location decisions. The table of drivers and barriers can also be important to understand how Sweden can strengthen its competitive advantage and motivate more companies to reshore manufacturing.Originality/valueThis is one of only few papers from the Nordic countries and also one of few case studies examining reshoring in manufacturing companies.

Responsiveness, the primary reason behind re-shoring manufacturing activities to the UK

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 222-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Moradlou ◽  
Chris Backhouse ◽  
Rajesh Ranganathan
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Location Decisions ◽  
Lead Times ◽  
Total Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Manufacturing Location ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Electricity Shortage ◽  
Indian Industries

Purpose Due to today’s volatile business environment companies have started to establish a better understanding of the total risk/benefit-balance concerning manufacturing location decisions of their component supply. The focus is now much more on comprehensive and strategic supply chain issues rather than simply relying on piece-part cost analysis. This has led to an emerging trend called re-shoring. The purpose of this paper is to understand the primary motivation behind the re-shoring strategy in the UK and investigate the factors that influence this decision from Indian industries perspectives. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of the paper is based on interviews conducted in the UK and India (state of Tamil Nadu) in various industries including automotive, industrial goods, textile, and marine. For this purpose an interview framework based on key enablers identified from the literature, being information technology solutions, manufacturing equipment and human factors. This provided an assessment of the capability of the companies for being responsive to western demand. Findings The findings indicate that re-shoring to the UK is the result of inadequacy in responsiveness and long production lead times of the Indian suppliers. The outcome of this paper indicates that the top factors behind this inadequacy in responsiveness are logistics and transportation, electricity shortage, excessive paperwork and working attitude. Originality/value This paper aims to fill the gap in the re-shoring literature by providing a clear picture behind the reason for re-shoring in the UK and identify the drivers behind this shortcoming in the component supply from India.

The Importance of Quality of Life in Brewery Location Decisions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Nesse ◽  
Brooke Ferguson ◽  
Timothy Green
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Location Decisions

Multinational Banks and IMF Conditionality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trung A Dang ◽  
Randall W Stone
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Location Decisions ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Financial Firms ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Firm Level Data ◽  
Imf Programs ◽  
Investment Location

Abstract We find firm-level evidence that US banks receive preferential treatment in countries under IMF conditionality. We rely on investment location decisions to infer firms’ expectations about future profits and find that US firms are approximately 53 percent more likely to acquire financial firms in countries under financial conditionality. IMF programs without financial conditionality and FDI in other sectors serve as placebo tests. Financial conditionality has weak effects on investment decisions by non-US firms, which implies a political-economy interpretation. Firm-level data indicate that the distinctive behavior of US firms is not due to advantages of scale or to a US-firm fixed effect, but to US influence in the IMF. Firms from other major IMF shareholders benefit as well, but the effects are much weaker. The effects are concentrated in the politically relevant firms that have local affiliates, which is consistent with the interpretation that firms lobby for preferential treatment.

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