Offshoring manufacturing to low labor cost countries has become trendy. Nearly everyday one sees an announcement in the business press of companies moving to China or India. Whilst production cost is an important consideration in choosing a location for the factory, we argue that one should not...

After a steady growth in global offshoring activities, it appears now a marked flow in the opposite direction with both a partial and full reversal of offshoring decisions. Research on reshoring put less stresses on the operation of dispersed facilities of an intra-firm network manufacturing....

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new, empirically derived typology of plants in the international manufacturing network of multinational companies. This typology is based on the knowledge flows between the plants. In our research, network analysis has been used as a methodology for...

The strategic role of plants is an important decision variable in the design of international plant networks. The framework introduced by Ferdows in the 1990s offers an interesting typology, classifying plants according to their strategic role. Empirical research testing the framework showed its...

Attracted by the easier access to local markets, many foreign companies have formed manufacturing joint ventures in China. One of the key elements of successful international joint venture (IJV) manufacturing in China is the management of suppliers, since the supply chain plays an essential role...

Presents a design method aimed at supporting managers in decisions regarding the (re)design of international manufacturing and logistics structures. The heart of this method consists of analyses to determine the combined impact of changes in the location and annual capacity of a...

An entrepreneur needs a tool on an enterprise level to determine opportunities and threats in a global perspective. The production‐allocation approach described in this article could be such a tool in developing a firm′s international manufacturing strategy. The approach is built around the...

For many years, facilities location problems have attracted a great deal of attention in the literature. As a result, there is now a variety of methods for solving these problems. However, due to the recent interest, little research is found relating to the issues concerning international...