Production offshoring under the magnifying glass: Situation, development, and assessment

Abstract
Getting to the bottom of manufacturing off-shoring. The EU enlargement has given new momentum to manufacturing off-shoring. According to the data of the survey "Innovation in Production" of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research at 1450 German industrial companies one quarter relocated parts of their production activities into foreign locations. Preferred destinations were the new EU member states. The dominating motive was reduction of production costs, followed next by acquisition of new markets. Qualitative analysis shows, that especially manufacturing off-shoring for cost reasons are not in all cases based on in-depth evaluation and therefore are afflicted with a higher risk of failure. Hence, the article finally outlines new tools for a strategic evaluation of foreign production locations.