In certain situations, global companies strive to take advantage of short-term changes in economic and exchange rates on the never-ending journey of competitiveness. This paper seeks to extend Ferdows’s (2008) production network models by adding the factors affecting shifts between rooted and footloose network configurations. Two companies were selected in order to illustrate the models and reveal other possible factors. The identified factors are differentiated in terms of configuration and coordination and merged in a matrix. The trends and implications on global supply chains are also discussed. 

Despite the proclaimed advantages and popularity of outsourcing manufacturing and knowledge-intensive business services, there are few and mainly contradictory studies of its short- and long-term effects. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the way in which outsourcing manufacturing and design work relates to performance at plant level. The study is based on a large-scale survey among a representative sample of Swedish engineering plants. The results show no significant effects from outsourcing manufacturing on plant operating performance. The paper further shows that investments in technological and organizational capabilities explain the improvements of performance to a significantly higher extent than does outsourcing. The problems of additional costs and managing dependencies when applying partial outsourcing and separating interdependent key processes provide important insights to the analysis on the effects of outsourcing knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS).

An empirical study was designed to determine factors of performance improvement when outsourcing manufacturing. Findings from a survey of 136 manufacturing plants in Sweden show that most of them achieve their outsourcing motives, but not without trade-offs. Factors of performance improvements such as economies of scale or operations in low-cost countries can improve one performance dimension, such as product cost, yet negatively impact volume flexibility, speed or product innovation. The results show part characteristics and supplier operating capabilities are more important than supplier relationship strategies when outsourcing manufacturing, meaning that supplier selection trumps supplier collaboration in the make-or-buy decision.

The study sought to clarify the comparative effect of outsourcing in relation to alternative manufacturing practices. A representative sample of 267 Swedish manufacturing plants was subjected to multiple regression analysis. Results show that in comparison to outsourcing manufacturing, the other practices related to the enhancement of manufacturing capability had a much stronger ability to predict improvements in operating performance. While investments in higher manufacturing capability have only positive effects, outsourcing may entail negative as well as positive effects on operating performance. For the most part, outsourcing leads to negative effects when used as the main strategy to improve performance, but is more likely to cause positive effects if concurrent initiatives are taken to develop manufacturing capabilities. Thus it is argued that there is a far greater performance improvement potential in investing in, rather than divesting, the manufacturing function. Outsourcing is mainly beneficial when used to free resources in order to invest in higher manufacturing capability.

This article reports findings from the Swedish part of the 2nd International Continuous Improvement Survey. Based on Bessant's evolutionary model of continuous improvement behaviour, the continuous improvement capability level of the Swedish engineering industry is estimated. The data analysis shows that there is a need for progression towards higher continuous improvement capability levels. Therefore, the specific abilities to develop in order to support such a move forward are clarified. In addition to being an illustration of manufacturing practices in Sweden from a continuous improvement perspective, this article contributes to the field of Operations Management by being the first attempt to replicate the work of Bessant via a large-scale survey study. The model is found valid and it shows that development of continuous improvement abilities contribute to the enhancement of plant performance.