Transfer of manufacturing units: Issues and dilemmas from a knowledge perspective

The ongoing and unfolding relocation of activities is one of the major trends, that calls for attention in the domain of operations management. In particular, prescriptive models outlining: stages of the process, where to locate, and how to establish the new facilities have been studied, while the question of how knowledge to be transferred is captured, deployed and developed has largely been ignored. This is the topic of this paper which focuses particularly on the shop floor activities.
Three case studies form the empirical basis for the paper representing different situations with respect to degree of complexity, absorptive capacity and corporate culture. Especially the interaction between the sending and the receiving organizational units and their respective capacities for accomplishing the transfer will be studied. The case studies have given rise to identification of a number of issues and dilemmas to be addressed when transferring manufacturing units.