Current Practices in Offshoring and Reshoring

Executive Summary

With rapidly shifting global competitive conditions, customer location, natural disasters, currency valuation, labor and transportation cost, and availability companies are revisiting their decisions about manufacturing location. Every day, more US manufacturers consider moving a plant back to the United States, to somewhere nearby, or simply expanding the firm’s operations in the United States. The idea that the US can be globally competitive as a manufacturer appeals to most people in the United States, but it is difficult to sort out what is really going on, and why.

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of some of the trends related to reshoring—bringing production back to the United States or relocating ...