internationalisation

Processes of profound change are taking place in industrial manufacturing and the service sector, both nationally and internationally. If they are to be or remain competitive, enterprises must be able to adapt and evolve. These new demands are creating particular potentials for planning service providers to apply and offer their know-how as a service worldwide. Above all, the opportunity resulting from supplying services for the complete factory life cycle can be used to develop new customers and markets. Strategic marketing also enables a network of SME to carry out projects worldwide.

Experts predict a lack of skilled employees for research and development in Western Europe within the next decades. Companies, which belong to the high tech sector, look for alternative sites to establish their research and development activities. The most important criteria for this selection are the level of education and the skills of their employees. The article develops a systematic process to support the decision making.

The internationalisation of business activities has numerous impacts on global supply chain structure. Certain Supply Networks will have special logistics requirements. The orientation on the selected production network structure can be a first structuring approach. For global logistics that means that instead of standardized logistics principles a situation dependent reaction on the specific challenges of the international activities of a company is needed.