An analysis of causal relationships among challenges impeding redistributed manufacturing in emerging economies

Abstract

Constantly increasing wages and transportation costs with market uncertainty have initiated “re-shoring” programs and the establishment of low-scale localized production for advanced economies. For the purpose, Re-distributed Manufacturing (RdM) concept emerges as an essential component especially, in emerging economies. As one of the fastest growing countries of the major world economies, India faces numerous challenges of RdM as an emerging economy which includes monetary constraints, bureaucratic regulation, lack of coordination among supply chain members, a poor digital infrastructure and a lack of standards, etc. An extensive literature review reveals limited research and methodological approaches exist concerning the challenges and causal relationships between identified challenges needed to exploit these new opportunities. In this work, twenty-one challenges to RdM in emerging economies were identified from the literature and finalized by experts' inputs. Later, this study utilizes fuzzy- Decision Making-Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Analysis technique to quantify the cause-and-effect relationships between identified challenges. ‘‘Lack of developed standards’ and ‘Lack of government policies, poor regulatory frameworks and certification programs’ have been reported as the key challenges. This study suggests a series of recommendations necessary to efficiently support RdM implementation for corporate sustainability in emerging economies.