I am thinking of writing an article for 'Operations Management' on the above topic.
Long term I can see that increasing fuel costs, consumer pressure to reduce carbon footprint, increasing demand for short lead times and wage inflation in current low cost economies may all result in pressure to manufacture more locally.
The question is, how far away are we from a 'tipping point' in this regard? I suspect for food stuffs we are almost there? (e.g. stories of disgust at dinner parties when you say you have bought strawberries flown in from Egypt!)
I admit to this being a rather 'theoretical' view and wondered if anyone has any real life examples of this beginning to become apparent?
John Hardwick
FIOM