Informational technology outsourcing has been increasing in popularity over the last decades. It became a trend to transfer IT related processes and activities to an external provider, often located not only in a different country, but on a different continent. Outsourcing IT porcesses to an external provider is an appealing prospect, since the firm can transfer the resources from IT to more important processes. Moreover, since provider can be chosen from virtually anywhere in the world, there is a valid chance of significant IT costs reduction. All those benefits, however, are far from guaranteed. This thesis briefly describes the theory of IT ousourcing, presents current trends in outsourcing of information technologies, lists the common dangers by the decision making process concerning IT outsourcing, presents particular examples of large IT outsourcing contracts and finally introduces analysis of various aspects of IT outsourcing decisions and their results followed by econometric analysis, which examines possible patterns between the particular decisions and their results.

Med inspiration av rådande Coronakris analyserar denna rapport de kriser som påverkat svensk industri under de senaste tre decennierna med avseende på tre perspektiv: globalisering, automatisering och standardisering. En generell definition av en kris ges som grund för rapporten; det är plötsliga och snabba förändringar som bidrar till ett oförutsägbart händelseförlopp som inte sällan hamnar utom kontroll. Arbetet beaktar de tre olika perspektiven genom hela rapporten vilka alla kopplar samman mot kriser på flera sätt. Analysen är baserad på en fallstudie genom intervjuer samt en litteraturstudie och mynnar ut i separata resultat med följande diskussion. Nedan följer en sammanfattning av respektive perspektiv. Globalisering är något som påverkar industrin på många sätt men i denna rapport är tillverkande företags globala distrubutionsnätverk i huvudfokus. Frågan som undersöks i rapporten är hur globalisering påverkar industrin vid en kris, hypotesen är att en större grad av globalisering leder till ökad risk för påverkan vid en kris. Slutsatsen är att globalisering kan leda till en ökad påverkan vid en kris och är en viktig faktor vid riskbedömning av distributionsnätverk. Dock innebär de globaliseringen en ökad komplexitet vilket gör riskerna svårhanterliga. Automatisering är något som påverkat den tillverkande industrin sedan början av industrialismen. I takt med att nya teknologier utvecklas har frågor höjts om automatiseringens långsiktiga effekter på produktionen. Denna rapport fokuserar därför på huruvida automatisering kan bidra till att svenska industrier blir mer motståndskraftiga vid kommande kriser. Slutsatsen är att en ökad automatisering bidrar till en högre ergonomi inom svenska industrier, bättre möjligheter för onshoring och en förbättrad flexibilitet. Därtill finns det inget som tyder på att behovet av mänskliga arbetskraft skulle minska på grund av en ökad automatiseringen. Däremot blir det en förskjutning av arbetsmarknaden mot högre akademisk kompetens. Standardiseringsperspektivet tar sig ett generellt uttryck inom Lean produktion och mer specifikt och djupgående i Kanban och linjeoptimering. Hypotesen som perspektivet bygger på är vilka möjligheter svenska industriföretag har för att med hjälp av standardiseringsförändringar lindra konsekvenserna av en kris. Slutsatsen är att standardisering kan ha viss inverkan på hur ett företag klarar sig genom en kris. Förutsättningarna för det är däremot oerhört individuella beroende företagens olika förutsättningar / Inspired by the current Corona crisis, this report analyzes the crises that have affected Swedish industry during the past three decades with regards to three perspectives: globalization, automation and standardization. A general definition of a crisis is provided as the basis for the report; it is sudden and rapid changes which contribute to an unpredictable course of events that not uncommonly gets out of control. The work takes into account the three different perspectives throughout the report, all of which are linked to crises in several ways. The analysis is based on a case study through interviews and a literature study and results in separate results with a following discussion. Below is a summary of each perspective. Globalization is something that affects the industry in many ways, but in this report, manufacturing companies’ global distribution networks are the main focus. The issue examined in the report is how globalization affects industry during a crisis, the hypothesis being that a greater degree of globalization leads to an increased risk of impact in a crisis. The conclusion is that globalization can lead to increased impact in a crisis and is an important factor in the risk assessment of distribution networks. However, with globalization comes increased complexity, which makes the risks difficult to manage. Automation is something that has affected the manufacturing industry since the beginning of industrialism. As new technologies develop, questions have been raised about the long-term effects of automation on production. This report therefore focuses on whether automation can help Swedish industries become more resilient in coming crises. The conclusion is that increased automation contributes to higher ergonomics in Swedish industries, better opportunities for onshoring and improved flexibility. In addition, there is no indication that the need for human labor would decrease due to increased automation. On the other hand, there is a shift in the labor market towards higher academic competence. The standardization perspective takes on a general expression in Lean production and more specifically and in-depth in Kanban and line optimization. The hypothesis being investigated is what conditions and opportunities Swedish industrial companies have for using the above-mentioned concepts to make changes that reduce the consequences of a crisis. The conclusion is that standardization can have a certain impact on how a company copes through a crisis. The prerequisites for this, on the other hand, are extremely individual dependent companies’ different conditions.

De globala målen i Agenda 2030 påverkar alla. Företag anstränger sig för att ta itu med de ekonomiska, miljömässiga och sociala dimensionerna av hållbarhet. Reshoring har på senare tid alltmer uppmärksammats som strategi av både företag och forskare. Studien syftar till att undersöka varför svenska företag har genomfört reshoring. Studien har också för avsikt att undersöka om, och isåfall hur, hållbarhet har varit en drivkraft till reshoring. Teorier som berör offshoring, reshoring, drivkrafter, ekonomisk, miljömässig, - och social hållbarhet behandlas. Data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre respondenter från olika företag. Som sekundärdata har de undersökta företagens hållbarhetsrapporter och årsredovisningar använts. Resultatet visar att företagen genomfört reshoring på grund av faktorer som kostnadsminimering, kapacitet, risk, ledtidsminimering, produktutveckling och flexibilitet. Vidare visar studien att hållbarhet kan vara en drivkraft till ett beslut om reshoring.

Background: A growing reshoring trend has recently been discovered, when companies bring back their manufacturing to the domestic country. Reshoring has received more public attention recently and the interest in reshoring strategies is growing. The knowledge about the reshoring decision is however limited and there is not a great deal of research addressing this. The knowledge about how companies have performed their cost analysis is limited as well as the risk assessments behind the reshoring decision. Hence, there is a knowledge gap regarding what cost and risk factors that are critical to consider in a reshoring decision. Purpose: The purpose of this master's thesis is to identify critical cost and risk factors to consider in a reshoring decision within Swedish companies. Method: The research design includes a literature review to identify what cost and risk factors that already have been stated. A literature review was essential in order to demonstrate current knowledge in the field. The search included four databases involving several search terms. Since the purpose is to gain a deeper understanding about the phenomenon and to investigate in depth within a real-life context a multiple case study was viewed as a proper method to use. The multiple case study included four companies and was performed using semi structured interviews and investigations of cost analyses and risk assessments.   Findings: This thesis shows that there is a great deal of factors that are critical in a reshoring decision. However, Coordination, Inventory, Management, Quality and Transportation were the most common cost factors to consider when deciding for reshoring. The most frequent risk factors mentioned by the case companies were Control, Engineering and Innovation and Undesirable reaction. Implications: Different factors are critical depending on what type of company considering the reshoring decision. This is due to deviations in such as products, company strategy, customers and manufacturing techniques. Since each company and each product is unique it is overall important to identify which costs to include in the cost analysis in a reshoring decision for one specific company. The result of the thesis indicates that critical cost factors that are more difficult to measure and compare, so called soft factors, have a great effect on the reshoring decision. Further, companies seem to consider risks with remaining in the offshored country to a higher extent than the risks of reshoring. These risks that appear if not reshoring seem to be of an importance to consider since they generate costs. The findings of the thesis are believed to be evidential to the fact that there is a lack of research since critical factors found in the multiple case study are more than the existing literature indicates.

The United States manufacturing employment decreased 33% from 1985 to 2014. During the same period, the United States semiconductor manufacturing, accounting for 1.7% of the total of the United States manufacturing workforce, lost 35% of its employees. The decline in semiconductor manufacturing jobs began in 1985 when semiconductor firms began offshoring product manufacturing overseas because of low cost of qualified labor force and facilities. This qualitative case study explored the analytical approaches and strategies business leaders of semiconductor firms that offshore manufacturing use in making informed strategic outsourcing and offshoring decisions conducive to sustainability and profitability of operations. The location theory provided the conceptual framework for this research study. Semistructured interviews were conducted using video conferencing with 5 midlevel managers who conducted offshoring or were currently offshoring semiconductor manufacturing. There were 10 themes identified and analyzed from transcription software. The themes were manufacturing cost, onshore manufacturing, offshoring site selection, competitive cost analysis, offshoring advantages, offshoring disadvantages, national manufacturing program, offshoring, reshoring, and social Impact. The findings showed that offshoring of the semiconductor product manufacturing will continue because of lower cost of operation. Social change could ensue if the leader of firms, together with the educational institutions and lawmakers, establish a national program for the industrial type of knowledge to build skills in the United States.