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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-5341 |
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Creators | Mostofi, Oscar |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | Walden University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies |
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