IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v42y2015icp49-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moveable factories: How to enable sustainable widespread manufacturing by local people in regions without manufacturing skills and infrastructure

Author

Listed:
  • Fox, Stephen

Abstract

Moveable factories enable high performance manufacturing. They carry their own power generation and are built to cover rough terrain. Hence, they have potential to enable more widespread modern manufacturing. In this paper, findings are reported from a study addressing two research questions. First, what goods should be produced by local people in regions without manufacturing skills and infrastructure? Second, how can lack of manufacturing skills and infrastructure be overcome? The study comprised literature review, semi-structured interviews, and structured questionnaire. Research participants are from Horn of Africa and from West Africa. All the goods that research participants considered to have potential for profitable production can be made with types of moveable factories that are available. Lack of local skills can be overcome through application of task design using proven techniques. In addition, techniques for designing capable production processes are applicable to moveable production. Established techniques for optimizing mix of production facilities, locations, and routes are also applicable. The robust mobility of moveable factories, and application of proven techniques, reduces the need for manufacturing infrastructure. Moveable factories are relevant to literature and debate concerning re-shoring/on-shoring/right-shoring/best-shoring manufacturing, sustainable manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and distributed manufacturing. The relevance of moveable factories to these topics is analysed in terms of Resource-Based Theory, Knowledge-Based View, and Transaction Cost Economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Fox, Stephen, 2015. "Moveable factories: How to enable sustainable widespread manufacturing by local people in regions without manufacturing skills and infrastructure," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 49-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:42:y:2015:i:c:p:49-60
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X15000317
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2015.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fox, Stephen, 2014. "Third Wave Do-It-Yourself (DIY): Potential for prosumption, innovation, and entrepreneurship by local populations in regions without industrial manufacturing infrastructure," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 18-30.
    2. Kenta Nakamura & Hiroyuki Odagiri, 2005. "R&D boundaries of the firm: An estimation of the double-hurdle model on commissioned R&D, joint R&D, and licensing in Japan," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(7), pages 583-615.
    3. Gregory Tassey, 2014. "Competing in Advanced Manufacturing: The Need for Improved Growth Models and Policies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(1), pages 27-48, Winter.
    4. Xiaohua Yang & Elly Ho & Artemis Chang, 2012. "Integrating the resource-based view and transaction cost economics in immigrant business performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 753-772, September.
    5. Jeremy Bulow, 1986. "An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 729-749.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Corsini, Lucia & Aranda-Jan, Clara B. & Moultrie, James, 2019. "Using digital fabrication tools to provide humanitarian and development aid in low-resource settings," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Zviemurwi J. Chihambakwe & Sara S. (Saartjie) Grobbelaar & Stephen Matope, 2021. "Creating Shared Value in BoP Communities with Micro-Manufacturing Factories: A Systematized Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-22, September.
    3. Fox, Stephen & El-Thalji, Idriss & Altarazi, Safwan A., 2017. "Good intentions with limited outcomes: Three limitations of trying to reduce mass migration with industrial thinking," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 31-32.
    4. Eduardo Alarcon-Gerbier & Zarina Chokparova & Nassim Ghondaghsaz & Wanqi Zhao & Hani Shahmoradi-Moghadam & Uwe Aßmann & Orçun Oruç, 2022. "Software-Defined Mobile Supply Chains: Rebalancing Resilience and Efficiency in Production Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, February.
    5. Fernando Merino & Cristina Di Stefano & Luciano Fratocchi, 2021. "Back-shoring vs near-shoring: a comparative exploratory study in the footwear industry," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 17-37, June.
    6. Fox, Stephen, 2016. "Leapfrog skills: Combining vertical and horizontal multi-skills to overcome skill trade-offs that limit prosperity growth," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 129-139.
    7. Stephen Fox, 2019. "Moveable Production Systems for Sustainable Development and Trade: Limitations, Opportunities and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Fox, Stephen & Mubarak, Yusuf Mohamed, 2017. "Moveable social manufacturing: Making for shared peace and prosperity in fragile regions," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-7.
    9. Fox, Stephen, 2016. "Addressing the causes of mass migrations: Leapfrog solutions for mutual prosperity growth between regions of emigration and regions of immigration," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 35-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fox, Stephen, 2014. "Third Wave Do-It-Yourself (DIY): Potential for prosumption, innovation, and entrepreneurship by local populations in regions without industrial manufacturing infrastructure," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 18-30.
    2. Paulina Trebska & Agnieszka Biernat-Jarka, 2021. "Determinants of Self-Supply of Food and Services in Rural Households in Poland Using Canonical Analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 1034-1048.
    3. Reis, Anabela & Heitor, Manuel & Amaral, Miguel & Mendonça, Joana, 2016. "Revisiting industrial policy: Lessons learned from the establishment of an automotive OEM in Portugal," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 113(PB), pages 195-205.
    4. John Boyce & Jeffrey Robert Church & Lucia Vojtassak, "undated". "Capacity Constraints in Durable Goods Monopoly: Coase and Hotelling," Working Papers 2012-07, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 08 Aug 2012.
    5. Galiani, Sebastian & Jaitman, Laura & Weinschelbaum, Federico, 2020. "Crime and durable goods," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 146-163.
    6. Corsini, Lucia & Aranda-Jan, Clara B. & Moultrie, James, 2019. "Using digital fabrication tools to provide humanitarian and development aid in low-resource settings," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    7. Pangburn, Michael S. & Stavrulaki, Euthemia, 2014. "Take back costs and product durability," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(1), pages 175-184.
    8. Edward Kutsoati & Jan Zabojnik, 2001. "Durable Goods Monopoly, Learning-by-doing and "Sleeping Patents"," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0105, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    9. de Jong, Jeroen P.J. & Ben-Menahem, Shiko M. & Franke, Nikolaus & Füller, Johann & von Krogh, Georg, 2021. "Treading new ground in household sector innovation research: Scope, emergence, business implications, and diffusion," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(8).
    10. Stefan Ambec & Corinne Langinier & Stéphane Lemarié, 2008. "Incentives to Reduce Crop Trait Durability," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 379-391.
    11. Changying Li & Jianhu Zhang, 2013. "Dynamic Games of R&D Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 169(4), pages 660-679, December.
    12. Pasquale Schiraldi, 2006. "Second-Hand Markets and Collusion by Manufacturers of Semidurable Goods," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2006-028, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    13. Marco Runkel, 2004. "Optimal Emissions Taxation under Imperfect Competition in a Durable Good Industry," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 115-132, April.
    14. Cabolis, Christos & Clerides, Sofronis & Ioannou, Ioannis & Senft, Daniel, 2007. "A textbook example of international price discrimination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 91-95, April.
    15. Berns, John P. & Jia, Yankun & Gondo, Maria, 2022. "Crowdfunding success in sustainability-oriented projects: An exploratory examination of the crowdfunding of 3D printers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Oliver Gürtler, 2009. "On pricing and protection of complementary products," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 209-223, November.
    17. Chia-Chi Lu & Weifeng Hung & Jyh-Jian Sheu & Pai-Ta Shih, 2011. "Investment with network externality under uncertainty," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 555-564, May.
    18. Gregory E. Goering, 2011. "Gun Buybacks and Firm Behavior: Do Buyback Programs Really Reduce the Number of Guns?," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 1, pages 31-42, February.
    19. Chiara Modanese & Hannu S. Laine & Toni P. Pasanen & Hele Savin & Joshua M. Pearce, 2018. "Economic Advantages of Dry-Etched Black Silicon in Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC) Photovoltaic Manufacturing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Rubing Li & Arun Sundararajan, 2024. "The Rise of Recommerce: Ownership and Sustainability with Overlapping Generations," Papers 2405.09023, arXiv.org.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:42:y:2015:i:c:p:49-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.