Center for Industrial Production at Aalborg University (DK) has strong traditions of close collaboration with Danish industry, and has over the years conducted extensive research on the trend of industrial establishment in foreign global markets and on the effects of relocation of production to various low-wage countries. This is a topic of particular relevance for Danish industry, and the trend has largely been governed by the notion that our innovative capabilities should be found and/or develop in Denmark, and that the global markets are subsequently used to create a profitable production.
However, it is to an increasing degree demonstrated that such division of ‘hands and heads’ is in practice not sustainable. Rather, there is a strong interconnectedness between the creation of knowledge and the exploitation of knowledge, and one does not develop well without the other. This has the consequence that local production activities are a necessary precondition for technological innovation, and that global companies should nurture the ability to develop new skills through their global presence. This calls for new inspiration and new initiatives to support Danish industry in its struggle to position itself in the new global context, and is the point of departure for the present project of global manufacturing excellence.