Challenges of Managing Offshore Inventories: A Case Study at a Multinational Electronics Manufacturing Company in Malaysia

Globalization and technology have prompted the acceleration in adoption of offshoring by many manufacturing companies. Managing a supply chain across company and country boundaries requires a strategic and tactic plan in order to gain the benefits of going offshore. Nonetheless, inventory plays a key variable in supply chain management and the company must apply best practice in controlling inventory at its optimum level. The objective of this study is to identify the challenges and possible solution(s) to resolve the problems in managing inventory held at offshore site located in China where high duties, taxes and scrap costs are incurred. Semi-structured interviews and observation were conducted in a multinational electronic measurement company to explore and to identify the inventory issues in the supply chain. The findings are then analyzed and generalized against the existing literature, which delivers possible solution(s) that the company may adopt

Keywords:

Inventory management , offshore inventory , remanufacturing , supply chain Management