Research inshows reshoring decisions need more support

Movin Sequeira’s new research is useful for by company managers in identifying the factors to be considered in making reshoring decisions. Recently he successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the School of Engineering (JTH) at Jönköping University (JU).

Movin Sequeira´s thesis is about investigating decision-support for reshoring decisions within manufacturing. After the pandemic and the supply shortage crisis, companies are becoming more interested in reversing their offshoring processes, but there is limited support in helping companies make this decision.

“Existing support has been mainly given in the form of traditional costing templates. With reshoring decisions involving many qualitative factors, new kinds of decision support has to be investigated. In this thesis, I have explored the factors that companies should consider in a decision, and how managers reason when it comes to these factors,” says Movin Sequeira.

Close to 100 factors

In the review, close to 100 factors were identified. Factors relating to cost, quality and lead time received high importance, which was expected when looking at the previous research.

“However, it surprised me that sustainability did not receive equal importance. This strengthens the idea that managers need more support in including qualitative factors, like sustainability, in decision support,” says Movin Sequiera.

In this thesis, four different models were explored, three of them were multicriteria models and one was based on machine learning algorithms. It was observed that the models are feasible in reshoring decisions, but that they need to be adapted to each company.

“The best part of doctoral studies is that you always learn something new. You get the chance to talk to the best minds on the topic. You also get to travel to conferences, experience different cultures and expand your horizon”, says Movin Sequeira.

Loves interacting with companies

He works as a program manager and teacher at the Higher Vocational Education College (Yrkeshögskolan Jönköping) and loves interacting with companies in the region and converting his theoretical knowledge to practical hands-on experiences.

“I think I will stay in academia for a while. This is where I think I can give back to society, and it is fascinating to see the impact of our teaching as the students excel in their subsequent careers.”

Movin Sequeira was born and raised in India where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He moved to Jönköping 2015 where he pursued a master's degree in Production Development and Management at JTH. Thereafter he was admitted to doctoral studies in Production System and, on 24 March, he defended his doctoral thesis with the title “Decision Support for Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Manufacturing Reshoring Decisions”.