Determination of an Efficient Degree of Centralization in Global Production Networks

Global production networks have grown to complex systems over the last years. Due to an increase of velocity and uncertainties in their surrounding, the active management of production networks and the assignment of responsibilities in the network are highly important to stay efficient.Mostly to be a subjective topic of the management, a systematical and objective approach is required to meet nowadays challenges. A literature review on existing approaches reveals the gap in research. In order to support companies with this challenge, this paper presents a general approach on how to find the right degree of centralization for main functions considering the overall efficiency in global production networks.