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Moveable Production Systems for Sustainable Development and Trade: Limitations, Opportunities and Barriers

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  • Stephen Fox

    (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, FI-02044 VTT Espoo, Finland)

Abstract

It has been claimed that technological advances will make it possible to make anything anywhere and to do so sustainably. In particular, making anything anywhere would increase the diversity of locations and participants involved in production, with positive effects for sustainability. For example, increasing the diversity of locations can reduce the long-distance transportation of materials and goods, which can improve the ecological sustainability of production. At the same time, increasing the diversity of people included in manufacturing can contribute to the spread of manufacturing communities, which can improve the social sustainability of production. However, physical production continues to be dominated by the same countries that have dominated global manufacturing in recent decades. Meanwhile, trade imbalances between rich and poor countries are similar to those of the past. In this paper, limitations and opportunities are explained for moveable production systems to increase the diversity of locations and participants in global production and trade. In addition, potential geopolitical barriers to the deployment of moveable production systems are explained.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Fox, 2019. "Moveable Production Systems for Sustainable Development and Trade: Limitations, Opportunities and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-21, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5154-:d:269039
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    Cited by:

    1. Nassim Ghondaghsaz & Zarina Chokparova & Sven Engesser & Leon Urbas, 2022. "Managing the Tension between Trust and Confidentiality in Mobile Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Paweł Kłobukowski & Jacek Pasieczny, 2020. "Impact of Resources on the Development of Local Entrepreneurship in Industry 4.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-25, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Piccarozzi, Michela & Silvestri, Cecilia & Aquilani, Barbara & Silvestri, Luca, 2022. "Is this a new story of the ‘Two Giants’? A systematic literature review of the relationship between industry 4.0, sustainability and its pillars," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    5. Stephen Fox & Yusuf Mubarak & Abdurasak Adam, 2020. "Ecological Analyses of Social Sustainability for International Production with Fixed and Moveable Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-15, October.

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