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en række industrigrene forsvinder til Kina og Indien ser ud
til at fortsætte. Ifølge denne ret pessimistiske argumenta-
tion er der en direkte sammenhæng mellem produktion og
produktions- og produktudvikling, hvorfor outsourcing og
offshoring kan være en meget farlig udvikling, hvis ikke der
gøres en aktiv indsats for at forbedre produktionsvirksom-
hedernes vilkår i Danmark.20
Den anden side er repræsenteret af professor ved Center
for strategisk ledelse og globalisering på Copenhagen Busi-
ness School, Torben Pedersen, og han har et langt mere op-
timistisk syn på de danske produktionsvirksomheders frem-
tid.21 Kerneargumentet er, at i den periode, hvor udflytningen
af produktionsjobs for alvor har fundet sted, er beskæftigelsen
i Danmark steget, lige som der har været en betydelig dansk
værditilvækst ved udenlandsk produktion gennem de seneste
10-15 år. Pedersen argumenterer for, at danske virksomheder
skal beholde en del af pilotproduktionen og produktudvik-
lingen her i landet, mens hovedparten af masseproduktionen
flyttes til lavtlønslande. I forlængelse af denne argumenta-
tion er der også en opfattelse af, at det er nødvendigt både at
foretage offshoring af produktion og af udviklingsafdelinger,
fordi man derved kan få adgang til kvalificerede medarbej-
dere og til kvalificerede forskningsresultater.
Uanset om man tager udgangspunkt i den pessimistiske
eller den optimistiske ”skole”, så er kardinalpunktet om out-
sourcet eller offshoret produktion også fremover vil kunne
generere nye arbejdspladser og værditilvækst i Danmark. At
dette historisk set har været tilfældet er ingen garanti for, at
det også vil være sådan i fremtiden. Men hidtil er der ikke
belæg for at opfatte udflytningen af produktionsjobs som en
dansk forfaldshistorie.
Summary
The article presents some of the results from the interdis-
ciplinary research project Global Operation Networks –
GONE – which included researchers from the University of
Southern Denmark, Aalborg University, Copenhagen Busi-
ness School and Chalmers University of Technology. We
investigated trends and developments in production in small
and medium-size Danish businesses from the beginning of
the 1970s within four different sectors: textiles, furniture,
telecoms and maritime equipment.
The article considers what has occurred within the mari-
time equipment sector compared with developments within
textiles and furniture. The maritime equipment sector dif-
fers from the other sectors in a number of areas, and in Den-
mark it comprises a number of companies with Viking Life-
Saving Equipment, Alfa Laval Aalborg, Hempel and MAN
Diesel setting the agenda. A typical feature is that practi-
cally all companies within this sector supply the shipyards,
and they are thus highly dependant on the big Danish ship-
ping lines and on shipbuilding in general. It is also typi-
cal that many of these supplier companies have a very large
share of the global market within their respective areas. The
maritime sector thus differs markedly from the textile and
furniture sectors which, to a substantial extent, have become
fashion industries selling directly or indirectly to private
consumers. This is the main reason why the maritime sector
has chosen a production strategy which is quite different
from those of the other sectors. Much of the production has
been moved to their own foreign companies in the form of
so-called off-shoring because it has been important to pro-
tect the expertise concerned with product and production
development within the company. Practically all produc-
tion within the textile sector has been outsourced to inde-
pendent manufacturers in Eastern Europe and Asia, while a
significant part of the furniture production was outsourced
to China after the beginning of the new millennium.
Researchers do not agree on the significance for Den-
mark of this moving of industrial production. Pessimists
warn that production is moved first. The research and de-
velopment departments follow, and all production activities
are finally moved out of Denmark. A more optimistic view
is that even more jobs have been created in Denmark over
the last 10-15 years, when the outsourcing and off-shoring
of production has gathered speed, and there has been a very
significant growth in value of the transferred production in
Denmark. In any event, it is not yet possible to speak of a
history of decline in Denmark – but what the future holds
is uncertain.
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