New information and communication technology, market liberalisation and integration, innovative production technologies among many other factors have caused tremendous changes in the scene of manufacturing architecture. Over the past decade, vertical disintegration of the value chain and production fragmentation have changed previously dominating conventional approach when companies design and manufacture most of their components in-house, which currently is considered as too expensive and inflexible. This on-going process of manufacturing transformation and disagglomeration of traditional vertically-integrated systems of production, supply and distribution leads to the formation of new complex and dynamic networks which blur traditional organisational boundaries, through the development of diverse forms of roles and relationships.

The case study design will be employed in the project to understand why and how the move towards GPN takes place. Before focusing on 2-3 case companies, on the initial stage of the project a pilot study is planned. The main goal of it will be to develop "shallow" case studies for a large number of companies in order to test some of the assumptions made, revise the research focus if needed and identify any potential gaps for further exploration.

The project group is Professor Jens O. Riis, Professor John Johansen and Ph.D. student Dmitrij Slepniov. The project period is August 2006 through July 2009.