ABSTRACT
Manufacturing activity is not confined to domestic production by a factory of a manufacturing firm in the native country; rather manufacturing has been conducted offshore, i.e. globally and internationally, by realising the optimum combination of resources of production available throughout the world. This international business activity, unhampered by the boundaries of a country, is the movement towards globalisation. Firms which conduct business and/or manufacturing activities by establishing business and/or manufacturing sites in various countries across the world are called multinational enterprises or international corporations. Manufacturing activities which maximise total profits by installing production sites in various countries are called international production/manufacturing or foreign production. The performance of global manufacturing is important in the age of globalisation. From the global-manufacturing standpoint, Japan created added value equivalent to only 60% of that of the USA in terms of the exchange rate and merely 45% in terms of the purchasing power parity.
