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Monday, 10 October 2011

Manufacturing Decisions: Location Decisions for Dyson

James Dyson is an icon of British Industry.  The self-proclaimed "Inventor of cyclone vacuum technology" set up manufacturing in the UK after failing to get the big vacum manufacturers to buy teh patents for his inventions.  In retrospect, this wasn't such a bad thing.  Through the 1990s and early 2000s his product was the fastest-selling vacuum cleaner ever made in the UK.

In 2002 his company attracted controversy when it announced that its UK production facility in England woudl be closed down and moved to Malaysia.  This left 800 workers reduntant and attracted national attention, as shown in the next two news articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1805050.stm

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/3750364.Job_losses_shock_for_Dyson_staff/

We've seen that locating manufacturing abroad can be a disaster for certain industries, e.g. Doc Martens or the fictional HiSonic.  To what extent does it matter for a company like Dyson?  Why is his company different from these others?

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