In economics, fragmentation means organization of production into different stages, which are divided among different suppliers often are located in different countries.
Final products may be sold to outside the region in which fragmentation happens: for example, East Asian countries often sell their final products to Europe and the USA.
Their challenge is to "climb upwards" on the transnational production chain.
This kind of fragmentation is an important part of contemporary globalisation.
The United States Government Accountability Office defines fragmentation as "work [where] different parts of the same goal ... are broken out across different parts of the same agency.