Quality Control

A ray of sunshine

told you so

Agreed!

What goes around, comes around...
Didn't we all know that?
Del

IMHO, There's always going to be sufficient justification $$ for some outsourcing..... in some industries.....but the madness that we've all experienced over the last 6 to 8 years was most likely driven by short term - get rick quick decisions. These strokes of genius were probably made buy people who are now retired with there millions or in a tenured-ish "sacred cow" like VP position until they croak.

Scenario: Your in the board room and Joe the back stabber wants to present an idea.

Joe:

"OK, here's the idea to get rich, we'll provide a complete stranger - in a foreign land with our blue prints, cad models, manufacturing process (that took years to prefect) as well as a detailed list of our customer base and we'll get them to sign a contract that is impossible to enforce........ because they'll work for 10 cents on the dollar."

The funny thing is....is that it passes because the rest are in get rich quick/screw the next guy mode too. Now for the good part, stopping out sourcing is like stopping doing business with the mob, they cut you out of it but they continue to conduct business as usual making your product, with your process and probably with.. your equipment.

Good news... sort of. Now that mfg. and skilled labor jobs have been reduced and wages depressed, sure, bring them back. The shift of the Western standard of living was bound to happen once having to compete with global (cheap) labor happened. It could have been planned/orchestrated better to ease the pain. Things will never be as they were before, though. The cat is out of the bag.

The leadership of my company made a decision over a year ago to look at total product cost, risk, etc. when considering outsourcing. However, no one told purchasing. One of their primary measurables is still to increase the number of components purchased in LCCs from 35% to 50% (billions of dollars). We frequently save a penny on the part and spend a nickel on increased transportation and quality costs.

Just wait. In 70 years even the Chinese will be grumbling about the cheap/garbage products coming out of Africa.