Kathy,

It's good to hear from the other side of the coin, so to speak, and I guess
you're feeling a bit sore given all the comments that seem to be against
out-sourcing. In the days when out-sourcing was new and shiny, it was a
decision that was taken by Management who had lost touch with the
nitty-gritty of the functions they were proposing to throw away. And
Management, in my experience, certainly doesn't lower itself to actually
consult with the people doing the jobs, because they know fine that they'll
be told they're wrong for all sorts of reasons by the people who don't want
their jobs to disappear. So they decide in isolation and ignorance, and
they didn't know how to specify exactly what they wanted to subcontractors,
because so much of the way in which the work was done previously in-house
hadn't needed the same degree of specification. Everyone understood the
quirks of in-house procedure and methodology, or filled in for themselves
the sort of missing information that an 'outsider' would need. So there
were communications problems and mistakes were made in great quantity, but
it was also the case that a many Companies who became subcontractors in
order to maintain a niche in the market place, were also used to doing
things their own way and hadn't the flexibility, the customer focus or the
experience to meet their new customers expectations.

Things have definitely improved since out-sourcing first became a craze,
and I use that word advisedly. Customers are better at defining what they
want and suppliers have learned a few lessons in flexibility and have
gained a lot of experience, but at the end of the day, outsourcing
fragments manufacture, and a good subcontractor will have many customers
all competing for the same resource (you) to meet their individual
schedules. I still say that out-sourcing should only be a short-term
solution while an internal capability ('in-source, to quote Ingemar) is
built up to provide a more seamless manufacturing set-up. Sorry!

Pete Duncan
ST Aerospace





                    Kathy Kuhlow
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                    Sent by:             Subject:     Re: [TN] Loaded question...outsourcing vs.
                    TechNet              in-house              manufacturing...
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                    04/25/01
                    12:02 AM
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                    Kathy Kuhlow






Ok I have read a lot of the responses concerning this topic and wanted to
throw my 2 cents in.

If you are losing any product quality or compromising the product in any
way you are either not at the right subcontractor or you haven't clearly
defined your expectations to the subcontractor.  Niche's have their place
and purpose.  Who is caring about the product quality?  People like myself
are.  We are the  subcontractor's treating your product like our own.  We
are trying to teach our organization about your product and the purpose it
serves.

To out source or not to out source is a bang for the buck decision.
Product quality shouldn't be part of the decision.

Kathy
(See attached file: TEXT.htm)