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 <Kathy@BTW-IN To: [log in to unmask] C.COM> cc: Sent by: Subject: Re: [TN] Loaded question...outsourcing vs. TechNet in-house manufacturing... <[log in to unmask] ORG> 04/25/01 12:02 AM Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to 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)