Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeiffer ist anerkannter Benchmarkingexperte und Seniorpartner der GiMA consult.

Der folgende Artikel zum Thema "Insourcing vs. Outsourcing" wurde im Dezember 2007 auf der "International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines Conference (IABPAD)" in Orlando, USA vorgestellt und als bester Beitrag ausgezeichnet.

Wir stellen Ihnen die Zusammenfassung des Papers an dieser Stelle im Originalwortlaut zur Verfügung:


Should Manufacturing And Product Development Be Moved From High Cost To Low Cost Countries?

Peter Leibl, Roger Morefield, Christiane Nischler, Rolf Pfeiffer

Abstract

For a number of years, the manufacturing of products in low-cost countries has been popular, resulting in the closure of many production plants in high-cost countries and the transfer of production to obtain lower labor costs. The usual reason given for such moves is that they reduce costs. However, when total costs and benefits for the companies are taken into account, the savings are not as high as expected.  In fact, only 20% of companies actually benefit from moving production abroad. In cases where cost savings would result from moving to low-cost countries, there are alternative opportunities to develop products and produce them in high-cost countries. This can occur if the strengths of these high-cost countries are utilized and the product is designed for large-scale, mass production manufacturing.

In 2007, companies began to re-think ways of keeping production in high cost countries and of bringing back production that had gone abroad. Manufacturing engineers are also investigating this area. Governments are providing some funding to assist in this effort.

The conclusion is that it is possible to develop and manufacture products in high-cost countries. To enable production in high-cost countries, the quantities produced must be high. This is so that R&D costs per unit may be reduced, and automation of the manufacturing process can be justified.  Therefore product development in high-cost countries should be for automated and highly integrated production, so that labor costs may be kept to a low proportion of total direct costs. This will allow future employment growth and increased knowledge and competence in R&D to occur in these countries. Firms in high-cost countries must be willing to extensively evaluate locational decisions according to the criteria shown in this study to avoid costly mistakes. This will benefit those countries and promote an efficient allocation of product development and manufacturing capacity between high- and low-cost countries.

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