Re: HP's Defense of Outsourcing Message #2 Posted by Vassilis Prevelakis on 9 Jan 2004, 9:39 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bradley
outsourcing != greed
Its just a realization that you cannot do everything yourself. Product design and production either in part or in whole has long been
outsourced to reduce development costs and spread the risk.
The extreme is to just buy a complete product and add your label (e.g. the original dot matrix printer for the IBM-PC was an Epson MX-80 with an IBM label).
Having suppliers provide subcomponents to your specs is the more traditional oursourcing technique. Most manufacturers follow this approach (e.g. GM, Boeing, LM, etc.)
In the case of HP calculators, since HP can no longer make them, outsourcing their production is their only way to stay in the market. They way they have chosen to implement their outsourcing strategy (essentially outsource the entire operation), will not allow them to drive the development of new models and eventually make them also-runs behind companies like TI that have active development teams for their lines.
**vp
|