preview

Outsourcing In America

Decent Essays

Over the past decade, many companies from North America have moved to foreign countries. This migration is known by many names – “runaway plants”, “outsourcing”, “global sourcing” and “offshoring” ("Outsourcing: What's the true impact? Counting jobs is only part of the answer."). According to Investopedia, outsourcing is “a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally” ("Outsourcing Definition | Investopedia"). Companies outsource primarily to cut cost. This mostly helps them to reduce their cost by 60 percent since labour in many Asian countries like China and India is very cheap. Even though offshoring is benefiting companies, it has negative …show more content…

It is important to investigate the reasons behind this drastic shift in the plans of companies. The first and a major reason for this change is an increasing cost of operations overseas. Factory wages in China, which started at a much lower rate that other countries, have tripled in the last decade. According to the Economist, “Since 2001, hourly manufacturing wages in China have risen by an average of 12 percent a year” ("China, rising wages and worker militancy"). This is defying the sole purpose of the companies to go there and manufacture products cheaply. China’s labour-cost advantage over United Sates has dropped from 55 per cent in 2013 to 39 per cent in 2015 ("Bringing the Jobs Back Home: How 'Re-shoring' Is Coming to America"). The labour accounts for just a small portion of the whole manufacturing process costs, so, the overall profit gained from outsourcing will drop tremendously. According to KPMG report, “Rising energy and transportation costs, along with added pressure on lead times and increased inflation in China have made Canada and U.S. more competitive as sourcing nations” ("Offshoring Finally Going Out Of Fashion, Survey Finds"). There is more than just labour saving behind re-shoring trend. Companies are starting to recognize the value of physical proximity. Many companies currently use virtual workplace to contact with their employees overseas to insure that everything is functioning properly. There is an emerging consensus that the virtual workplace has its limits and it offshoring has gone too far that it is hard to collaborate within the company itself ("Bringing the Jobs Back Home: How 'Re-shoring' Is Coming to America"). So, companies are planning to reduce the distance so that work can be done more effectively and under proper surveillance. There is another trend that is supporting re-shoring in Canada. The KPMG report cites that

Get Access