outsourcing

Due to a variety of technological developments within the past decade, today’s industrial working environment is changing dramatically. Information and communication technologies as well as automation and robotics are penetrating the working environment. In the context of industrial 4.0, the interaction of systems increases. Sensor data, status information and control commands are exchanged, which creates the conditions for new types of production concepts such as Remote Manufacturing. Remote Manufacturing describes a delocalized production, which removes the spatial unity of production factors. It will be no longer necessary for the elementary production factors (labor, materials, equipment) and the dispositional production factors (planning, management, control, organization) to be located at one place. In the future, it will be possible to operate production facilities abroad and to monitor the process control level from Germany. In this paper, the economic environment and the ...

Automation technology moved into factories by the end of last century. Since then, production processes have changed dramatically worldwide. While companies first focused on optimizing interdepartmental collaboration, today the cross-company collaboration increasingly comes into focus. After all, in a globalized economy companies need to operate in networks. In order to cooperate efficiently and effectively in global supply chains, transparent structures and standards are indispensable. This applies first and foremost to the logistics.

The increasing demand for collaborative value chains challenges the IT. Both the integration of a heterogeneous and complex process and IT-landscape in a short time and the flexible support of new requirements from the business have to be assured. The dynamism of cooperation makes an exact planning of implementation and IT-costs exceedingly difficult. Therefore, the article shows a method that allows a systematic and structured planning and design of the IT in value-added networks.

A lot of logistic activities are outsourced to focus on core competencies and to utilize the special know-how of service providers. This is especially valid for the outsourcing of packaging and international shipping processes. While several research studies cover the areas of make-or-buy and outsourcing in general only few publications deal with controlling of the implementation processes after the decision to outsource spare part logistics has been taken. Using the example of an outsourcing project of the Schleifring-Group, the success factors are analyzed. It is demonstrated how to implement an effective realization controlling and how planned improvements can be ensured.

Outsourcing has become an important and even ordinary tool for enterprises to concentrate on their core competences: external know-how can be implemented into research, development and production by leaving out internal services to business partners. But in the past the most interesting partner for outsourcing has not been recognized yet. Creating space for the customer to participate in configuration and even development is the aim of Embedded Open Toolkits for User Innovation (EMOTIO), advanced by the Laboratory for Machine Tools WZL of RWTH Aachen University. Therefore the customer is offered room to modify actual configurations and even implement own creative solutions during the practical use of a product. These changes will be evaluated and leaded back into the production process to improve the product successively.

Currently an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is facing the challenge of seeking cost saving opportunities by shifting their production to foreign (low cost) countries. This trend is strengthened by the desire to offer a high service level to global customers on a local basis. In the majority of cases a lack of know-how, financial, and human resources hinders the establishment of an own production abroad by the SME. Outsourcing of manufacturing processes or utilizing joint ventures with foreign enterprises might be applicable solutions. However, the fear of product counterfeiting or plagiarism keeps most of the SME from expanding internationally. In order to assure an effective protection against the aforementioned issues SME have to identify their core competencies and develop capable safety measures.

China plays as a production site as well as supply market and as market for final products for European and American companies an increasing role. The attractiveness for logistics service providers is caused by the gigantic market potential and an enormous market increase. The rise of outsourcing activities of shippers is of special relevance for logistics service providers. Enterprises in the logistics sector are confronted with considerable challenges like quantity and quality of the logistics infrastructure or Guanxi.

The increasing significance of outsourced business processes was the reason for the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology IPT and the P3 engineering company for management and organisation to create a study about outsourcing of engineering services. Both associate partners asked decision makers and executives of German companies and medium-sized enterprises, coming from the sectors of automobile-, mechanical and electrical engineering and the aerospace industry. The study identifies chances and risks of outsourcing.

In IT-Offshoring projects there are economic risks (variances of costs), time related risks (loss of know-how) and technical risks (lack of skills and problems with the quality). These risks are analysed on the ground of five case studies. To minimise these risks, the author designed strategies that are embedded into a controlling concept.