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Why Manufacture Or Outsource? Essay

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Why Manufacture or Outsource The make-or-buy analysis is the decision to choose between manufacturing a product in-house or by purchasing it from an external supplier (PMBOK, 2013). This is also referred to as outsourcing and is a decision that must be made based on several factors. Per the Project Management Body of Knowledge, expenses for manufacturing must include additional costs, such as labor to manufacture the items and disposal costs of existing equipment. Conversely, the decision to outsource a product or service, must include additional shipping costs, import fees and taxes, not to mention the cost of storing and inventory management. Furthermore, there are also other decision-making factors, such as the need for control over quality, proprietary technology, time constraints, and lack of expertise or limited capabilities (PMBOK, 2013). Pros & Cons of Manufacturing versus Outsourcing To further enhance on the topic, make or buy decisions can be advantageous to the organization due to ability to choose more than one option as it will ultimately effect several aspects. Some of the advantages for choosing the making route are increase control over production and quality, control of lead time, and control of technological information. However, there are disadvantages to it as well, for instance, the limited capabilities to manufacture or time constraints that will not be cost effective for research and development of a specialized product. The case is similar for buying

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