Low cost suppliers from China and India are not necessarily the answer IfM expert tells conference
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Many firms are failing to establish effective global production networks and rely too heavily on short-term outsourcing and offshoring to countries such as India and China, Paul Christodoulou of Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) warned today.
Businesses need to establish a systematically designed global ‘footprint’ or network, attuned to the constantly changing business environment, rather than pursuing quick cost reductions, said Mr Christodoulou, a Senior Industrial Fellow at the IfM and co-author of a recent IfM report “Making the right things in the right places.”
Speaking at Subcon 2008, the International Subcontract Manufacturing Show at the NEC in Birmingham, Mr Christodoulou argued that the real benefits in the long-term will come not from ‘quick fixes’, but from a systematic approach to developing production networks.
