Want to Kill Quality, Outsource!

It’s probably getting cliche by now, but it’s often true. And I enjoyed this recent article on how companies find outsourcing can backfire as quality, customer service suffer in the Journal Sentinel Online, especially when it said that outsourcing isn’t always the best solution and, in some cases, it’s laden with problems and disappointments.

According to the article, a new business survey from the ASQ (American Society for Quality), found that 55% of companies surveyed were substantially dissatisfied with their outsource provider in the areas of innovation and making process improvements. A mere 34% said outsourcing provided a good value and only 41% said outsourcing met performance metrics.

While outsourcing can be a quick fix to lower costs, in the long run it can backfire — sometimes badly. Communication problems, poor customer service, slow delivery times, and quality control are just some of the pitfalls. And the reality is that when quality, the cost of freight, delivery times and other factors are considered, sometimes it’s cost-neutral or cheaper to make products yourself, in U.S. factories, rather than outsource them overseas.

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