The Bleeding Edge: Smartsourcing

  Manufacturing  

“The only thing more painful than embracing change is ignoring it.”

Some of the greatest advances in the 19th and 20th centuries revolved around fueling manufacturing and increasing productivity by moving workers to where the work was.

In the 21st century, the greatest advances will come from fueling innovation and reducing the cost of production by moving work to where the workers are. This is the foundation of the movement from first-generation outsourcing and second-generation smartsourcing. Outsourcing was about reducing cost. Smartsourcing is about leveraging competencies of organizations, partners and suppliers to achieve a significant increase in total innovative capacity.

To achieve this dramatic shift in resources, fragmented business and technology processes must be integrated seamlessly into agile, global enterprise networks -- and all of this must happen against the economic backdrop of global competition that has created intense ongoing pressure to cut costs.

It’s hard to debate the merits of efficient operations. There’s no denying that even the most cost-conscious business can't achieve greatness without innovation in areas that fuel growth. Such innovation requires a relentless focus on the organization's core competencies. Until you start to separate the core from the non-core, no amount of cost-cutting will be …