Evolution of manufacturing - [manufacturing opinion]

For traditional UK manufacturing companies the outsourcing of activities overseas has had a number of evolutionary impacts. Manufacturing itself has almost become ´commoditised´ in many sectors, and is less of a core competence for many erstwhile Western ´manufacturing companies´. Instead the focus in these companies has shifted to product design, intellectual property management, marketing, and supply chain management. This shift is quite understandable as such companies no longer need to worry much about manufacturing, leaving that to the outsource manufacturers who have the advantage of economies of scale and of learning from having multiple outsource customers and products. Such outsource manufacturers are likely to learn more quickly about the manufacturing technologies and processes than the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) themselves. However, OEMs still need to be fully conversant with the pertinent technical, legal and social issues since they retain responsibility for their products and brands. A key example here is the recent Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) statutory requirements: OEMs cannot simply sit back and leave it to their outsource manufacturers as the OEMs are legally responsible for compliance. So OEMs must remain involved and retain control for their products. One way of doing this is design innovation.