There Are Special Challenges to Outsourcing Specialized Services, But It Can Be Done

Under constant pressure to slash costs, maximize throughput, and ensure premium quality, manufacturing companies are increasingly exploring outsourcing as a mechanism to drive rapid improvement and achieve best-in-class performance. This includes targeting core processes - ranging from specialized production (e.g., biopharmaceutical manufacturing, specifically engineered subcomponents) to differentiated customer support (e.g., white-glove service, 4-hour delivery window) to support for highly customized systems and applications - many of which have historically been dismissed as viable outsourcing candidates.

Outsourcing success is generally more achievable when limited to repeatable, transactional, low-complexity tasks, so some may assume that deciding to outsource judgment-based activities, critical processes, and even key differentiators ("specialized services") will certainly result in failure.  However, this is not necessarily the case.

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