More on outsourcing - recently, some food manufacturing companies are outsourcing services including IT, purchasing, and even some key tasks like lot selection for blending. The actual manufacturing is done close to the final markets using small distributed manufacturing locations, but the expertise and other high value added services are centralized offshore.


This may be a very profitable model if the manufacturing step increases the bulk of the final package and consequently the transport costs. All this is only possible because of the advances in IT infrastructure.


With the added need to coordinate facilities at many locations with a single centralized services organization, quantitative models to manage production plans and and the supply chain become even more critical.