Outsourcing Manufacturing – an Analysis of a Learning Dilemma

This paper presents the results from a pilot study in which the consequences of outsourcing manufacturing on companies’ competence and their ability to develop lasting competitiveness are discussed. Based on a literature study and five case studies the analysis shows that outsourcing of manufacturing engenders a dilemma for many engineering companies, regarding the balance between learning from others and learning that is based in integrated internal processes. Furthermore, the paper present some of the manufacturing competencies of value to exploration as well as exploitation and competitiveness. The paper concludes by formulating a challenge for future research in terms of models for analysing the correlation between long-term learning and outsourcing, and models to visualise and control the explorative capacity of manufacturing.