CSCMP Research Project: Offshoring Trends and Directions

If your organization participates in offshoring of manufacturing, please consider playing a role in this important project!

We are looking for supply chain professionals with current experience in offshoring (either outsourced or captive facilities) to play the following roles:

1. Contributor to the research focus:  This involves participating in a forum at the CSCMP Conference to discuss and brainstorm with the research team and other SC professionals, to help shape the direction of the study
2. Advisor to the research: This research will utilize an Advisory Board to share ideas with and provide a check on the direction of the research as the research progresses. Most meetings will be held via conference call.
3. Participant in a focus group: A couple of focus groups will be held with a small (8-10?) group of SCM professionals engaged in offshoring to develop more in-depth insight into specific issues associated with the research.  This will be a very lively meeting that will give participants the opportunity to both contribute and learn.  These meetings will be face-to-face, centrally located near a major airport.
4. Participate in our survey: We need hundreds of people to answer our survey questions, which will be administered via the internet.  This is an important way to make your voice heard, and ensure that we get a large enough sample to develop valid and interesting results.

To learn more about this study and participate in any of the ways listed above, please see other side or contact the research team at cscmpresearch@cscmp.org. The research is scheduled for completion by fall of 2012.

Project background and information

The primary objectives of this research project are (1) to develop an improved understanding of the current and future state of such sourcing location trends, and (2) to develop an improved understanding of the criteria used to make sourcing location decisions.  More specifically, issues that this research will address include:

1. Evidence and trends on sourcing location decisions including offshoring, nearshoring and homeshoring
2. Key decision criteria that determine the choice of a specific sourcing location, and an investigation of how stable these decision criteria are over time:
   a. Cost factors
   b. Risk factors (geopolitical, currency, commodity prices, etc.)
   c. Time horizon
   d. Sources of information
   e. Decision making and post decision review processes
   f. Environmental and social sustainability (corporate social responsibility)
   g. Market entry for business growth
   h. Market entry for access to factor markets
   i. Customer pressure/expectations
   j. Other criteria as identified in the literature and focus group
3. Development of a managerial decision-making guideline

Research results will be published in late 2012 by CSCMP as a research publication, in addition to being shared through presentations at the CSCMP annual conference and CSCMP webinars.