94-680: The Global Sourcing Association was founded as the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) in the United Kingdom in 1987 by Martyn Hart. The organization was the first European association to promote effective outsourcing and it is the parent of the federal European Outsourcing Association. The NOA operated as a not-for-profit trade association aimed to promote best practices in outsourcing, lobbying government and regulators, and provided research and information to companies and managers using outsourcing. The NOA developed Pathway,
188-460: A company gains an added benefit by expanding its size. These economies are due to the presence of some resource or competence that is not fully utilized, or to the existence of specific market positions that create a differential advantage in expanding the size of the firms. That growth economies disappear once the scale size expansion process is completed. For example, a company that owns a supermarket chain benefits from an economy of growth if, opening
282-410: A company should only seek to subcontract in those areas in which it demonstrated no special ability. The business strategy outlined by his slogan recommended that companies should take advantage of a specialist provider's knowledge and economies of scale to improve performance and achieve the service needed. In 2009, by way of recognition, Peter Drucker posthumously received a significant honor when he
376-419: A different country from the one where the software will be used. The global software R&D services market, as contrasted to information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO), is rather young and currently is at a relatively early stage of development. Canada, India, Ireland , and Israel were the four leading countries as of 2003. Although many countries have participated in
470-591: A differentiated demand with respect to the quality of the product, and assistance before and after the sale. Very different organizational forms can therefore co-exist in the same sector of activity, even in the presence of economies of scale, such as, for example, flexible production on a large scale, small-scale flexible production, mass production, industrial production based on rigid technologies associated with flexible organizational systems and traditional artisan production. The considerations regarding economies of scale are therefore important, but not sufficient to explain
564-421: A firm's costs, returns to scale describe the relationship between inputs and outputs in a long-run (all inputs variable) production function. A production function has constant returns to scale if increasing all inputs by some proportion results in output increasing by that same proportion. Returns are decreasing if, say, doubling inputs results in less than double the output, and increasing if more than double
658-479: A government outsourcing arrangement poses difficulties. There are many outsourcing models, with variations by country, year and industry. Japanese companies often outsource to China, particularly to formerly Japanese-occupied cities. German companies have outsourced to Eastern European countries with German-language affiliation, such as Poland and Romania . French companies outsource to North Africa for similar reasons. For Australian IT companies, Indonesia
752-446: A half page cartoon showing someone who had just ordered a pizza online, and was seeking help to download it. Step-in rights allow the client or a nominated third party the right to step-in and intervene, in particular to directly operate the outsourced services or to appoint a new operator. Circumstances where step-in rights may be contractually invoked may include supplier insolvency , a force majeure event which prevents or impedes
846-630: A limited, short-term basis, may also be described as outsourcing. Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and therefore should not be confused with offshoring which is relocating a business process to another country but does not imply or preclude another company. In practice, the concepts can be intertwined, i.e. offshore outsourcing , and can be individually or jointly, partially or completely reversed, as described by terms such as reshoring , inshoring , and insourcing . Global labor arbitrage can provide major financial savings from lower international labor rates, which could be
940-577: A major motivation for offshoring. Cost savings from economies of scale and specialization can also motivate outsourcing, even if not offshoring. Since about 2015 indirect revenue benefits have increasingly become additional motivators. Another motivation is speed to market. To make this work, a new process was developed: "outsource the outsourcing process". Details of managing DuPont 's chief information officer Cinda Hallman 's $ 4 billion 10-year outsourcing contract with Computer Sciences Corporation and Accenture were outsourced, thus avoiding "inventing
1034-725: A major source for the advantages of a highly educated labor force, a large bilingual population, stable democratic government, and similar time zones as the U.S. It takes only a few hours to travel between Costa Rica and U.S. Companies such as Intel , Procter & Gamble , HP, Gensler , Amazon and Bank of America have big operations in Costa Rica. Unlike outsourced manufacturing, outsourced white collar workers have flextime and can choose their working hours, and for which companies to work. Clients benefit from remote work , reduced office space, management salary, and employee benefits as these individuals are independent contractors . Ending
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#17330863158881128-427: A more efficient division of labour. The economies of division of labour derive from the increase in production speed, from the possibility of using specialized personnel and adopting more efficient techniques. An increase in the division of labour inevitably leads to changes in the quality of inputs and outputs. Many administrative and organizational activities are mostly cognitive and, therefore, largely independent of
1222-407: A new supermarket, it gets an increase in the price of the land it owns around the new supermarket. The sale of these lands to economic operators, who wish to open shops near the supermarket, allows the company in question to make a profit, making a profit on the revaluation of the value of building land. Overall costs of capital projects are known to be subject to economies of scale. A crude estimate
1316-481: A process if we'd done it in-house". A term subsequently developed to describe this is midsourcing . Outsourcing can offer greater budget flexibility and control by allowing organizations to pay for the services and business functions they need, when they need them. It is often perceived to reduce hiring and training specialized staff, to make available specialized expertise, and to decrease capital, operating expenses, and risk. "Do what you do best and outsource
1410-496: A product X is lower when a single firm instead of two separate firms produce it. See Economies of scope#Economics . Some of the economies of scale recognized in engineering have a physical basis, such as the square–cube law , by which the surface of a vessel increases by the square of the dimensions while the volume increases by the cube. This law has a direct effect on the capital cost of such things as buildings, factories, pipelines, ships and airplanes. In structural engineering,
1504-415: A purely digital publication. Outsourcing Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes , that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another. The term outsourcing , which came from the phrase outside resourcing , originated no later than 1981 at
1598-547: A relationship somewhat similar to the square–cube law. In some productions, an increase in the size of the plant reduces the average variable cost, thanks to the energy savings resulting from the lower dispersion of heat. Economies of increased dimension are often misinterpreted because of the confusion between indivisibility and three-dimensionality of space. This confusion arises from the fact that three-dimensional production elements, such as pipes and ovens, once installed and operating, are always technically indivisible. However,
1692-461: A result, numerous studies have indicated that the procurement volume must be sufficiently high to provide sufficient profits to attract enough suppliers, and provide buyers with enough savings to cover their additional costs. However, Shalev and Asbjornse found, in their research based on 139 reverse auctions conducted in the public sector by public sector buyers, that the higher auction volume, or economies of scale, did not lead to better success of
1786-795: A time when industrial jobs in the United States were being moved overseas, contributing to the economic and cultural collapse of small, industrial towns. In some contexts, the term smartsourcing is also used. The concept, which The Economist says has "made its presence felt since the time of the Second World War ", often involves the contracting out of a business process (e.g., payroll processing, claims processing), operational, and/or non-core functions, such as manufacturing, facility management , call center /call center support. The practice of handing over control of public services to private enterprises ( privatization ), even if conducted on
1880-733: A unit of capacity of many types of equipment, such as electric motors, centrifugal pumps, diesel and gasoline engines, decreases as size increases. Also, the efficiency increases with size. Operating crew size for ships, airplanes, trains, etc., does not increase in direct proportion to capacity. (Operating crew consists of pilots, co-pilots, navigators, etc. and does not include passenger service personnel.) Many aircraft models were significantly lengthened or "stretched" to increase payload. Many manufacturing facilities, especially those making bulk materials like chemicals, refined petroleum products, cement and paper, have labor requirements that are not greatly influenced by changes in plant capacity. This
1974-619: A university accredited professional development qualification for the UK's outsourcing industry. The NOA included the OUT Group, as the commercial arm of the NOA which was created in 2004. The NOA is also associated with sourcingfocus.com, a leading online news resource portal for the sourcing community. In October 2016, the NOA changed its name to the Global Sourcing Association, a move reflecting
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#17330863158882068-440: A variety of organizational and business situations and at various levels, such as a production, plant or an entire enterprise. When average costs start falling as output increases, then economies of scale occur. Some economies of scale, such as capital cost of manufacturing facilities and friction loss of transportation and industrial equipment, have a physical or engineering basis . The economic concept dates back to Adam Smith and
2162-445: Is a correlating relationship between a firm's total sales and underlying efficiency. Firms with higher productivity will always outperform a firm with lower productivity which will lead to lower sales. Through trade liberalization, organizations are able to drop their trade costs due to export growth. However, trade liberalization does not account for any tariff reduction or shipping logistics improvement. However, total economies of scale
2256-627: Is a historically contingent fact, and not essential to the nature of such enterprises. In the case of agriculture, for example, Marx calls attention to the sophistical nature of the arguments used to justify the system of concentrated ownership of land: Instead of concentrated private ownership of land, Marx recommends that economies of scale should instead be realized by associations : Alfred Marshall notes that Antoine Augustin Cournot and others have considered "the internal economies [...] apparently without noticing that their premises lead inevitably to
2350-657: Is annulled or suspended. If a contract has a clause granting step-in rights, then there is a right, though not an obligation, to take over a task that is not going well, or even the entire project. When and How are important: "What is the process for stepping-in" must be clearly defined in the collateral warranty . Economies of scale 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias In microeconomics , economies of scale are
2444-477: Is based on the exporters individual frequency and size. So large-scale companies are more likely to have a lower cost per unit as opposed to small-scale companies. Likewise, high trade frequency companies are able to reduce their overall cost attributed per unit when compared to those of low-trade frequency companies. Economies of scale is related to and can easily be confused with the theoretical economic notion of returns to scale. Where economies of scale refer to
2538-411: Is because labor requirements of automated processes tend to be based on the complexity of the operation rather than production rate, and many manufacturing facilities have nearly the same basic number of processing steps and pieces of equipment, regardless of production capacity. Karl Marx noted that large scale manufacturing allowed economical use of products that would otherwise be waste. Marx cited
2632-424: Is expanded, including the aspects concerning the development of knowledge and the organization of transactions, it is possible to conclude that economies of scale do not always lead to monopoly. In fact, the competitive advantages deriving from the development of the firm's capabilities and from the management of transactions with suppliers and customers can counterbalance those provided by the scale, thus counteracting
2726-427: Is one of the major choice of offshoring destination. Near-shore location, common time zone and adequate IT work force are the reasons for offshoring IT services to Indonesia. Another approach is to differentiate between tactical and strategic outsourcing models. Tactical models include: Strategic consultancy includes for business process improvement . When offshore outsourcing knowledge work, firms heavily rely on
2820-442: Is one where the costs of production fall when the number of firms in the industry drops, but the remaining firms increase their production to match previous levels. Conversely, an industry exhibits an external economy of scale when costs drop due to the introduction of more firms, thus allowing for more efficient use of specialized services and machinery. Economies of scale exist whenever the total cost of producing two quantities of
2914-505: Is possible within a particular country—for example, it would not be efficient for Liechtenstein to have its own carmaker if they only sold to their local market. A lone carmaker may be profitable, but even more so if they exported cars to global markets in addition to selling to the local market. Economies of scale also play a role in a " natural monopoly ". There is a distinction between two types of economies of scale: internal and external. An industry that exhibits an internal economy of scale
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3008-466: Is pure R&D or run-of-the-mill IT outsourcing. Focusing on software quality metrics is a good way to maintain track of how well a project is performing. Globalization and complex supply chains , along with greater physical distance between higher management and the production-floor employees often requires a change in management methodologies, as inspection and feedback may not be as direct and frequent as in internal processes. This often requires
3102-608: Is saturating the regional market, thus having to ship products uneconomic distances. Other limits include using energy less efficiently or having a higher defect rate. Large producers are usually efficient at long runs of a product grade (a commodity) and find it costly to switch grades frequently. They will, therefore, avoid specialty grades even though they have higher margins. Often smaller (usually older) manufacturing facilities remain viable by changing from commodity-grade production to specialty products. Economies of scale must be distinguished from economies stemming from an increase in
3196-433: Is that if the capital cost for a given sized piece of equipment is known, changing the size will change the capital cost by the 0.6 power of the capacity ratio (the point six to the power rule ). In estimating capital cost, it typically requires an insignificant amount of labor, and possibly not much more in materials, to install a larger capacity electrical wire or pipe having significantly greater capacity. The cost of
3290-406: Is when on-site hardware interacts with outside identity services. This contrasts with an "all in-the-cloud" service scenario, where the identity service is built, hosted and operated by the service provider in an externally hosted, cloud computing infrastructure. Offshore software R&D is the provision of software development services by a supplier (whether external or internal) located in
3384-589: The 2016 U.S. presidential election "the most disruptive change agent for the outsourcing industry", especially the renewed "invest in America" goal highlighted in campaigning, but the magazine tepidly reversed direction in 2019 as to the outcome for employment. In the case of armament acquisition, section 323 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 requires military personnel "to solicit information from all U.S.-owned arsenals regarding
3478-415: The short-run average total cost (SRATC) curve down and to the right. Economies of scale is a concept that may explain patterns in international trade or in the number of firms in a given market. The exploitation of economies of scale helps explain why companies grow large in some industries. It is also a justification for free trade policies, since some economies of scale may require a larger market than
3572-417: The "physical" point of view of the returns to scale. Furthermore, supply contracts entail fixed costs which lead to decreasing average costs if the scale of production increases. This is of important utility in the study of corporate finance . Economies of productive capacity balancing derives from the possibility that a larger scale of production involves a more efficient use of the production capacities of
3666-566: The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals gave recognition to Electronic Data Systems Corporation's Morton H. Meyerson who, in 1967, proposed the business model that eventually became known as outsourcing. The growth of offshoring of IT-enabled services, although not universally accepted, both to subsidiaries and to outside companies (offshore outsourcing) is linked to the availability of large amounts of reliable and affordable communication infrastructure following
3760-494: The NOA partnered with Outsource magazine (published by EMP Media), an independent magazine serving the outsourcing space and the first magazine to do so. Outsource magazine became the NOA's official partner magazine. Additionally, Outsource became the first magazine serving the outsourcing sector to achieve ABC audit in Sep 2011. In 2017, Outsource magazine changed its name to Future of Sourcing and transitioned from print to
3854-564: The U.S. in 2007, which could exceed 400 times more than average workers—a gap 20 times bigger than it was in 1965, is not a factor. Other reasons include reducing and controlling operating costs, improving company focus, gaining access to world-class capabilities, tax credits, freeing internal resources for other purposes, streamlining or increasing efficiency for time-consuming functions, and maximizing use of external resources. For small businesses, contracting/subcontracting/"outsourcing" might be done to improve work-life balance . Following
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3948-412: The adding of management layers in the 1950s and 1960s to support expansion for the sake of economy of scale, corporations found that agility and added profits could be obtained by focusing on core strengths; the 1970s and 1980s were the beginnings of what later was named outsourcing. Kodak 's 1989 "outsourcing most of its information technology systems" was followed by others during the 1990s. In 2013,
4042-511: The advantages of external economies linked to an increase in the production of an entire sector of activity. However, "those economies which are external from the point of view of the individual firm, but internal as regards the industry in its aggregate, constitute precisely the class which is most seldom to be met with." "In any case - Sraffa notes – in so far as external economies of the kind in question exist, they are not linked to be called forth by small increases in production," as required by
4136-463: The area of call-center outsourcing, especially when combined with offshoring, agents may speak with different linguistic features such as accents , word use and phraseology, which may impede comprehension. In 1979, Nobel laureate Oliver E. Williamson wrote that the governance structure is the "framework within which the integrity of a transaction is decided", and that "because contracts are varied and complex, governance structures vary with
4230-416: The assimilation of new communication methods such as voice over IP , instant messaging , and issue tracking systems , new time management methods such as time tracking software , and new cost- and schedule-assessment tools such as cost estimation software . The term "transition methodology" describes the process of migrating knowledge, systems, and operating capabilities between the two sides. In
4324-564: The assumption of free competition to address the study of firms that have their own particular market. This stimulated a whole series of studies on the cases of imperfect competition in Cambridge. However, in the succeeding years Sraffa followed a different path of research that brought him to write and publish his main work Production of commodities by means of commodities ( Sraffa 1966 ). In this book, Sraffa determines relative prices assuming no changes in output, so that no question arises as to
4418-431: The auction. They found that auction volume did not correlate with competition, nor with the number of bidders, suggesting that auction volume does not promote additional competition. They noted, however, that their data included a wide range of products, and the degree of competition in each market varied significantly, and offer that further research on this issue should be conducted to determine whether these findings remain
4512-655: The availability of technical personnel at offshore locations. One of the challenges in offshoring engineering innovation is a reduction in quality. Co-sourcing is a hybrid of internal staff supplemented by an external service provider. Co-sourcing can minimize sourcing risks, increase transparency, clarity and lend toward better control than fully outsourced. Co-sourcing services can supplement internal audit staff with specialized skills such as information risk management or integrity services, or help during peak periods, or similarly for other areas such as software development or human resources. Identity management co-sourcing
4606-431: The average cost for all firms as opposed to internal economies of scale which only allows benefits to the individual firm. Advantages that arise from external economies of scale include; Firms are able to lower their average costs by buying their inputs required for the production process in bulk or from special wholesalers. Firms might be able to lower their average costs by improving their management structure within
4700-521: The bank. Richard Baldwin 's 2006 The Great Unbundling work was followed in 2012 by Globalization's Second Acceleration (the Second Unbundling) and in 2016 by The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization . It is here, rather than in manufacturing, that the bits economy can advance in ways that the economy of atoms and things cannot: an early 1990s Newsweek ran
4794-434: The base of dynamic economies of scale, associated with the process of growth of the scale dimension and not to the dimension of scale per se. Learning by doing implies improvements in the ability to perform and promotes the introduction of incremental innovations with a progressive lowering of average costs. Learning economies are directly proportional to the cumulative production ( experience curve ). Growth economies emerge if
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#17330863158884888-559: The capability of that arsenal to fulfill the manufacturing requirement" when undertaking a make-or-buy analysis. Furthermore, there are growing legal requirements for data protection , where obligations and implementation details must be understood by both sides. This includes dealing with customer rights. UK government policy notes that certain services must remain in-house, citing the development of policy , stewardship of tax spend and retention of certain critical knowledge as examples. Guidance states that specific criteria must govern
4982-508: The capitalist system is therefore characterized by two tendencies, connected to economies of scale: towards a growing concentration and towards economic crises due to overproduction. In his 1844 Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts , Karl Marx observes that economies of scale have historically been associated with an increasing concentration of private wealth and have been used to justify such concentration. Marx points out that concentrated private ownership of large-scale economic enterprises
5076-461: The changing nature of outsourcing against a backdrop of increasing globalization and advancing technologies. The new brand was launched in Sofia, Bulgaria on the first day of the NOA's European Outsourcing Conference to an audience of international CEOs and Presidents of sourcing associations and institutions from around the world. The Bulgarian Head of State at the time, President Rosen Plevneliev , opened
5170-452: The chemical industry as an example, which today along with petrochemicals, remains highly dependent on turning various residual reactant streams into salable products. In the pulp and paper industry, it is economical to burn bark and fine wood particles to produce process steam and to recover the spent pulping chemicals for conversion back to a usable form. Large and more productive firms typically generate enough net revenues abroad to cover
5264-425: The conclusion that, whatever firm first gets a good start will obtain a monopoly of the whole business of its trade … ". Marshall believes that there are factors that limit this trend toward monopoly, and in particular: Piero Sraffa observes that Marshall, in order to justify the operation of the law of increasing returns without it coming into conflict with the hypothesis of free competition, tended to highlight
5358-455: The conference and delivered a keynote speech. The company celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2017, and currently boasts over 300 corporate members which are split into three member categories: buyers, suppliers, and support service companies. A large number of members are blue-chip user organizations, with some of the member companies managing the largest outsourcing arrangements in Europe. In 2006
5452-508: The contract between the client and the suppliers, fraud cases have been reported. In April 2005, a high-profile case involved the theft of $ 350,000 from four Citibank customers when call-center workers acquired the passwords to customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts opened under fictitious names. Citibank did not find out about the problem until the American customers noticed discrepancies with their accounts and notified
5546-447: The cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time . A decrease in cost per unit of output enables an increase in scale that is, increased production with lowered cost. At the basis of economies of scale, there may be technical, statistical, organizational or related factors to the degree of market control. Economies of scale arise in
5640-452: The early 21st century. The digital workforce of countries like India and China are only paid a fraction of what would be minimum wage in the United States. On average, software engineers are getting paid between 250,000 and 1,500,000 rupees (US$ 4,000 to US$ 23,000) in India as opposed to $ 40,000–$ 100,000 in countries such as the U.S. and Canada . Closer to the U.S., Costa Rica has become
5734-462: The economies of scale due to the increase in size do not depend on indivisibility but exclusively on the three-dimensionality of space. Indeed, indivisibility only entails the existence of economies of scale produced by the balancing of productive capacities, considered above; or of increasing returns in the utilisation of a single plant, due to its more efficient use as the quantity produced increases. However, this latter phenomenon has nothing to do with
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#17330863158885828-434: The economies of scale which, by definition, are linked to the use of a larger plant. At the base of economies of scale there are also returns to scale linked to statistical factors. In fact, the greater of the number of resources involved, the smaller, in proportion, is the quantity of reserves necessary to cope with unforeseen contingencies (for instance, machine spare parts, inventories, circulating capital, etc.). One of
5922-758: The effect of what looks like outsourcing from one side and insourcing from the other side can be unexpected; The New York Times reported in 2001 that "6.4 million Americans .. worked for foreign companies as of 2001, [but] more jobs are being outsourced than" [the reverse]. While U.S. companies do not outsource to reduce high top level executive or managerial costs, they primarily outsource to reduce peripheral and "non-core" business expenses. Further reasons are higher taxes, high energy costs, and excessive government regulation or mandates. Mandated benefits like social security , Medicare , and safety protection (e.g. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations) are also motivators. By contrast, executive pay in
6016-422: The factors underlying the ever-increasing concentration of capital. Marx observes that in the capitalist system the technical conditions of the work process are continuously revolutionized in order to increase the surplus by improving the productive force of work. According to Marx, with the cooperation of many workers brings about an economy in the use of the means of production and an increase in productivity due to
6110-410: The firm increase, the notions of increasing returns to scale and economies of scale can be considered equivalent. However, if input prices vary in relation to their quantities purchased by the company, it is necessary to distinguish between returns to scale and economies of scale. The concept of economies of scale is more general than that of returns to scale since it includes the possibility of changes in
6204-518: The firm is a perfect competitor in all input markets, and thus the per-unit prices of all its inputs are unaffected by how much of the inputs the firm purchases, then it can be shown that at a particular level of output, the firm has economies of scale if and only if it has increasing returns to scale, has diseconomies of scale if and only if it has decreasing returns to scale, and has neither economies nor diseconomies of scale if it has constant returns to scale. In this case, with perfect competition in
6298-454: The firm is so big in one or more input markets that increasing its purchases of an input drives up the input's per-unit cost, then the firm could have diseconomies of scale in that range of output levels. Conversely, if the firm is able to get bulk discounts of an input, then it could have economies of scale in some range of output levels even if it has decreasing returns in production in that output range. In essence, returns to scale refer to
6392-435: The fixed costs associated with exporting. However, in the event of trade liberalization, resources will have to be reallocated toward the more productive firm, which raises the average productivity within the industry. Firms differ in their labor productivity and the quality of their products, so more efficient firms are more likely to generate more net income abroad and thus become exporters of their goods or services. There
6486-604: The founder of political economy as an autonomous discipline. John Stuart Mill , in Chapter IX of the First Book of his Principles, referring to the work of Charles Babbage (On the economics of machines and manufactories), widely analyses the relationships between increasing returns and scale of production all inside the production unit. In Das Kapital (1867), Karl Marx , referring to Charles Babbage , extensively analyzed economies of scale and concludes that they are one of
6580-438: The idea of obtaining larger production returns through the use of division of labor. Diseconomies of scale are the opposite. Economies of scale often have limits, such as passing the optimum design point where costs per additional unit begin to increase. Common limits include exceeding the nearby raw material supply, such as wood in the lumber, pulp and paper industry . A common limit for a low cost per unit weight commodities
6674-573: The identification of such services, and that "everything else" could potentially be outsourced. Inflation, high domestic interest rates, and economic growth pushed India's IT salaries 10–15%, making some jobs relatively "too" expensive, compared to other offshoring destinations. Areas for advancing within the value chain included research and development, equity analysis, tax-return processing, radiological analysis, and medical transcription . Although offshoring initially focused on manufacturing, white-collar offshoring/outsourcing has grown rapidly since
6768-479: The increase in the division of labour. Furthermore, the increase in the size of the machinery allows significant savings in construction, installation and operation costs. The tendency to exploit economies of scale entails a continuous increase in the volume of production which, in turn, requires a constant expansion of the size of the market. However, if the market does not expand at the same rate as production increases, overproduction crises can occur. According to Marx
6862-419: The individual phases of the production process. If the inputs are indivisible and complementary, a small scale may be subject to idle times or to the underutilization of the productive capacity of some sub-processes. A higher production scale can make the different production capacities compatible. The reduction in machinery idle times is crucial in the case of a high cost of machinery. A larger scale allows for
6956-424: The marginalist theory of price. Sraffa points out that, in the equilibrium theory of the individual industries, the presence of external economies cannot play an important role because this theory is based on marginal changes in the quantities produced. Sraffa concludes that, if the hypothesis of perfect competition is maintained, economies of scale should be excluded. He then suggests the possibility of abandoning
7050-618: The nature of the transaction". University of Tennessee researchers have been studying complex outsourcing relationships since 2003. Emerging thinking regarding strategic outsourcing is focusing on creating a contract structure in which the parties have a vested interest in managing what are often highly complex business arrangements in a more collaborative, aligned, flexible, and credible way. Reduced security, sometimes related to lower loyalty may occur, even when 'outsourced' staff change their legal status but not their desk. While security and compliance issues are supposed to be addressed through
7144-471: The offshore outsourcing of software development, their involvement in co-sourced and outsourced Research & Development (R&D) was somewhat limited. Canada, the second largest by 2009, had 21%. As of 2018, the top three were deemed by one "research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists" as China, India and Israel." Gartner Group adds in Russia , but does not make clear whether this
7238-411: The output market the long-run equilibrium will involve all firms operating at the minimum point of their long-run average cost curves (i.e., at the borderline between economies and diseconomies of scale). If, however, the firm is not a perfect competitor in the input markets, then the above conclusions are modified. For example, if there are increasing returns to scale in some range of output levels, but
7332-475: The output. If a mathematical function is used to represent the production function, and if that production function is homogeneous , returns to scale are represented by the degree of homogeneity of the function. Homogeneous production functions with constant returns to scale are first degree homogeneous, increasing returns to scale are represented by degrees of homogeneity greater than one, and decreasing returns to scale by degrees of homogeneity less than one. If
7426-403: The outsourced service provision, where the client believes that there is a substantial risk to the provision of the services, or where performance fails to meet a defined critical level of service. Suitable clauses in a contract may provide for the outsourced service provider to pay any additional costs which are faced by the client and specify that the provider's obligation to provide the services
7520-405: The presence of significant economies of scale. This contradiction, between the empirical evidence and the logical incompatibility between economies of scale and competition, has been called the 'Cournot dilemma'. As Mario Morroni observes, Cournot's dilemma appears to be unsolvable if we only consider the effects of economies of scale on the dimension of scale. If, on the other hand, the analysis
7614-450: The price of inputs when the quantity purchased of inputs varies with changes in the scale of production. The literature assumed that due to the competitive nature of reverse auctions , and in order to compensate for lower prices and lower margins, suppliers seek higher volumes to maintain or increase the total revenue. Buyers, in turn, benefit from the lower transaction costs and economies of scale that result from larger volumes. In part as
7708-569: The production of a given plant. When a plant is used below its optimal production capacity , increases in its degree of utilization bring about decreases in the total average cost of production. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1966) and Nicholas Kaldor (1972) both argue that these economies should not be treated as economies of scale. The simple meaning of economies of scale is doing things more efficiently with increasing size. Common sources of economies of scale are purchasing (bulk buying of materials through long-term contracts), managerial (increasing
7802-400: The reasons firms appear is to reduce transaction costs . A larger scale generally determines greater bargaining power over input prices and therefore benefits from pecuniary economies in terms of purchasing raw materials and intermediate goods compared to companies that make orders for smaller amounts. In this case, we speak of pecuniary economies, to highlight the fact that nothing changes from
7896-459: The rest" has become an internationally recognized business tagline first "coined and developed" in the 1990s by management consultant Peter Drucker . The slogan was primarily used to advocate outsourcing as a viable business strategy. Drucker began explaining the concept of "outsourcing" as early as 1989 in his Wall Street Journal article entitled "Sell the Mailroom". From Drucker's perspective,
7990-441: The same when purchasing the same product for both small and high volumes. Keeping competitive factors constant, increasing auction volume may further increase competition. The first systematic analysis of the advantages of the division of labour capable of generating economies of scale, both in a static and dynamic sense, was that contained in the famous First Book of Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith , generally considered
8084-426: The scale of production. When the size of the company and the division of labour increase, there are a number of advantages due to the possibility of making organizational management more effective and perfecting accounting and control techniques. Furthermore, the procedures and routines that turned out to be the best can be reproduced by managers at different times and places. Learning and growth economies are at
8178-427: The size of the company and the market structure. It is also necessary to take into account the factors linked to the development of capabilities and the management of transaction costs. External economies of scale tend to be more prevalent than internal economies of scale. Through the external economies of scale, the entry of new firms benefits all existing competitors as it creates greater competition and also reduces
8272-446: The specialization of managers), financial (obtaining lower- interest charges when borrowing from banks and having access to a greater range of financial instruments), marketing (spreading the cost of advertising over a greater range of output in media markets ), and technological (taking advantage of returns to scale in the production function). Each of these factors reduces the long run average costs (LRAC) of production by shifting
8366-449: The strength of beams increases with the cube of the thickness. Drag loss of vehicles like aircraft or ships generally increases less than proportional with increasing cargo volume, although the physical details can be quite complicated. Therefore, making them larger usually results in less fuel consumption per ton of cargo at a given speed. Heat loss from industrial processes vary per unit of volume for pipes, tanks and other vessels in
8460-472: The telecommunication and Internet expansion of the late 1990s. Services making use of low-cost countries included: In the early 21st century, businesses increasingly outsourced to suppliers outside their own country, sometimes referred to as offshoring or offshore outsourcing . Other options subsequently emerged including: nearshoring, crowdsourcing , multisourcing , strategic alliances / strategic partnerships , strategic outsourcing. Forbes considered
8554-399: The tendency towards a monopoly inherent in economies of scale. In other words, the heterogeneity of the organizational forms and of the size of the companies operating in a sector of activity can be determined by factors regarding the quality of the products, the production flexibility, the contractual methods, the learning opportunities, the heterogeneity of preferences of customers who express
8648-417: The variation in the relationship between inputs and output . This relationship is therefore expressed in "physical" terms. But when talking about economies of scale, the relation taken into consideration is that between the average production cost and the dimension of scale. Economies of scale therefore are affected by variations in input prices. If input prices remain the same as their quantities purchased by
8742-556: The variation or constancy of returns. In 1947, DuPont engineer Roger Williams, Jr. (1930-2005) published a rule of thumb that costs of chemical process are roughly proportional to the tonnage in power ~0.6 . In the following decades it became widely adopted other engineering industries and terrestrial mining, sometimes (e. g., in electrical power generation) with modified exponential scaling factors. It has been noted that in many industrial sectors there are numerous companies with different sizes and organizational structures, despite
8836-495: Was inducted into the Outsourcing Hall of Fame for his outstanding work in the field. The biggest difference between outsourcing and in-house provision is with regards to the difference in ownership: outsourcing usually presupposes the integration of business processes under a different ownership, over which the client business has minimal or no control. This requires the use of outsourcing relationship management . Sometimes
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