Discuss how the recent outsourcing of parts and services that had previously been produced internally has altered the "playing field” for operations managers.

The main focus of every business firm is to maximize profit and to reduce the cost as well. No matter how big the business firm is or how small it be, the firm cannot ignore the factors like costs of production, wages, available technologies, availability of the raw materials etc in other countries (or within country, but in different place). Therefore, if it is found that the low labor cost, or availability of raw materials is in the other countries, the firm can outsource a part of product from those areas where the cost is comparatively low than in producing in the host country.

We do have many examples of outsourcing of the business firms that are yet very successful in their operation. Some of the business firms that outsource its products are Boeing 777 which outsources its more than 65% of the parts. Similarly, Ncell outsources its repair and maintenance tasks to a Chinese company ZTE. Moreover, outsourcing in the field of IT for management and maintenance are common to us. All these companies outsourced because of cheap cost than in the host country where they were operating that eventually has direct impact on profitability of the firm.

The recent outsourcing of parts and services that had previously been produced internally has altered the "playing field” for operations managers. It is because, a firm can reduce its cost by outsourcing meanwhile it can focus on its core objectives since secondary importance tasks are already outsourced. However, the business firm cannot compromise on the quality of outsourced products (goods/ services) since this will directly affect the quality of the final product (Financial Dictionary).

Also, the company outsourcing can have others several benefits like lower tax boundary, less government regulations, easy availability of human resources and raw materials as well. These all may add in the competitive advantage for the firm and helps in the long last survival and growth of the business firm as well (Chase, Jacbos, Aquilano, & Agrawal, 2008).

Bibliography

Chase, R. B., Jacbos, F. R., Aquilano, N. J., & Agrawal, N. K. (2008). Operations management for competitive management (11th ed.). New York: Tata McGraw-Hill.

Financial Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from Investing Answers: http://www.investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/businesses-corporations/outsourcing-714

Stevenson, W. J. (2012). Operations Management (11th ed.). New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Irwin.