Saturday, September 14, 2013

"Ich werde meinen Kaffee flach, genau wie mein Mann."--Thomas L. Friedman


Module 3

       If you are confused by my new title, google translate German to English.

What Makes Offshoring different from outsourcing?

            I am going to have to use some examples to answer this question, first, what is the definition of outsourcing? Definition: to send away (some of a company's work) to be done by people outside the company. Basically if I own a company that produces a product with various parts that I can either produce within my company or I could contract with another company to make those smaller parts for my company and have them shipped so I can make my entire product. Of course I would want that particular step to be cheaper rather than make those parts myself. Another example would be finding a cheap plastic toy and noticing made in China printed on the bottom, the company that initially created that toy found it cheaper to have another company in China and pay those people less than half of what they would pay an American to make the same product here. Offshoring is similar in a way that instead of having a contract with another company to make that product for you, it would be your own company going to another place and have them manufacture that product by building and financing the project itself. My example would be Toyota, this is a company based in Japan, but instead of building cars in Japan and having them shipped here to the states. The company then builds its own production facilities and hires its own employees here in the states to build their cars. Companies do this to keep business within the company but also avoid if not lower shipping costs.

Supply Chains and Wal-Mart herpes

            Supply Chaining: the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity. Basically, an ongoing cycle of a product being produced, packaged, shipped to DC, branched out to stores, sold to a consumer, and repeat. Walmart uses this weapon to keep supply up with demand, Freidman explains this from the point of distribution, starting from a Walmart DC product is received from the manufacturer, sorted and packaged in various trucks to go to multiple stores across the country depending on stores demand. Once the consumer purchases said product a signal is transmitted to the manufacturer to make that product and it eventually makes it back to the DC and repeat, but on a much larger scale. Walmart benefits from this to keep shelves stocked and to keep up with the consumer purchasing those items. Walmart does this to help keep prices a bit lower than the competition, of course this has gotten the company into trouble in the past.

Through the eyes of Google

            I use google, you use google, we all use google, anyone remember ask Jeeves? It’s still around, just google it! But how has google affected businesses? Well google, or any search engine, informs people. Its your one stop shop for all of the information in your local library and beyond, all at your fingertips. What google has done to pay for itself and keep it free for us is advertising, letting companies plaster their logo all over as you searched for information of relevance.  By doing this google is paid and kept free to the public, in most cases a typical search links to a company for some sort of product or service you are looking for, thus strengthening said business. Having that power of information had put written text out of such relevance in today’s world. For example, now with the use of a smart phone or a computer, any one person can search for whatever they need, faster than looking up in an encyclopedia, or even the yellow pages.

To recap, Offshoring is a way for a company to create product in another part of the world and keep the production in house. Walmart uses supply chains to keep shelves stocked in a timely manner and google holds the worlds information at our fingertips, including businesses, so be careful when you are calling your boss a douchebag, google search your name and Facebook and they would probably find that post resulting in your termination. Of course with all of that cheap online advertisements, businesses are well known thanks to google. Whether you are settling an argument, looking for a place to eat, finding porn to self-indulge on a lonely Monday evening, or even looking for a friend’s house on maps. Google is there, to please the masses.

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