Activities or services performed within an organization, without reliance on external contractors, often linked to ongoing debates about cost-efficiency versus outsourcing.
A strategic choice in business operations regarding whether to produce goods internally or to purchase them from external suppliers. It involves evaluating various factors including cost, capacity, quality, and opportunity costs.
Outsourcing refers to the business practice where an organization contracts out a business process or operation to a third-party provider. This can involve services, manufacturing, or handling specific operations to leverage expertise, cost efficiency, and other benefits.
A service bureau is a service business that makes its resources, such as computers and skilled personnel, available to others for a fee. They provide various services including merge/purge, list maintenance, and fulfillment services. By leveraging economies of scale, service bureaus can offer these services at a lower cost than individual users could achieve on their own.
A subcontractor is an individual or business that is hired by a general contractor to perform a specific task as part of a larger project. The general contractor remains responsible for the overall completion and quality of the project.
Twin Plants, or maquiladoras, refer to manufacturing facilities in Mexico often employed by U.S. companies for their cost-effective labor and proximity to the U.S. market.
