Current Practices in Offshoring and Reshoring

Project Background

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) Research Strategies Committee (RSC) initiated a research project to approach and report on the offshoring-to-reshoring movement.

The literature of that time suggested that many companies initially did a poor job with their offshoring initiatives, because many did not do an exhaustive review and consideration of total costs and supply chain effects. Such moves sometimes led to customer service and market response problems or did not lower costs as expected.

Over time, companies have shifted to more sophisticated total cost approaches. As a consequence—with labor costs rising in some developing economies, increases in logistics costs driven by higher fuel costs, and ...