Make or Buy and Managing the Supply Chain

Companies rarely, if ever, own the resources and activities necessary to make a product from start to finish including delivery to customers. The decision on what to make and what to buy and the task of managing the supply chain that results are, therefore, key strategic issues within manufacturing. They concern the width of a firm’s internal span of process (how much of a product it makes in-house), the degree and direction of vertical integration alternatives and its links and relationships at either end of the process spectrum with suppliers, distributors and customers.