For global high-tech manufacturers, is the pendulum swinging from outsourcing back to insourcing?

Apple reportedly plans to replace the wireless communications chips in iPhones, supplied by Broadcom Inc., with its own manufactured components. And the move isn’t being taken in isolation. It appears to be part of a larger trend toward taking at least a portion of high-tech supply chains back in-house, after decades of outsourcing just about every aspect of design and manufacturing. On this episode, we discuss the larger implications of Apple’s move with Simon Geale, vice president of procurement with Proxima, a consultancy specializing in procurement and the supply chain. So why is Apple making the move now? To save money? De-risk its supply chain? Speed up the pace of innovation in a highly competitive market? Or all of the above? On a larger scale, however, the development could signal “a fundamental restructuring of trade,” Geale says. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain. 

Show notes:

From SupplyChainBrain: “Apple Calls on Local Manufacturers to Protect Nation’s Role as the World’s Factory.”