Dual Sourcing Strategies and Network Design

Recently, I wrote about dual sourcing strategies in my SupplyChainDigest column.  The idea is that when firms try to decide if they should make a product in China or the U.S, they should also consider a dual sourcing strategy.

Professors Allon and Van Mieghem from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management have formalized this strategy in several papers and projects.

With this strategy, you can get the low cost benefit of China and the safety stock benefit of reacting to variability in the U.S.

But, there can be more to this strategy.  This discussion assumes that demand for this product is mostly in the U.S.  If demand for the product is world-wide, you need to use network design software to help determine where to make product for each market.  That is, do you make a product in each region of the world to avoid transportation costs or do you centralize production to take advantage of economies of scale.

The lessons we learned from dual sourcing still apply.  If it is better to make a product centrally because of economies of scale, then you may want to consider some local capability to handle the variability and reduce safety stock requirements.

This analysis is certainly more complex, but the extra effort can reduces costs and risks.