Company E is a British manufacturer of agricultural equipment, with turnover around 10 million GBP. Since 2004, in order to reduce costs and remain competitive, the company has been purchasing sets of piece parts from a Chinese supplier for one kind of its products – post drivers. Before sourcing from China, the company manufactured the parts in house.
Company F designs and manufactures a range of KVM (Keyboard, Video monitor, Mouse) switches, which enable the control of local, remote and global IT systems. They manufacture products under their own brand, as well as for a number of well-known OEM customers. The main markets of the company are Europe and the US. The turnover of the company was around 6 million GBP. The case study focused on a simple metal part sourced from China since 2005. The part covers the switches and has five variations. The basic design for all variations is similar. The main difference between the variations is the print on the metal cover. The whole product family is sourced from the same supplier in China.