I don't know anything about manufacturing but I wonder if problems associated with outsourcing IT overseas are not also experienced in manufacturing.l? Wouldn't having the factory closer give you same benefits as being able to walk across to a fellow developer and discuss some issue.
Of course - they can iterate much faster. I know firms in the US that would have to wait 3 months for a prototype to ship for testing. 3 months. Think about how much time is truly wasted?
This can happen - if the company is setup to allow that. There was some GE product that was brought back in-house next to the developers and the assemblers talking to them shaved 35 steps off manufacturing.
