Problems › Should We Hire or Outsource? › Manufacturing
The test is not cost. It is whether the capability is close enough to what you sell that owning it changes your position. This page works through it for manufacturers specifically — including an unedited excerpt from a real analysis of a manufacturer.
The test is not cost. It is whether the capability is close enough to what you sell that owning it changes your position. What makes this harder for manufacturers is structural: the $45M automation case depends on the very customer that causes the margin problem. Any credible answer therefore has to hold contribution per machine hour and capacity utilisation in the same view, which is exactly where most internal analysis stops because the two live in different systems.
Hire-versus-outsource is usually argued on cost per hour, which is the least decisive input. An outsourced function is generally cheaper at low utilisation and more expensive at high utilisation, so the honest comparison depends on volume you have to forecast anyway.
The decisive question is proximity to what you actually sell. Capabilities that touch the customer's experience of the thing you charge for, or that accumulate knowledge you can compound, are worth owning even at a premium. Everything else is a purchasing decision.
The third factor is variance. Owning a function buys control over quality and timing; outsourcing buys flexibility. Which matters more depends on whether your customers notice variance.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ The debate is being conducted entirely on hourly rates
✓ Utilisation of the proposed hire is assumed rather than estimated
✓ The function touches the customer directly
The move that usually makes it worse. Outsourcing something that accumulates knowledge you would have compounded, which is cheaper every year and weaker every year.
It is for you if you run or finance a manufacturer and the debate is being conducted entirely on hourly rates. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a manufacturer. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Kessler Industrial Components, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — $310M revenue, three plants.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Competitive Positioning · sample company profile
The move. Monetise existing tooling and qualification stickiness by selling design-for-manufacturability services to the same OEMs that currently force 3% annual price-downs.
The leak it closes. Closes value leakage to OEMs via contractual price-downs; design authority creates new margin pool that subsidizes existing build-to-print programmes
The assumption it rests on. Customer A engineering manager will sign first paid DFM engagement within 6 months — the engine put the probability at 0.7.
| Investment required | $8-12M tooling CapEx + $4.5-6.0M annual engineering payroll (18-24 FTEs at $250K fully-loaded cost) |
| Expected return | 5.1× — $57-86M incremental EBITDA over 5 years / $12M maximum downside |
| Revenue, year 1 | $0.5-1.0M DFM service revenue |
| Revenue, year 2 | $3.5-5.0M DFM service revenue + $8-12M design-authority production revenue |
| Revenue, year 3 | $7-10M DFM service revenue + $35-50M design-authority production revenue |
| Exit criteria | Abandon this move if first paid DFM engagement is not signed by Month 9, OR if cumulative engineering hires fall below 12 FTEs by Month 18, OR if DFM-to-production conversion value falls below $4M by Month 24 |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Organizational Alignment Model, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For manufacturers it works through contribution per machine hour, capacity utilisation, customer concentration and scrap, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
At the utilisation where fully loaded internal cost falls below the external rate for the same output. Calculate that break-even point explicitly — it is usually lower than people assume and the debate ends there.
Anything where the accumulated knowledge is part of what you sell. Losing that is not a cost line, it is a slow reduction in what you are able to charge for.
By variance rather than by average. Outsourced work is often comparable on average and wider in spread, which matters exactly as much as your customers notice it.
Materially, yes. The $45M automation case depends on the very customer that causes the margin problem — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are contribution per machine hour, capacity utilisation, customer concentration, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on contribution per machine hour and capacity utilisation. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
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