Should the Ohio Art Company be held responsible for working conditions in foreign factories that it does not own, but where subcontractors’ Kin Ki make products such as Etch-A-Sketch for them?
Introduction
It is clear that blame does not lie with just one person or company, but with all parties involved. Both the manufacturer and owner of the product, in this case the Ohio Art Company, have a responsibility that their goods are produced in compliance with local and international human rights law. I will attempt to outline the areas where both parties have failed in their legal and ethical obligations in manufacturing the Etch-A-Sketch.
Who is to blame?
While the Ohio Art Company does not directly own the factory based in Shenzhen, …show more content…
Being a part of bad working conditions to a company can be detrimental in success but it is how you counteract the bad effects is what is important.
Question three
Debate the Advantages and disadvantage of using overseas outsourcing partners to produce your product, using outside research to support your answer.
Introduction
Outsourcing product production to countries with cheaper labour, such as China and India, has become extremely popular for western companies in the last number of decades. There are many advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing manufacturing which I will cover in the following document.
Advantages
There are a number of benefits gained by offshoring your product manufacturing.
• Reduced labour costs
• Increased rate of production
• Larger …show more content…
(Dewhurst and Meeker, p.15) Although outsourcing most of the times is cost-effective at times the hidden costs can be more harmful to a company if not anticipated for example: currency change and where you can distribute profits.
As production has increased and so has the employee numbers a disadvantage to outsourcing would be training costs. This can be seen as another hidden cost that could have longer lasting damage if corners are cut. Quality and integrity of the product will decrease jeopardising the company’s reputation.
Geographical location and geopolitical stability (Overby, S.) are the most important risks when considering the potential natural disasters that require an expensive contingency plan to be maintained and the hardest to account for as it is an unknown.
Different time zones can be a big disadvantage as it cuts down the amount of time you can communicate with each other depending on where you are