How outsourcing design can be a sustainability cop-out

30年来，电子产品制造外包在科技行业已司空见惯。另一方面，随着制造业的发展，外包设计在过去的十年里越来越流行。

当名牌公司远离他们的产品设计与供应链管理, they take a step backwards from corporate responsibility.

现在哪些类型的电子产品是由制造商而不是品牌设计的？起初，一批台湾原创设计制造商（ODM）设计了低端电脑和外围设备。Foxconn，广达，康宝，威斯通，英达和和硕都在这些ODM中。品牌公司会在模型中进行选择，然后让ODM制作带有品牌铭牌的产品。

然后ODMs开始设计手机、高端服务器、网络设备、仪器——各种消费电子产品甚至医疗设备。

听起来很方便：为什么不找一个外部的制造商provide your products' designs for you? You get a "one stop" supplier, without having to employ teams of design engineers and采购经理s. There's less finger-pointing than when one party designs and another builds the product: ("The yield problems are because of the design!" "No, it's the soldering process!") Executives like the cachet of一些大型odm, and the pricing is alluring. And, well, outsourcing it all just seems easier.

然而，将设计和供应链控制委托给ODM的品牌公司可能会失去具有竞争力的设计进步，包括环境效率；以及法规遵从性、知识产权安全的保证；以及供应链质量和工人条件的可见性。

5控制和责任的妥协

Executives at electronics companies all over North America -- include HP, Apple and Dell -- have rushed to embrace the ODM model, feeling great about having been accepted by one of the large suppliers, and optimistic about reducing overhead and product costs. Then, their companies start experiencing these typical obstacles and facing these risks:

1设计师没有受过环境设计原则的训练-- The DfE goals, of reducing unnecessary product materials and processes and increasing energy efficiency, are stymied. That's because the ODM is not as well trained inDesign for the Environment (DfE)原则，因此忽略了客户工程师的许多创新。或者，在没有生命周期评估的情况下提供单独的DfE好处，以确定这些变化是否对客户的成本降低和环境健康更有利。

风险：被竞争对手卓越的生态设计（如更小、更轻、更高效的产品）甩在后面；通过降低客户的电力和冷却成本而失去市场份额；以及将消费后的收入流留在桌面上。

2. Environmental regulations managers face challengesin scrutinizing their products for the six substances restricted by the European Union's RoHS Directive, and the increasing number restricted by theEU's REACHchemicals regulation. They also need to report with confidence whether the components' metals are from "冲突地雷美国证券交易委员会要求。当要求ODMs提供这些信息时（通常有许多提醒），法规遵从性经理经常怀疑他们从ODMs收到的产品内容信息的真实性。

风险：在没有充分的尽职调查辩护的情况下，违反监管规定的可能性更大。毕竟，品牌和市场份额面临风险（可能会被罚款，甚至被判监禁）。

三。供应链和质量经理任由摆布of the large and distant ODMs to verify the quality of parts received. Are counterfeits used? Are cheaper sources used in-place of approved vendors? Are all the parts to spec? What are the yields?

风险：低质量，潜在的品牌损害，由于惊人的不合格材料，产品召回。（还记得火车玩具零件中含铅的红色油漆和宠物食品中的三聚氰胺吗？）。

4你看到的不是你得到的-- Auditors attempt to visit the ODMs to assess worker hours, ages, working and living conditions, and the right to organize. However, ODMs often resist surprise audits, and sometimes the auditors sense that what they are shown is staged.

风险：发现（和negative publicity) for using underage, overworked employees; and repugnant manufacturing conditions.

5日子一去不复返了that name-brand companies have total protection of their hardware-products' intellectual property, especially with the three decades of nearly ubiquitous manufacturing outsourcing. But when the design is controlled by the manufacturer as well, IP protection is nearly impossible to protect. Legal departments do the best they can, and in the end executives at some companies declare that their true competitiveness is in their software: "Don't worry about the hardware -- just drive down the manufacturing costs."

风险：你们的旗舰产品在亚洲各地都有仿制产品。

Examples of outsourced design

总部位于北美的三个中型网络通信设备品牌的整个产品设计团队都接受了DfE原则的培训。管理层致力于通过更小、更轻的产品和包装、更低的功耗和更容易的拆卸以实现有利可图的再利用、翻新和回收，在产品的环保合规性和所需的竞争优势以及成本节约方面保持主动性。

But then the top executives migrated design from in-house engineers to China-based ODMs. The brands' product-launch teams sent to the ODMs design requirements including innovative DfE elements, but the ODMs incorporated few if any of them. The brands' compliance engineers -- who used to be on top of their products' content according to regulations' requirements -- now had to "beg" their ODMs for critical supply-chain information. When or if that data finally came in, they had some doubt about its accuracy. And whenever incidents of worker abuse and unsafe conditions were in the news (such as atApple's ODM Foxconn in China), the brands nervously wondered if they should further audit their ODMs' factory conditions.

Getting back on track

减轻业务和责任损害的第一步是让品牌公司的高管意识到这五种妥协和风险。在此基础上，他们可以考虑整体业务优势时，选择模型之间的控制或委托设计。也许他们会给只授权制造业带来优势，同时将产品设计和供应链控制作为公司核心竞争力的一部分。

Next, if going the ODM route, brand-company executives can insist that supplier-selection criteria include verifiable DfE expertise and life-cycle assessments. Executives can demand that an ODM team of material engineers and supply-chain analysts be assigned to work with the brand-company's regulatory and quality managers to ensure in a timely fashion that all regulations are met and parts are on spec. They can sign supplier contracts guaranteeing unannounced on-site audits as a condition for doing business.

至于保护你的知识产权，选择一家你非常熟悉的公司，它的知识产权“围栏”实际上防止了其他客户的泄密。

委派公司职能是可以的。在这样做的时候，公司的责任和降低风险都是清晰可见的。

SIM卡的图像Sorbis通过Shutterstock