Make or buy?

Abstract

Before any purchase order, or production order, can be issued, somebody in the organization must have decided that the item in question is to be purchased, or is to be manufactured internally, as the case may be. These decisions as to which things to manufacture and which things to buy out may in principle be top management decisions. But in practice they often seem to be taken as required by design, production or purchasing people, acting together or separately, with no written policy guide and with no apparent provision for regular review.