Insourcing - One of the world's flattener

Insourcing – a whole new form of collaboration and creating value horizontally; made possible by the flat world and flattening it even more. Although supply-chaining is very important but not every company, indeed very few companies, can afford to develop and support a complex global supply chain of the scale and scope that Wal-Mart has developed.

That is what gave birth to insourcing. Insoucing came about because once the world went flat, the small could act big-small companies could suddenly see around the world. Once they did, they saw a log of places where they could sell their goods, manufacture their goods, or buy their raw materials in a more efficient manner. But many of them either did not know how to pull all this off or could not afford to manage a complex global supply chain on their own. Many big companies did not want to manage this complexity, which they felt was not part of their core competency. Nike would rather spend its cash and energy designing better tennis shoes, not supply chain.
(Thomas L. Friedman, 2005, pg 169, 170)

Insourcing is coming right inside your company; analyze its manufacturing, packaging, and delivery processes; and then design, redesign, and manage your whole global supply chain.

Insourcing is looking deep inside its business and then into its suppliers business.
(Thomas L. Friedman, 2005, pg 171)

Insourcing is distinct from supply-chaining because it goes well beyond supply-chain management. Because it is third-party-managed logistics, it requires a much more intimate and extensive kind of collaboration.
(Thomas L. Friedman, 2005, pg 175)

Source : THE WORLD IS FLAT, Thomas L. Friedman, 2005