How can I respond to the following peer post?

hello class,

Many things in my industry are outsourced to low cost countries. This includes both parts and labor, and comes with many pitfalls.

Parts or materials from low cost countries face unique challenges. You are affected not just by the labor, communication, and lack of direct oversight but also by the time delays. When you need a new shipment you will have needed to order it sometimes up to three months in advanced. If there is an issue with build quality you need to correct it locally, and not replace it as the delay would be too great. Hence, the industry is filled with poor quality equipment being installed and commissioned while already being inadequate. This lowers consumer confidence in local brands as the parts aren't actually local. This can be mitigated with greater oversight, testing prior to installation, and high levels of standing inventory. These mitigations are normally highly limited themselves though.

The other industry wide outsourcing is labor. While support and management is much less often outsourced, backend development and work often is to save money. Most of the industry outsources developers and technical staff to other countries due to dramatic cost increases locally. It would be out of the question to try and afford our development team to be in the United States. While the staff are harder to work with, and quality can suffer we can afford more staff to offset this. You can better supervise and monitor work to make sure staff is being efficient, and invest in improving their skills.