From a strategic manufacturing perspective companies are facing challenges in finding a balance in what they do on their own and what their suppliers do. This balance requires some times that companies are outsourcing and sometimes in sourcing activities. One conclusion is that outsourcing should be considered as a strategic decision that is not easily made by a purchasing or operations department. Many companies tend to outsource more and more of their manufacturing to specialists, but this does not mean that companies can afford to loose their competence in manufacturing. It is still essential that the companies, even though another company performs parts of the actual manufacturing, understand the special conditions for manufacturing. Otherwise they are not in a position where they can discuss product development, specification of the different tasks that they want the contractors to do, and they can certainly not make the right decisions when buying components and parts from suppliers. The outsourcing decisions also need to be strategically justifiable and outsourcing only for cost reasons is rarely successful. Outsourcing should provide other advantages in terms of improvement of competitive priorities. For different reasons, it may also end up in a situation where the company needs to insource previously outsourced activities.