An offshoring expert, Kevin D. Stringer, argues that companies could compete and profit best by outsourcing to small, more developed countries.

... But more important, costs aren’t the only criteria to consider. Increasingly, offshoring is used to transfer overseas such brainy jobs as financial research, analytics, chip design, legal services, clinical trials management, and even magazine or book editing. Given that activity is trending from low-level to high-order functions, countries such as India and China known best for cheap labor and large populations become less and less attractive. Their overall subpar literacy and productivity levels, the endemic weaknesses in their educational systems, and their minimal environmental regulations make these nations ill-suited for high-end tasks, which companies must increasingly rely on as a potential competitive distinction and a way to differentiate themselves in the knowledge-based economy.

Good old USA! There's no place like home and as U.S. manufacturers become more efficient through the use of lean methodologies, flowing production back from China to the United States can be a smart business move.

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