Outsourcing

Outsourcing is subcontracting a service, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company.^[1] The decision whether to outsource or to do inhouse is often based upon achieving a lower production cost, making better use of available resources, focusing energy on the core competencies of a particular business, or just making more efficient use of labor, capital, information technology or land resources.^{[citation needed]} It is essentially a division of labour. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s.