Is it possible for a world-class organization to achieve superiority in all five competitive priorities--price (cost), quality, time, flexibility, and innovation? Explain your reasoning. Provide examples pro or con. Where Stuff Is Made and What Stuff Is Made Where

For this assignment, students will prepare two lists of items with the country of origin or country of manufacture. After developing and reviewing these lists, students will make observations about the use of offshoring.

Part 1: The Lists.

List1: Some day as you prepare to proceed into your day, make a note of the country of origin (manufacture or assembly) for the clothing that you will be wearing. A typical list will include:

Top:

Bottom:

Undergarment(s) and socks:

Footwear:

Headwear:

Accessories:

List 2: Visit a store, probably a big-box store like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, or another store that offers some variety of product categories. Choose several of the product categories and include several items within each category among those listed below. In other words, do not just look at a few products. Your sample should be large enough to make some observations

Electronics (equipment as well as "software" life games, music, movies, etc)

Food (fresh and prepared foods)

Paper products (tissues, paper towels, notebooks)

Chemicals (cleaning, health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, others)

Toys

Tools (power tools and hand tools)

Office and school supplies

Publishing (books, magazines and newspapers)

Part 2:

After developing these lists, make some observations and provide some implications relating to offshoring about the where things are made.  This part should include some considerations about what you learned relating to the 5Ws: Who, What, Where, When and Why (particularly what, where, and why). What can you say about the kinds of things that are made in the USA? What kinds of things are not made in the USA? What patterns do you see?