The New World of Offshoring and Automation --McIlroy

Hard Combo to Beat

India enjoys a very high rate of English-language literacy, and a surplus of well-educated technicians. When you combine this labor force with advanced technology, there's an advantage that's hard to beat.

Let's then add to the equation a new generation of automated page composition technology (and, for printers, a new generation of expensive, but highly automated presses). The most significant aspect of these new technologies is that while the up-front acquisition costs are generally high, favoring companies with access to capital, the longer-term impact is that the labor cost component of the manufacturing process drops significantly while the capital cost component rises.