Failures and defects in outsourced labour and products take longer to detect and are more expensive to remedy. Whilst customer feedback or angry employees may indicate flaws in outsourced support or payroll services, a company may only realise that a component manufactured by an offshore partner is faulty when they take delivery of it. The process of returning the component to its place of origin adds further expense to the costs caused by the delayed completion of a client firm’s product.  Offshore outsourcing reduces the amount of control that a client firm can exercise over component manufacturing even further. The expense of sending supervisors to contractor’s factories will increase. In addition, an offshore contractor may engage in outsourcing itself, entering into relationships with dozens of sub-contractors. This practise further limits the client firm’s ability to control the practices used to produce the materials it has ordered. A client may not be provided with complete information on the actions of sub-contractors; inadequate auditing of a lead contract may conceal the existence of sub-contractors.  In 2004, the aircraft company Boeing announced that it would use subcontractors (many of them offshore) to build the majority of the components that would make up its new 787 passenger jet. Many of Boeing’s offshore partners produced substandard components that failed to fit together or function properly [i] . Boeing inadvertently became entangled with a number of sub-sub-contractors who had been hired in order to meet deadlines imposed on sub-contractors without Boeing’s authority. When a number of firms engaged in the manufacture of key 787 components came close to financial failure, Boeing was forced to take them over and settle their debts. Boeing had concluded that the cost of bailing out its offshore partners would be lower than the expenses incurred by delaying the launch of its aircraft.  Takeovers of failing outsourcing partners by larger firms are becoming an increasingly common occurrence [ii] . While, in the short term, this practice may enable the client firm to maintain production schedules, in the long term the cost of integrating a new subsidiary into a larger business may prove crippling. Moreover, bailing out an outsourcing partner does not provide a guarantee that they will complete the tasks assigned to them in a timely and efficient fashion.  Especially in manufacturing dependent industries, but also in other sectors of developed economies, offshore outsourcing is indicative of flawed, short term strategizing that attempts to engineer higher profits by reducing investment in staff and taking unacceptable risks.  [i] “The trouble with outsourcing.” The Economist, 30 July 2011.   [ii] “Boeing’s woes. Nightmareliner.” The Economist, 03 September 2011.