Outsourcing group activity

[kip_russell]

I am needing ideas for a short group activity for approximately 10 people to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing jobs. All ideas welcome and I thank you in advance.

[Skittles]

1. have one person perform some tasks

then have ten cheap fucks perform the tasks

[OhioChick]

2. Summed it up pretty damn well, Skittles. n/t

[Yavin4]

3. Then give it back to the first peron to fix what the cheap fucks did

Then lobbying congress to increase the number of cheap fucks.

[Skittles]

4. yup, call the original guy at 01:00 AM after the situation is FUBAR

here's the last comment I received after making such a call...."OMG I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG IT'S GONNA TAKE TO FIX THIS MESS"

Then when it IS fixed, the root cause is determined to be a "training issue" :rofl:

[IDemo]

5. Have a computer problem addressed by phone:

"At this time it seems I have no more of the help you seek and advise you to wipe out hard drive, re-install the XP. Good day!"

Then see if it is possible for the caller to literally reach through the phone and throttle the tech help. It'll be fun.

[ChromeFoundry]

6. Simulate how a real project would be run...

Setup
1. two people sit in a room together with a computer (the design team).
2. seven people sit in another room together with a computer (the offshore team).
3. one person sits in a room alone with a pad of paper for notes, and a phone to communicate with the two teams (the project manager)

The Project
4. the design team dictates a URL (phone only) to the project manager to build an origami box with lid.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2109536_fold-origami-box-lid.html

5. the project manager relays the link to the offshore team (phone only).

6. the project manager instructs the offshore team to build seven identical boxes from the instructions provided.
(allotted time - 1 hr.)

7. The design team chooses seven different headlines from seven different news sources. The headlines then translated to the Malay language via Google's translator. The original and translated versions are printed out on separate sheets of paper, staple the original to the translated version (one member does 3, the other 4).

8. The design team dictates (the 3, then the 4 separately by respective designer) the translation to the project manager, where he writes the character-by-character dictation down.

9. The two members of the design team work together to build seven origami boxes from the URL above.

10. Meanwhile, the project manager dictates one of the seven different headlines to each of the seven offshore team members separately, on a one-on-one basis.

11. The offshore team has the duty of translating their headline back into English and putting it in the origami box they constructed. The offshore team member writes their name on the top of the box.
(allotted time - max 2 hrs., or time stops when either team first completes the task)

12. The teams meet at the end of the three hour period or when time is up, and compare the craftsmanship of the boxes to the website's pictures. If the box fails to pass the specification, the headline contents also fail the following step.

13. The passing boxes translated headlines are compared to the original printed headlines for accuracy.

13. Finally. Compare the two designers work to that of the seven from the offshore team and determine the more cost beneficial process.

[OhioChick]

7. Simply put.....the original 2 designers will be able to perform the task...

Better and in a shorter time frame.

[Skittles]

9. actually, in the real world

the two originals would be given an hour but the seven offshore would be given three hours......the offshore work will still suck but I've noticed standards and deadlines are very much relaxed for their shoddy shit

[ChromeFoundry]

10. Yep...

I am cleaning up some of this shoddy shit on several of my projects right now.

[Mopar151]

8. Put together a pamphlet, event flyer, or other mailing

Divide into 2 teams - 1 uses a computer & printer (dedicated capital equipment), Word & Excel (software as tooling), labels on a sheet to print (specialised materials).

The second team uses a typewriter, everything else is outsourced or handwritten.


Both teams work from a pile of handwritten forms (entries, raffle tickets, or the like) for addresses.


Teams must evaluate costs and quality of work, you may want to establish a "rental" or "lease" figure for the deadicated equipment to simulate amotization over a reasonable period of time.
Secondary exercise - introduce E-mail or website distribution as an option.

You can look at <www.hillclimb.org> to see which way we went.