Across the industrial marketplace, in order to meet the demands of short product life cycle and large product mix, two trends in the industrial have emerged, namely...

  - The use of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products or components
  - Outsourcing

The use of COTS reduces the cost and lead-times compared with that of customized solutions, as well as allowing for a greater opportunity of reuse. Outsourcing brings on board expertise quickly and the cost incurred is an expense rather than an overhead. The benefit is flexible resource matching which is important in in a demand-changing environment. Outsourcing allows an organization to focus on its core competence.