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

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. 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.