So you’re a maker of kitchen or bathroom cabinets, or perhaps you produce furniture. At the end of the job, you’re going to have finishing or painting work to do. The thing is, finishing is not really your specialty, so you may consider outsourcing the job to a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa. You have doubts, though. The question in your mind is, will outsourcing save you money?

That’s where you have to look at the opportunity cost of outsourcing. What is an “opportunity cost”? It’s, according to one definition, the “benefit that a person could have received, but gave up, to take another course of action.” So, in this case, the opportunity cost is the profit you could have made if you outsourced the job instead of doing it on your own.

To figure out if the opportunity cost by outsourcing is worth it, you have to look at outsourcing’s benefits.

What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing?

A 2011 study by the Wood Component Manufacturers Association found that there were 10 reasons wood product companies had for outsourcing part of the work. Companies that outsourced:

• Found that it cost less.
• Did not have the manufacturing capabilities or space.
• Took advantage of other’s expertise.
• Increased their productivity and efficiency.
• Saved time to focus on more important things.
• Reduced capital expenditures.
• Had better quality products.
• Reduced inventory and overhead.
• Concentrated on product development.
• Expanded on their variety of products.

As you can see, there are a few benefits to outsourcing your job to a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa. You’ll save time and be able to focus on the thing you do best: building. That saved time will translate into profit, as you’ll be able to make more cabinets or churn out another coffee table in the time it would take you to apply finish. Or, better yet, it’ll afford you the time to think of new products that you should be offering.

You also may not have the space or manufacturing tools to apply finish yourself, which means that expanding to include spray rooms and buying sprayers would eat into your profits. Even after you’ve made the investment to do your own finishing, you have to realize that proper, high-quality finishes also need a warehouse area that is separate from your other manufacturing processes. That costs money. That’s not to speak of the fact of needing to find a finisher that will remain loyal to your business for many years. Another expense.

The Opportunity Cost

On the other hand, a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa does the same kind of work day in and day out, and so they can offer high quality service. They can also do work quickly, given that it’s their area of expertise. Professional wood finishing shops are additionally set up with special machinery, which will save you shop space. All in all, these things can save or make you money. If you think about it, there’s a huge opportunity cost if you let outsourcing slip away on you.

Then there’s the value that a good job can have on your final product. High-quality finishing means you can charge more for your products, and you’ll stand out as a maker of professional woodwork. Finishing can be complicated and demanding, so you might consider it a lost opportunity to not outsource this component to a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa.  

The aforementioned study found that companies that outsourced tended to know what they were spending, had a tight control on production and focused their resources on their area of speciality. That led these companies to better succeed. What does that cost to you?

Contact Us

If you’re thinking about outsourcing your work to a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa, why not think of us, the Finishing Shop? We have the tools and expertise to get any job done, big or small, so be sure to contact us if you have any questions or want to know more about the services that we can provide to you.

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