1-16.1 Strategic Considerations A product or service meeting the following conditions is considered strategic: It is critical to customer satisfaction. It requires specialized design and manufacturing skills or equipment, and the number of capable and reliable suppliers is extremely limited. It falls under existing Postal Service core competencies or within those that must be developed to fulfill future plans. Products/services that do not meet these conditions are considered nonstrategic and should always be outsourced unless compelling tactical reasons indicate that outsourcing would compromise best value to the Postal Service. A strategic product/service requires further analysis before one can decide whether to make or buy from a strategic standpoint. Specifically, if the strategic product/service can be broken down into families of components and parts that are also strategic, it should be made in-house. On the contrary; if it is not divisible or its components or parts are not strategic, it should be outsourced. Figure 1.10 Analyzing Strategic Make vs. Buy Decisions