============== A basic and indeed critical problem is that outsourcing an industrial activity such as machining, mining, textiles, shoes, consumer electronics, etc. is almost always a one-way street.
(1) The physical plant/buildings are generally no longer available because of conversion to other uses or demolition. Even when the buildings are still standing but unoccupied, these are generally derelict, in a poor state of repair, and have been stripped of anything of value.
(2) The necessary machines and equipment are no longer available having been scrapped or exported. Indeed, much of the required machinery may no longer be available except as imports at very high prices with long/excessive leadtimes for both the machines and repair parts as domestic manufactures no longer exist.
(3) The local support infrastructure of sub-contractors, machine repair, and suppliers no longer generally exists, and where is does there may be extreme reluctance to again become involved with an operation that can disappear at any time.
(4) Any "good will" the returning operation may have had with the local government and establishment will have been dissipated.
(5) Perhaps the most critical factor is the dissipation of the local trained and educated workforce. An exacerbating factor is the general reluctance of any returning skilled workers to believe anything management says. An even more critical area is the "poisoning of the [workforce] well" in that the new employees entering the workforce talk to their parents, relatives, etc., who will generally discourage any involvement with the returning manufacturing operations based on their personal experience. Indeed, too many of the potential new employees have first hand observation of the repossession/loss of homes and cars from their older relatives who may have been long term skilled employees at the returning operation. One example of this is the shortage of rough necks/floormen in the recent oil/gas mini drilling boom. Older experience oil patch employees have generally refused to return to the drilling industry as they have found other more stable jobs, and the usual source of new recruits, the sons/nephews of existing oil field workers, is very limited as these individuals has seen first hand the treatment of their fathers/uncles. Many community colleges in the oil patch have implemented oil field training programs, but the problem is that most of the instruction must now be in Spanish...