I think for most mid-to-large sized companies they have found that narrowly separating the tasks of ‘designing’ and ‘making’, creates products of higher quality that go to market faster with fewer problems. Often these companies will have ‘front end’ and ‘back end’ designers, half of them where the product’s target market lives, and the other half on-site where the things are made. Most auto companies are like this.
Even SRAM (bicycle components) has its design groups in Chicago and someplace in Germany, and the production designers on-site in Taiwan. Each set of designers contributes their knowledge and talents to the overall goal of making products to the cost and quality standards needed.
I read in the Economist that Jaguar/Land Rover doesn’t even own its own logistics team, outsourcing everything to DHL. That probably carries over into some of the sourcing decisions too. Its easier, cheaper, and usually works better.