third shift

n. the illegal manufacture of goods after authorized production has ceased. Subjects: English, Business

Editorial Note: In normal workplace jargon, the “third shift” is often from midnight to 8 a.m.; however, the third shift as defined here is simply an extra period of work at any time of the day.

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Citations: [2001 Ali Velshi (CNNfn) (Dec. 26) “GenuOne—CEO”: UNGER: Well, what happens is that if there’s a third shift that’s taking place inside one of the factories… this allows them to make 100 pairs of shoes authorized for XYZ Company and then at night, make another 200 pairs for themselves and push them out as legitimate products.] [2005 Ron Epperson, Jerry Wald Metropolitan Corporate Counsel (Dec.): For instance, a manufacturing partner with a contract to run two shifts per day could potentially order excess materials from the suppliers, run a third shift making the company’s product and sell that product into another market where the company does not do business.] 2006 Peter Gilberd Townsend Assets Group (Jan. 17) “ Working the Third Shift: Tips to avoid Counterfeits when buying and Selling Used Cisco”: Companies in China, for example, already have the experience, manufacturing capacity, and technical know-how to produce Cisco’s products. And sometimes they run extra shifts or a “third shift” to produce a surplus of product, which they distribute illegally on the black market. 2006 Roger Parloff Fortune (May 1) “Not exactly counterfeit”: The simplest and most dramatic form of the problem is something that Asia-based investigators jocularly refer to as the “third shift,” the “midnight shift,” or the “ghost shift. Say a U.S. company orders 20,000 dresses from an overseas factory. The contractor fills the order during its two day shifts but then runs off 10,000 extra at night, possibly using inferior materials. Those he sells out the back door, so to speak, trademark and all.…In addition to literal night-shift activity, the “third shift” is an umbrella term for any form of unauthorized production by otherwise authorized contractors. A common variant arises when a brand owner tells an overseas contractor to stop producing a line of product, and the contractor doesn’t. 2007 Rob Lewis MyCustomer.com (Apr. 10) “The brand has left the building: maintaining consistency in an outsourced world”: It’s true that unscrupulous outsourcing can do strange and awful things to just about every aspect of your brand. Look at what Asia-based investigators humorously refer to as the “third shift”: deliberate production overruns in outsourced garment manufacturing that are then offloaded as cheap counterfeits.

Posted 11 Apr 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend