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The Resilience Index: Process is the second in a series of three reports which unpack the topic of industrial resilience and, as Richard Jeffers, Director Maintenance Solutions at RS Components discusses, the report reveals how a strategic approach to outsourcing can help strengthen process resilience for senior engineers.
The Resilience Index is a comprehensive investigation into the status of UK manufacturing business resilience.
Using 20 years of informed data sets, it examines how the nation’s manufacturing sub sectors are faring when it comes to investment, productivity, and employment – some of the key resilience areas that determine operational effectiveness, competitiveness and, ultimately, commercial security and success.
The Index findings also highlight many learnings and sets out several actions senior engineers should undertake to ensure business resilience is built and sustained across their plant, process, and people.
One of the key action points from studying process (productivity) resilience is the critical part strategically planned outsourcing plays in the daily operational and financial viability of industrial companies.
Outsourcing is part of a suite of measures to help protect companies, push them to think and act differently and establish a culture of continuous improvement which will be the foundation for future process improvements, stability, and transformation.
Think differently about outsourcing
Outsourcing strategies need to focus on the benefits that can be gained, alongside potential cost savings. For example, outsourcing can increase quality and innovation or make processes more efficient. A good example would be outsourcing control of a site’s inventory to supply experts.
Companies should carefully consider if outsourcing decisions would free-up enough internal capacity to help the organisation concentrate on core competencies or allow for quicker adaptations or transformations. The default position of taking processes in-house to drive cost efficiencies needs to be continually challenged, and the holistic benefits of a strategic outsourcing approach closely scrutinised.
When reviewing processes, senior engineers need to ask questions about why they undertake what they do, as well as determine the overall benefit of keeping it in-house. Outsourcing to an expert supplier could well be the answer.
RS Components’ range of strategic outsourced support can help deliver tangible resilience-linked results across a wide spectrum of infrastructure and operational areas. They include inventory, procurement and maintenance solutions, technical support, managing supplier relationships, extensive product ranges, PPE and safety products, supplier partnerships for training, and education programmes that can help make a difference.
Outsourcing to expert suppliers needs to be viewed as a significant strategic tool that senior engineers can deploy to their advantage. Successful outsourced partnerships are proven to free up senior engineers to concentrate on core competencies that matter and enable them to strive to add greater value to improve operations and productivity.
For a copy of The Resilience Index: Process report,
click here.
The Resilience Index is a comprehensive and unique investigation of six datasets from the past 20 years covering manufacturing investment, productivity, and employment to track resilience across some of the UK’s most prominent industries.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.