27th January 2023
Letting go is often the most challenging act for machine builders and OEMs to face as they embark on an outsourcing partnership.
But the right partner should fill you with confidence. You’ll realise quite quickly that letting go means gaining more.
The decision though isn’t one taken lightly and nor should it be. It’s one of the reasons a dedication to making outsourcing easy is this company’s uppermost pledge and its internal mandate. You won’t want to ‘let go’ of anything without doing proper due diligence on your prospective outsourcing partner. And some things are non-negotiable…
PP C&A recommend at least nine checks to seriously consider: capability, security, size, supply chain skills, experience, approvals, innovation, location, and values & ethics.
Can the outsourcing partner do a better job than you can? Do they have the expertise, people, skills and plant/automation to improve the production process, boost quality and help develop designs in the future?
Visit the facility and ask for case studies
The last thing you want to do is develop a strategic partnership with a company that is financially weak.
Do credit checks.
Consider the complexity and scale of your outsourcing needs, not just for today but for the medium to longer-term.
Ensure that you would not represent either too large or too small a part of that company’s sales revenue.
Look at accounts and ownership.
For outsourcing to deliver the maximum benefit, then the activities associated with purchasing and supply chain management should be included. The outsourcing partner should have the capabilities and skills to inherit, manage and develop the associated supply chain. If you still must manage parts of it and the associated costs of purchasing/logistics that go with it, then you are not going to see the true benefits.
In the current economic reality and with the challenges of supply chain disruption, ask the partner how they’ve adjusted strategies to better manage supply chains. Download PP C&A’s Resilience book from the Resource Centre.
Look at who they are working with now and which manufacturers and markets they are involved in. You can tell a lot, very quickly, from the quality and standing of existing customers.
Ask who else they’re working with and how those relationships are managed.
Outside of the obvious ISO approvals, do you require any specific approvals relevant to an industry sector or for a given export geography, such as UL/CSA for the US or Canadian markets?
Check accreditations and capabilities for UL508A approval.
Download PP C&A’s UL Guide from the Resource Centre.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
Explore how PP Control & Automation helps machine builders and OEMs solve real operational challenges through strategic outsourcing.
One of the hospitality sector’s most significant innovations has been given a production boost thanks to the scale and outsourcing capability of PP Control & Automation.
Unique technology born in the heart of Oxfordshire is helping protect millions of electronic devices across the world and its impact is set to grow even further over the next eighteen months.
The way companies access inventory management is changing rapidly and leading the charge is Solihull-based Inventor-e.
PP Control & Automation and Hedinn are now engaged in their 13th project together and the largest yet, the construction of a new plant for Sildarvinnslan.
Play an interactive video with hotpoints that delve into the story behind the manufacturing partnership with Needham Group and the assembly of its N-Lase range of products.
A strategic manufacturing outsourcing partnership – built on trust, integrity and maximising each other’s production expertise – is celebrating ten years together with the launch of the world’s most productive EDM drilling machine.
This collection of case studies examines some of the recent strategic outsourcing partnerships delivering against several business pains for machine builders and OEMs, and how those partners are benefiting from the PP C&A approach.
Turning to the strategic manufacturing outsourcing expertise of PP Control & Automation could prove to be a pivotal decision for Needham Group as it aims to turn a £30m expansion blueprint into reality.
Does the outsourcing partner have the types of engineering skills and innovation to help you develop your products and services?
You should expect them to play a big part in improving the product from a technical and commercial perspective.
Ask about skills, such as design for manufacture and their commitment to investing in the facility, processes, and people.
Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as other low-cost geographies, have held significant appeal for certain outsourcing services, particularly those that are labour intensive. Again, consider the true cost of the relationship, including sales lead times, and time to market, agility, risk, manufacturing output, fixed costs and cash flow.
The current trend in the UK, as well as the USA, has been reshoring of outsourcing activities. Many companies have recognised the escalating costs, political unrest and other risks associated with managing a long-distance supply chain, resulting in identifying partners that are more local to them.
Also think about the need to retain design IP (a problem often seen in Asia).
The news and current affairs programme ran a story on Tuesday 7th March in response to MAKE UK’s attack on the government for its lack of industrial strategy.
Buyers are using their experience to navigate an extreme landscape of supply chain volatility whilst also mastering the art of customer service.
This book details not just the supply chain disruption at play, but also the opportunity to break the cycle and take back control.
There is no magic ticket out of the supply chain mess, but it is a time when businesses with the ability to think outside the box can find opportunities, stand better ground and be better prepared when disruption eventually lifts.
After two years of global supply-chain disruption, and with dark clouds on the horizon, manufacturers around Britain’s second city of Birmingham say they are inundated with orders, helped by new and old domestic clients bringing some production back home.
PP Control & Automation CEO, Tony Hague has contributed the the UK Manufacturing Outlook 2022 with his Supply: The universal problem feature.
The latest edition of The Manufacturing Debates from ManufacturingTV came up with a series of proposals for creating a more resilient future for UK supply chains.
De-risking supply chains, mitigating long lead times and ensuring security of supply are driving a major reshoring trend back to the UK according to a leading manufacturing boss.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly important for businesses when considering a new supplier. Many companies now factor in a supplier’s CSR practices and policies as part of their decision-making process, as it can impact the company’s reputation and relationship with customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
Additionally, CSR can also help a company to identify and mitigate potential risks, such as environmental or labour violations, and to ensure compliance with laws and regulations.
A supplier’s commitment to CSR can be an important indicator of their overall business practices and values, which can be important considerations for companies looking to form a long-term strategic partnership.
Ask to see a potential outsourcing provider’s CSR policy and review closely. You’ll want to make sure you’re aligned on practices, values, and attitude. Download PP C&A’s CSR policy in the Resource Centre.
Letting go is an emotional reaction that needs to be converted into a rational one – one that makes business sense and one that is done with the proper consideration. Really, whilst it feels like you’re letting go of control, what you’re doing is actually obtaining better control, with more benefits.
With outsourcing, you’re letting go of non-core competencies which can unearth their own set of growth-restricting situations if you attempt to manage everything in-house. This is particularly true in situations where demand is high or unpredictable.
When you’re too busy, you’re losing out on orders. All manufacturing companies strive to increase sales to generate revenue and profit growth, and with increased sales comes the need to increase production accordingly. When you reach maximum production capacity however, further growth in sales inevitably means longer lead times. This increases risk – risk with customers growing frustrated, brand reputation being adversely affected, and orders being lost.
Strategic outsourcing can become an approach to production that eliminates those risks and frees up those constraints. It negates the risk of investing in additional facilities or production space, new machinery, and people. And fluctuations in demand can be managed with an agile provider that reacts to peaks and troughs accordingly.
It has become a ‘trope’ of outsourcing messaging, but it will never not be true – outsourcing allows you to focus on what you do best. So, whilst it might seem like you’re letting go, you’re in fact gaining more – more focus, more opportunities for growth, more agility, and more control over production, space and people risks. If you’re at the stage of considering a partner, PP C&A will help you make the right decision and if outsourcing is the best decision and solution for your needs, then the act of ‘letting go’ will feel like moving forward, and gaining a whole lot more.
One of the UK’s leading strategic manufacturing specialists is tapping into the UK’s unprecedented investment in upgrading the electricity grid.
As Britain accelerates investment in grid infrastructure, protection and control capacity could become a critical delivery constraint.
The appointment of a new Prime Minister inevitably brings renewed debate about the direction of the UK economy and what it could mean for business.
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
