You may be seriously considering outsourcing an aspect of your business. It may be the production of goods, a particular service or replicating the job of an entire department. Outsourcing comes in different shape and size but there are common rules that must be observed if you want to make a success of it. outsourcing is not an endeavor that should be taken lightly. Some of the considerations you have to make includes:
Knowing Your Standards
Outsourcing should not be you going down but building up as it concerns standards. The first thing to consider when you want to outsource is for you to know your standard. If it is something you are already doing, you should know your standards and if is something you just want to start, you should have a standard in mind that you want to maintain. Knowing your standard gives you a sense of direction. You know the minimum standard you want and know that you can only go higher when you outsource.
Knowing The Outsourcing Company
The company you are outsourcing to might be close to you or in another country. It is critical that you have the facts about that company before deciding to do business with them. There are “outsourcing” companies that are actually brokerage firms. They claim to be outsourcing but what they actually do is serve as middle men, collecting outsourcing contracts and sub-contracting it to companies that are competent in handling the jobs. This is not bad in itself and might just be the kind of interface you need but what is wrong is when you do not know that.
In the classical cases of outsourcing, a company in one continent looks to hire the services of another company in another far flung continent. For one reason or the other, some do not take the time to physically visit the so called outsourcing company. They check out their website, talk to them on phone and remotely handle everything that has to do with the outsourcing contract. In some cases, the people that are getting the contract are the ones that does the travelling to the other continent.
In reality, they act as brokers, having a network of factories that can have the job done. This is why you have to be very particular about knowing the company. Like I said, they may be the right interface for you if that is what you want but they have to be upfront about the kind of service they provide. If you want the actual companies that own the factories you want to outsource to then that is what you should have. You should make sure that is what you are getting by knowing the company and to do this you might have to travel to the country yourself.
Knowing The Workers
This is an important aspect of outsourcing. Knowing the employees is for two major reasons. Firstly, you do not want to be caught up in a scandal you did not see coming, something that could damage the reputation of your company. Knowing the employees in this regard has to do with knowing their working conditions. You do not want to outsource to a company that uses child labor or sub-contract the work to prisons. You do not want to join yourself with something that you will become liable because of that association. You must take proactive responsibility to make sure that the employees are in a condition you agree with because it backfires, you will have very little excuses to make.
The second thing is that you would want to see firsthand the quality and skill of the labor force. They may be manufacturing apparels or high tech communication components, you will want to be assured of their ability. On site inspection is the best way of doing this. A tour of the factory when they are in full production swing should be in order.
Knowing The Time Of Delivery
This could make or mar the whole endeavor. Whatever you are doing might have some strict guideline for you to follow. You might be making seasonal wears and want delivery at the appropriate time. You need to be assured that they would be able to deliver on time. This should go beyond word of mouth assurance. It would be advisable that it is tied to the contract and measures of benchmarking their production timeline should be included. They should have reached a particular point in the production or supply process at before a given time. In this way, you will be able to tell where they are lagging behind, solve the problem or make contingency plans.
This is one potential disadvantage of outsourcing that can be dealt with by building checks and balances within the contract.
Following the tips above would help in making a success of your outsourcing endeavor.
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