Co-sourcing, realising results and steering operational processes

"Co-sourcing is the process of outsourcing certain business activities to an external vendor"

If you are confronted with important needed change but you don’t have the right leader on board, Stanwick delivers the solution. We have professional consultants with the needed competences, who can help you in the realisation of a change together with the day-to-day follow-up of the operational processes typically for a period of 9 to 18 months.

Possible questions could be:

• Make the organization more customer oriented and increase performance
• Introduce OPEX in order to increase flexibility, performance, asset utilization or prepare the organization for Factory of the Future
• Manage an important project:
  • Introduce 6 sigma approach in different plants
  • Re-engineer processes
  • A new strategy requires a big change in the organization
• Install a Project Management Office
• A Master Black Belt who solves together with a team of Green and Black Belts, a difficult quality problem

Stanwick will manage the day-to-day activities together with the breakthrough challenges. All our knowledge will be transferred to the new manager, ones he or she is installed.

Some examples of recent Stanwick co-sourcing projects

The Master Black Belt 

Stanwick was asked to introduce a problem-solving culture based on 6 sigma for all process engineers in 20 plants worldwide in the metallurgical sector. The purpose was to increase professionalism and speed in solving sporadic and recurring problems in production, engineering and research. Stanwick took the responsibility, during a period of 8 years, as a master black belt in close cooperation with the global technical manager, the corporate technical team and the local technical and quality managers. Expected results were defined in the yearly global and local action plans.

The Stanwick role: 

• Developed specific training curriculum and provided the black, green and yellow belt training at all plants
• Facilitated many sessions for solving processing and customer problems as well in the plants as at customers facilities.
• Introduced a specific methodology (“IS-IS NOT”) to speed up substantially the root cause analysis for processing, quality problems and customer complaints. He trained people to become facilitators in applying this methodology which is used in for instance the 8D complaint handling method.
• Developed a culture of doing trials based on the Design of Experiments approach with application of specific tools such as Split plot and Definitive Screening Designs.
• Helped to create a culture of sharing information about improvement projects worldwide.

Project Management Office

The purpose was to setup a project management office in the commercial EMEA organization of a big pharmaceutical company in order to support the business planning and product portfolio planning process. Stanwick helped the internal PMO director during a period of 3 years to develop and execute a multi-generation project plan to setup the project management office, developing the required resources, governance, processes and IT systems. The responsibilities included:

• Development and continuous improvement of PMO processes and systems, and support the roll out of these processes and systems to users in all countries in EMEA (including trainings), in alignment with the business strategies
• Ensure/drive the integration and alignment with other core business processes
• Provide benchmark and best practices
• Determine communication strategies, develop and execute change & communication plans
• Delivered project management support
• Coached and steered internal and external OPM resources

After 3 years, the PMO office was successfully transferred to internal company resources.

OPEX 

Purpose of the project was to introduce a change in production, with more ownership of operators and the implementation of a culture of continuous improvement. The project took place in the construction sector. Stanwick took the responsibility, during a period of 12 months, as a plant manager in day-to-day operations, maintenance and QA and delivering production results as defined and expected in the yearly plan.

The Stanwick role

• defined appropriate KPI’s (QCDISME) for the different organization levels, with the necessary meeting structure (operators, middle management and management)
• changed organization by introducing shift leaders and assigning new managers
• introduced teams to resolve quality problems in production, reduce waste and improve cleanness. These team efforts resulted in an increase in productivity of 10%.
• increased flow in production by leveling the different production activities and reducing intermediate stock levels

In the meantime, the company could focus on hiring the right person for this position. Stanwick co-sourced and transferred fast knowledge and practices to the new manager, who could start almost immediately with the focus on the long-term plan for this plant (large investments in factory, acquisitions in other countries, subcontracting of some activities …).