Industrial Know-How: Five Advantages of Taking Things In-house
If you want a job doing well, do it yourself. Or at least, so the old saying goes. But, is that really plausible when your business in involved in an industrial setting? Outsourcing is often seen as a quick, easy and cost effective way to tap into specialist expertise when handling large scale projects.
The benefits of outsourcing are self-evident and well-rehearsed, but what about keeping work in-house? Could this be practical for your business? Here are five things you’ll gain from handling a task for yourself…
Long term investment
One of the benefits of outsourcing is that you get to tap into a skilled workforce with the equipment you need to tackle specialist tasks. While that saves on cost in the short term, however, you might want to consider a longer term view. If you’re likely to need this specialist equipment and expertise repeatedly, then hiring and investing might be the way forward.
Once you’ve bought a piece of specialist equipment, you won’t need to spend this money again and you can get great value out of a well-made, robust piece of industrial machinery. Similarly, skilled staff can, when deployed in the right way, prove their worth over the course of a number of years, especially if they help to enhance the service you can offer.
Simpler management
Managing big projects in industrial businesses isn’t easy – but it’s a lot easier if you haven’t got too many different people involved. The more you outsource, the more complicated it could be to keep on top of progress and be able to communicate changes to your plans. Handle tasks in-house and you should be able to determine exactly who is doing what, and when, helping you to feel in control.
Quality control
Being in control also helps when it comes to managing quality expectations. If your tasks are being handled in-house, it’s easier to communicate a clear set of standards that you expect everyone to adhere to and to enforce this. Not only that but, provided you have hired well, your own team should have more pride and motivation in their work and will, ultimately, have responsibility for the success of the scheme. It’s unfair to say contractors won’t care as much – but you can’t expect them to be as passionate or engaged in the project.
Flexibility
All large-scale projects sometimes require tweaks and changes along the way. Being able to change course is important if you’re to avoid costly delays and errors. Having the expertise and equipment you need in-house makes it much simpler for you to be fleet-of-foot enough to alter your focus mid-project.
Data protection
Cyber security is something all businesses have to consider. Allowing third parties into your IT systems creates a risk – and an organisational headache. You need to ensure that none of your private data is inappropriately shared with third parties – and keeping everything in-house makes this much easier for you to manage. That’s especially true on large industrial projects, where you might well have commercial sensitive plans, drawings and calculations.
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