Managing a workforce, whether staff or technicians, can be challenging for many companies. It comes with the added responsibility of providing labor benefits, training, and other extra benefits.
Some companies opt to outsource these services or labor for economic reasons. However, outsourcing should not be viewed solely from a cost-saving perspective.
When outsourcing, companies must consider the quality of service, the reputation of the provider, and the long-term impact on the business. It is essential to choose a reliable outsourcing partner that can provide the necessary expertise and meet the company’s needs.
Additionally, proper communication and coordination between the company and the outsourcing partner are crucial for achieving optimal results.
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Criteria for selecting a maintenance outsourcing company
Some criteria to consider when subcontracting labor or services may be:
- Price
- Resources and human talent
- Quality
- Management control
- Delivery times
Often, maintenance tasks that do not add value to the final product are outsourced to subcontractors. This allows the maintenance personnel to focus on covering the peaks of demand. However, it is important to carefully evaluate which tasks should be outsourced and which ones should be kept in-house.
The decision should be based on a cost-benefit analysis that takes into account the level of expertise required, the cost of outsourcing, and the potential impact on the quality of the final product.
Disadvantages of outsourcing
Outsourcing maintenance services can have its downsides and can negatively affect the process in some cases. Often, internal staff may not dedicate themselves fully to their work and may delegate some tasks to external laborers.
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Moreover, when hiring external workers, they must be trained to adapt to the company’s internal rules and culture, which can require additional resources.
To avoid cost overruns and ensure the quality of the work done by external companies, it is necessary to have excellent control over their performance.
Guarantees and claims should be requested in case of any subsequent failure, and the work done by third-party contractors should be clearly distinguished from that of internal staff.
When to outsource services?
Subcontracting is an interesting option when it contributes to costs, times, and added value. But before outsourcing any service, a deep analysis of the company should be done.
This analysis should include the maintenance structure, production and its process. From there, it must be understood which jobs, equipment or sub-processes can be delegated to external maintenance providers.
Once the teams, types of work and sub-processes are defined, a supplier selection analysis must be applied. It is recommended to subcontract when the supplier company is well qualified, experienced, has good technology and has a financial support; in case there is a complaint about the quality of their work.
All the above requirements will give management and processors peace of mind and avoid future headaches.
It is always advisable to make a constant supervision of costs, times and benefits generated by the outsourcing of a service, to make timely decisions.