Business Excellence Consulting
Leading Edge Methodologies
Experience
Pragmatism
info@rgcl.co.uk

Supply Chains hold many improvement opportunities

Traditionally, improvements in cost, quality and delivery performance are negotiated with suppliers. Unfortunately, talk of ‘supplier partnerships’ is often little more than talk! It is not surprising that the opportunities here are huge - they’re just hidden away, beyond the reach of most improvement programmes and initiatives.

What are Supplier Diagnostic Visits (SDVs)?

  • Critical reviews of the suppliers' business processes (see Process Reviews), identifying specific & systemic causes of inadequate performance, usually focussed on improving cost, quality, and/or delivery
  • Actions are agreed to repair or upgrade, which usually become the focus of a Supplier Development Programme (SDP)
  • We tailor each SDV to suit the specific issues facing your business
  • SDVs are usually completed with you, or members of your team and usually with cooperating personnel from the supplier
  • They typically take one to two days to complete, depending on the complexity of the process, or processes being analysed, location of the sites, etc.

Why we get results

  • Just as it’s difficult to see inefficiencies in your own processes, it is equally as difficult for your suppliers to see the opportunities in theirs.  We view the processes from a fresh, unbiased, perspective, and help you and your suppliers identify opportunities for improvement, benefitting both companies.
  • We use a wide variety of tools and techniques to gain deep understanding of what works, as well as flaws and inefficiencies. As always with Process Reviews, the primary focus is understanding what happens, what doesn’t happen and the logic behind the process
  • We have substantial experience conducting SDVs in all environments (transactional, process and discrete manufacturing)
  • The processes are ‘critiqued’ using a combination of logic, comparison and experience and actions are agreed to repair or upgrade, becoming the focus of a Supplier Development Programme (SDP)
  • Your people are a key part of the SDV, as are the supplier’s key personnel.  We engage with them as much as possible to ensure ownership of the review and results.  This ensures that all parties not only believe in the results, but are also committed to any resulting change programmes

Staff Development

Why put 80% of your effort into improving internal processes when 80% of the costs and quality issues are external?

  • We believe in passing on our skills and knowledge to you and your team, providing opportunities for personal growth
  • Development of staff to be capable of performing SDVs can be achieved in parallel with the SDV
  • We also offer formal classroom training, skills assessments and coaching where required.  Please contact us to discuss your requirements

Training

  • We also offer ‘off-the-shelf’ and bespoke training courses and coaching in SDVs
  • Courses can be tailored to suit: business needs and expectations, business process maturity, needs of the audience, support structure, etc
  • Please contact us to discuss your requirements

Next Steps

  • We'd be glad to provide more details, or discuss your requirements with you. Please contact us

Related Diagnostic Services

  • Business Analysis identifies factors preventing the organisation achieving its goals and defines appropriate upgrades [more…]
  • Process Reviews: identify issues / risks associated with business processes. Defines appropriate actions to upgrade / mitigate. Often completed in conjunction with a full or partial Product or Service review [more…]
  • Product Reviews: identify a wide range of factors / risks associated with Product design. Defines appropriate actions to upgrade / mitigate. Often completed in conjunction with a full or partial process review [more…]
  • Service Reviews: identify a wide range of factors / risks associated with the Service. Defines appropriate actions to upgrade / mitigate. Often completed in conjunction with a full or partial process review [more…]
  • Management System Reviews: identify issues / risks associated with the way the business processes are managed. Defines appropriate actions to upgrade / mitigate. Often completed in conjunction with Process, Product and Service reviews [more…]