The number one reason companies struggle with their subcontractors is inadequate governance.

Assuming you look at your subcontractor sites as an extension of your own factory, can you image visiting your factory manufacturing floor once a quarter or year? This is how most companies conduct business at their subcontractors and outsourced groups.


 To get the best results from your subcontractors you need to approach them as your virtual factory. We say “I pay them for a service and I expect them to deliver”. Of course you pay them for a service as you would pay an employee in the factory, but the best results produced by managers comes from the old management term, “manage by walking around”. If your visits to your in-house factory floor were as infrequent as your visits to your subcontractors, the results of your manufacturing would be catastrophic to capturing the very essence of good management. The product of good management is producing quality products as fast as you can with the most competitive cost available.

There's no difference to me in my own employees or a subcontractor. I need to provide leadership to get them going in the right direction and I need to provide them with the right information and tools to get the job done correctly, I need to listen to their feedback and I need to keep them motivated.

Frequent visits to your subcontractor will improve the relationship and performance at the subcontractor as it would with your own factory employees on your own factory floor performance.