Tae’s Point of View
Many MES initiatives continue to leave 40-60% 2009 saving opportunities on the table by not blending on and offshore skills.
Given the current economic climate, many MES practitioners are faced with challenged implementation and support budgets that may result in shrinking scope and dampened ambitions. The good news, if you’re servicing your North American MES needs purely with local resource then you still have an attractive option to consider in offshore blending.
A well worn veteran of eighteen MES projects I appreciate one of the keys to any successful project is the quality and leadership of the project team. Intuitively is seems that the introduction of offshore resources could jeopardize this quality and leadership but this is one of the many offshoring myths I contest.
Myth 1 – The quality of skills will suffer with offshore blending.
My POV: India graduates a similar or greater number of IT engineering graduates as the US (China possibly three times as many). My hands-on experience is that the majority of colleagues have been excellent. In addition, offshore blending allows the affordability of your superstars locally and globally. My last assignment included deploying one of our Western European MES PhDs to solve some exciting functional challenges.
Myth 2 – Ramp up will be slow and arduous.
My POV: Its true the first time this occurs, ramp up will take investment but beyond this the number of project cycles and investment in training will pay great dividends. My advice, if you don’t wish to build this yourself, select a partner with a mature offshore blending operation
Myth 3 – Team morale will be weakened.
My POV: If you don’t believe your team will be strengthened and lifted with cultural diversity then you probably have bigger problems than MES. Seek help.
Myth 4 – It’s only marginally cheaper and quality will eat up savings.
My POV: 40-60% savings are by no means marginal. In addition any quality errors will likely cost less to fix due to the lower average hourly cost.
Myth 5 – You must keep it simple and be less ambitious with scope utilizing offshore blending
My POV: I’ve never worked with a client that doesn’t have to sacrifice some functionality due to budget parameters. Offshore blending allows you to provide more functionality within budget parameters.
Myth 6 – Future support will be remote from the developed solution
This is a real possibility. One way to mitigate this is to have some of the support team involved in build. “You’re going to be supporting what you build” can be a huge motivator of quality
Myth 7 – Offshore blending damages the economy
It’s true that the 2009 economy drive us to protect local jobs. Thinking longer term however suggests that the best MES at the best cost can only drive competitive advantage which will create greater investment opportunities elsewhere within the organization.
As with any project there are risks. Successful delivery involves hard work, a little luck and an ability to iron out problems before they become too large to digest. Offshore blending does have some nuances and I’ve learnt some tough lessons on the way. Here are ten guiding principles that have served me well:
- Spend time at your offshore location if you can. It’ll help you understand your team’s motivations better and you might enjoy the food!
- Pick your superstars. A small number of superstars within the project will greatly boost quality and productivity right across the team
- Put just as much effort into picking your offshore team as you do locally. Carefully evaluate the candidates for their attitude, aptitude, communication and work ethics.
- Invest heavily in training. You’ll find it less costly to train yet reap the same rewards.
- Fly-in offshore consultants in where funding permits. This better facilitates two-way knowledge and skills transfer and puts a face to the project team members and objectives.
- Communicate daily and encourage additional communications via telephone, emails, IM etc.
- Establish tools and methods to assign and track tasks between front and back office
- Synchronize work such that both offices are productive throughout the 24hr cycle
- Provide work-in-progress visibility. Don’t wait until work is completed, instead evaluate the progress bite-size
- Set clear expectations on delivery schedules and quality and celebrate success en route
So you want to respond to the 2009 economy by doing more with a shrinking budget…
what’s stopping you?
Tae is an Manufacturing Execution System Principal with Atos Origin and is part of a 1,000 strong network of colleagues who work within plant related services across the globe. Atos Origin has many certified Apriso Flexnet, Simatic, Wonderware consultants in addition to 5,000 SAP consultants