Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country other than the one where the product or service will be sold or consumed. The benefits of outsourcing are well known to everyone. Firms can reduce lead times, capital outlays, accessing manufacturing and development expertise and employing better management skills from across the globe. Such a process involves strong relationships and a mutual contract between the two firms. Ensuring quality across the whole process is a Herculean task which needs to be addressed to provide better quality goods and services.
A key aspect in this regard is developing a joint quality culture with the outsourcing company. Many firms rate quality as a prime objective of their business and some just overlook it. Outsourcing firms should stress the need for high quality products and form a culture which involves each and every employee of the organization to participate in quality assurance of the product or service. The organizations should learn new methods to increase product quality to adapt to the changing market situations.
Communication between the two companies is essentially the most important aspect of the relationship. Strong communication plans should be exercised at all relevant levels of the outsourcing process. A communication gap between the organizations can hurt the relationship because it can weaken the level of trust. A weaker trust will not provide the quality promised by the outsourcing agency. Employees may not be motivated to work excessively to fulfill organizational goals.
Building this successful relationship requires formal agreements with key milestones and responsibilities. Milestones drive the organization towards a goal. Milestones should be set and clearly communicated to the outsourcing agency, to ease the process of the product development. Quality procedures should be such that they require particular milestone targets to be achieved. When the firm knows its target it is easier to move towards it. If the passage is clear and a focused strategy is adopted it can lead to better product quality, which is ascertained across the production process.
Responsibilities should be assigned in a manner to pick the right person for the right job. The employees should be categorically told their job responsibilities so that each individual can be held accountable. When a person has a set target in mind and he focuses on the target with all his resources, he will produce better results for the company. Dedicated employees who have a need to achieve contribute in little amounts but are an integral part of the whole organization and are vital in achieving the quality standards set out by the company.
A quality agreement should be formed between the parent company and the outsourcing agency. This agreement solidifies the quality structure and culture and serves as a tool for manageability with respect to quality issues. This agreement details the outsourced agency to employ particular quality management practices in their organization. This agreement could include the need for continuous improvement, employee empowerment and benchmarking as some of the requirements of the parent company. Following an agreement on a set pattern will let the company better focus on the problem and rectify it. If proper procedures are not applied the results can be vague and cast a bad image of the product and the company itself.
Quality can be based on a number of factors both in the production processes and the services being provided. Any validations and deviations should be specifically looked at and accounted for. Validation is a process of developing a standard and then comparing with a set target or goal. Specifications, testing, training and audits help immensely in determining the quality standards set out and how much they have been achieved.
Any product changes required by the outsourcing firm should be conveyed to the agency so that they can implement those changes. A regular change control based communication should be carried out to make the products according to the needs of the customers. Quality standards are always changing in the fast moving world, thus changes of any sort which can better the product quality should be communicated to attain better results from the relationship between the offshore outsourced agency.
Ensuring quality in offshore outsourcing is a very vital and integral part of the product development or service rendering stage. Companies need to access organizations having a strong quality structure and having good human resources to use. Quality management is a process and it is essential to understand cultures in the changing environment to achieve a standard product quality through ensuring quality in offshore outsourcing.
Shahbaz Latif
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