Several organisations have faced unexpected challenges in attempting to improve their productivity. Significant improvements in productivity are only possible when supply chains combine interests and promote innovative solutions that eliminate various types of wastage. Innovation and productivity development based on demand is sustainable, but how is it possible to communicate this information to the entire chain – from the outsourcing company to each subcontractor?
“Lack of incentive and collaboration models can cause sub-optimisation that hinders the development of the whole production chain, reduces innovation and causes vast amounts of wastage for different companies,” states Juha-Matti Puhakka, CEO of JC Innovation Oy.
As an example of the benefits of the system, we can mention the recently launched productivity project in the construction field, where the whole supply chain is assessed based on innovation analyses. The outsourcing company asks the service providers to evaluate their partnership competence and networking skills. The service producers further challenge their own subcontractors to assess the same factors. This generates a full picture of the entire chain, which enables progression.
CEO of Innokonseptit Oy Jukka Yliherva, DTech, and Vakeva Oy's partner Lauri Merikallio, MSc (Eng), explain: “With the analyses we are able to reach a situation where persons from different parts of the chain are able to participate in the training groups and the development of the models. Once the training methods, interaction and the combined interests are in place, we can achieve actual improvements in productivity.”
Several organisations have therefore challenged their supply chains to improve the shared competitive advantage. The results have been very encouraging and various costs have been permanently eliminated. The analyses, training, and the work to develop various models provide an effective set of tools also for the measures to improve productivity in the public sector.