Supply Chain Management | Canada | 5C Contracts Ltd.

INNOVATION

One Size Does Not Fit All

There are many tried and tested ways to solve problems, but sometimes, forcing an existing approach or solution to solve the issue at hand does not cut it.

We appreciate each business has its own unique set of circumstances, and that while many current best practices can be applied, at times a new approach is needed. 5C prides itself in our ability to gather the right internal and external stakeholders to collaboratively design, develop and implement new ways of doing business or fixing problems.

Sometimes, there isn’t an existing model to draw from, or the unique issue is company or situation specific, even changing market conditions or regulatory changes require a unique or fresh approach.

5C is about providing what best fits the individual situation. Often, we will help develop or facilitate variations of existing best practice solutions but we also understand that at times a new solution, unique to the issues at hand, may be required.

We work with clients’ teams to bring additional expertise as required to build a solution that is not only elegant but practical for the business.

We can develop a unique response to unique needs by coupling our brand of ‘open to anything’ with the knowledge and collective imagination of the people within a company.

“Ian was our team leader in terms of conceptual design and product functionality. He pushed us all to think beyond just meeting project goals and to instead provide leading edge technical solutions. I would certainly look forward to working with him again”

-Chris Aman, Director at PowerAdvocate

5C has over the years proudly developed innovative solutions to many problems, for different clients in different industries.

Below are a few examples of the approaches and solutions developed by 5C Contracts Ltd:

COMMODITY HUB

Initially designed for a medium sized company experiencing repeated logistics, quality, schedule, technical start up and operating issues with several major critical components.

This approach provided a focused, cradle to grave ownership based solution to controlling areas of spend and high risk; keeps overhead costs to a minimum and improves integration within the differing business units and functions.

The commodity hub can be adopted equally for materials, equipment or services. Any size of business in any industry or location with a proportionally large area spend, or high- risk business critical commodities, can benefit.

This is not Category Management.

EVERGREENING

Not necessarily an innovation, except in the manner in which it is managed. Businesses can adopt an evergreen approach to:

- drive product and service innovation

- remove costs

- reduce lead time

- minimize internal resources in the complete acquisition cycle of the product or service

- improve cost certainty during estimating or budget planning

- reduce risk

- increase quality

- reduce safety incidents

- manage market influence/pressure

Essentially, increasing the value created and retained for the long term. To maintain the Evergreen status, we use a number of proven steps.

COMPETITIVE TENSION

Where companies have similar scopes or needs on a regular basis, essentially repeat work, this is one of 5C’s favourite solutions.

Based on a performance approach, it can be the basis of entering into an evergreen relationship on a permanent competitive tension basis.

A cornerstone of competitive tension is utilising the natural human competitive spirit that drives all of us, and by extension every business. This is not competition in the traditional sense, more fostering and harnessing the desire to be better than your competition in all aspects of delivery.

VERTICAL RISK SHARING

Creating a direct relationship between the identification of risk money accounted for within a contractor’s or supplier's bid and the mitigation requirements needed to avoid those risks, and therefore the costs. This can yield surprising additional financial and schedule benefits to the client, while ensuring no additional risk to either party. A rare, true “win-win” outcome.

This approach requires an appreciation of the contractor/ sub-contractor /supplier interactions. Our job is to help define and clarify the differences and how they affect our client's risk mitigation strategy.

This is scope or project specific, generally large spend and not applicable to all circumstances. It relies on a maturity level within the 3rd party that is not easy to identify.

LOWEST COST CUSTOMER

This is more of a different approach. Once understood, it becomes a “Eureka” moment, purely common sense and alarmingly obvious in its simplistic concept with potentially exceptional rewards. However, with decades of doing this, the effort required is not to be underestimated. This approach has made smaller companies far more attractive than larger companies for their contractors and suppliers to deal with. Becoming the lowest cost customer generates increased attention, preferential production allocation, reduced lead times, improved safety & quality and many more benefits not least of which includes direct cost, relationship and reputational benefits.

Combined with the Evergreening approach this can yield surprising additional gains to your business and reputation.

To find out more about these and other innovative approaches, or to discuss your unique issues, contact us by filling in the contact form below.