Imagine my surprise when I was asked to write a blog on managing subcontractors.  I hate writing blogs. 

A) My brain doesn’t think in Top 3s. 

B)  It requires being definitive (life seems more complex than 500 words allow). 

C) Any rule or Top Tip that I provide should be one I follow.

As head of Product Development my team and I manage lots of subcontractors—especially in medical device regulatory submissions, EMC testing, injection moulding, rapid prototyping and a myriad of component supply. Over the years we’ve developed operating principles that guide our work.  I think it would benefit clients and readers to use them as well.  Here are my Top 3 Tips for working with subcontractors.

Rule 1.  Pick wisely. Our clients expect us to be good and efficient.  To do that we have to be flexible and knowledgeable.  That means we need to form long-term relationships with our subcontractors.  We also form relationships with their employees and follow good people as they move companies.  Long-term relationships are interested in our success.  They are prepared to use their expertise and experience to help us get through obstacles and find a path forward.  For example, we work with EMC test houses who are flexible.  As described in my colleague Bjarne Hansen’s blog, when we go to test a device for the first time, it often passes in many ways, but fails in others.  A good contractor is one with the experience and willingness to work with us to find a fix on site and to support fast turn around of a retest if we have to a make a bigger fix back at the shop.

Rule 2.  Be flexible. Subcontractors provide different expertise.  We’d rather form a relationship with one and work with them for the long term.  While we have different subcontractors for different areas of expertise, we talk with our long-term contractors about opportunities outside their current experience. Unless the need is very specialized, we like to determine jointly whether they can learn a new requirement. Take Rapid Prototyping as an example. We do a lot of rapid prototyping and have relationships with 3-4 subcontractors. Each rapid prototyping house has a specific expertise– turnaround time, quality, or breadth of capability.  We try to use the company with the biggest breadth of capability.  They’re in a better position to trade favors with their suppliers when things get sticky.  On the other hand, for ultra-high quality we use another partner and for very fast turnaround we use our local vendor.

Rule 3.  Work with a subcontractor that understands your mission. For us, that means: Making our clients successful.   These subcontractors understand the challenge, ask intelligent questions and have a sense of direction of where a solution lies.   They add something beyond the “doing”– other expertise that amplifies our own.   For instance, I received a newsletter this morning from one of our subcontractors for complex finite element analysis. We can do that ourselves, but for certain critical situations, materials or size dimensions, their specialized analysis and expertise gives us comfort we’re on the right path— that we have a tolerant design. We like to stay in touch even if we aren’t using them at the time because every so often conversation leads to a new way that they can help us to solve a problem that we hadn’t considered yet.

The final bit of this blog isn’t golden rules. It’s a series of questions I ask my team when we are considering medical device subcontractors.  Feel free to try them out yourself.  Perhaps even on us.

Bonus Questions:  Who are they? Why were they picked? What is the breadth of the work that they do?  Have they made anything like this before?  Do they have all the processes in place? Do we get to talk to the people actually doing the work? Do they care about us?  Are there other contractors in the mix?  (If so, ask the same questions about them.) Are these the people who will make this for us in the long run or someone else?  Make sure we understand what their comfort is with the early stage design process where there are lots of changes. Can they do it for cost and volumes (high or low?)  Quality?  What certifications do they carry?

The answers don’t all have to be perfect match with your needs, but combined with Golden Rules #2 and #3, they’ll provide you a good foundation for Rule # 1: Pick Wisely.