I was at a networking event hosted by the Shannon, Ennis and Limerick chambers of commerce this evening, and someone asked me an interesting question. The person worked in a relatively small manufacturing and design facility, and they have their own process engineers. They asked “we have our engineers, how can I justify to management bringing someone external in?“

And they had a very good point. If you have your own staff, why bring in someone external? To me, it all comes down to risk versus reward. What do you risk, and what are the potential rewards. The major risk for them is the time involved in meeting someone new, showing them the processes and spending time in discussion. There is also the downside of an annoying consultant who will then be calling and emailing you every few weeks trying to get business. The rewards? Gaining knowledge and experience that may not already be present in the company. This will hopefully lead to better processes, decreased costs, and increased competitiveness.

So at Process Improvement Ireland, what we try and do is minimise the risks and maximise the rewards. Yes, we will ask for your time in showing us the processes and discussion, but we would ask that prospective clients have two or three of their problems thought out that they can discuss with us. This way, rather than tell you about the simulation models we can run or the lean processes we can implement, we can discuss the problems that affect you, and how we might go about resolving them. While at the end of the day you might not decide to do business with Process Improvement Ireland in the future, the few hours you have invested with us will have hopefully put some ideas in your head where you may be able to make improvements yourself.

And as for an annoying salesman pestering you, don’t worry…that’s not our style. Yes we will follow up on our visit, but only twice more; an email outlining our thoughts and recommendations, and a follow up call a few days later. That’s it!

Your staff don’t know everything. Nobody does. A visit from us won’t mean they’ll know everything afterwards, but they might learn a few nuggets. And all for minimal risk.…

So to mine for free nuggets, please contact us and we would be more than happy to accommodate.