The persons or firms with special technological
skills or knowledge are hired by the companies for a specific
task for specific period purely on contractual basis. In
any manufacturing or processing firms most of the work
is carried out by the employees on regular basis. But when
special skills or technical knowledge is required for specific
purpose companies cannot make provision for employing such
people on permanent basis. On the contrary peoples with
such skills and knowledge do not want to get tied down
to one organization and pursue their ambition to make available
their service to multiple companies.
Generally engineers with rich experience in their field
of work switch over to consultancy work on their own or
like-minded people come together in an organized form like
service providing company.
Now day's big organizations are working on outsourcing
policy to take benefits of lean set up saving on various
costs and risks attached. Also global competition has initiated
a consolidation phase in almost all the sectors. Mergers
and acquisitions are part and parcel of this consolidation
phenomenon. Mergers and acquisition requires special assessment
of company/s to be acquired or merged going beyond the
financial matters. Engineering company's needs to look
at technological issues, market dynamics and work culture
related aspect prior to singing on dotted line. Most of
the organization hire consultants to do the deliberation
in professional and independent manner. Consultants are
appointed with specific target and time frame to carry
out the job for companies. These consultants are given
a free access to relevant information and freedom to adopt
the reasonable mechanism to submit desired information
in the form of reports. Management use the information
submitted by them for decision making.
To conduct the market surveys while company is gearing to introduce new products
consultants with experience in carrying out scientific surveys are hired. Popular
example being automobile manufactures, who launch automobile models catering
to different markets and customer groups depending upon the feedback for the
existing products and improvements suggested. All the suggestions are formulated
in the final report that is submitted by the consultants. Now it becomes the
company manager's purview to accept or reject the suggestions put forth by consultants.
Manufacturing companies are introducing new technologies and management initiatives
to stay ahead of the competition. Accepting new technology and tools is a vast
and critical process. Existing employees or managers may not be equipped to help
the users of technology to accept it by the way of training and retraining sessions.
So technology consultants are hired to study the effectiveness of new technology
on various elements of organization and last but not the least on bottom line
i.e. profit making potential. Consultants are also required to create environment
of acceptance and trust while accepting and implementing the new technology.
It is also logical and psychologically beneficial step if outside agency is involved
in effecting the change considering the higher resistance levels for company's
own staff.
In a globalised economy the way to manage companies is being challenged with
advent of new technology and management tools and initiatives. All over the world
hundreds of research projects are going on to improve the productivity of men,
machines, materials, the three critical elements of any manufacturing concern.
It is not possible or it becomes costly affair if companies decides to engage
themselves in keeping updated knowledge & then implementation of the same.
Consultants come in handy who specialize in these matters and help companies
utilize their skills for their benefit. Industrial engineers are the popular
example of such consultancy work. They carry work-study, time study and ergonomic
study to help companies to streamline the work methods for optimum utilization
of resources.
Companies who wish to expand their manufacturing facilities or diversify into
other sectors requires services of consultants. During expansion phase companies
find it difficult to strain the current employees engaged in managing day to
day work for existing plant setup. Consultants are engaged to carry out research & supervisory
work for such expansion.
Regarding diversification, companies hire consultants to gain a third party perspective
of the sector in which company wants to diversify. The core knowledge of specific
sector, prevailing technologies & practices, competition, market potential
is required to take right decisions at right time. Consultants with complete
understanding of that particular sector are brought in to do the initial study.
These consultants carry the responsibility to provide the client with the most
correct, undated, latest information they could get. Civil engineering sector
is quite used to hire consultants for big infrastructure projects like dams,
bridges, expressways & public utility structures. These consultants specialize
in various areas depending upon their experience & proven technical skills.
These consultants perform the surveying, designing & supervisory roles for
their client. Govt. or Construction companies employ multiple consultants for
big projects spanning over years. Civil engineering projects involve lot of logistical
support, so now days some consultants are offering the same with additional responsibility
of sourcing the raw materials & equipments for the same.
Quality is the buzz ward for the past decade or so. Every organization has been
aware of the benefits of quality products to improve the bottom line. Japanese
companies have made trendsetting initiatives to improve the quality without rise
in the cost. Lot of tools and techniques are introduced across all the sectors.
Naturally companies wanted such tools techniques to be implemented in their plants
at the earliest. So new community of Quality Management Consultants came into
existence. These consultants, experienced in extremely quality conscious environment,
proved to be boon for Indian companies. These consultants are in great demand
as industrial scene is getting hotter.
