Outsourcing: The Inside Story of Contracting Maintenance and Engineering Tasks

As if outsourcing wasn’t tough enough. Since I wrote my February 2020 column exploring the external factors maintenance and engineering managers should consider when choosing a provider or contractor, nearly everything has changed.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected most aspects of institutional and commercial facilities. Now, as we discuss the internal factors managers need to consider when outsourcing maintenance and engineering activities, saying that these are strange times is an understatement. Never in my lifetime have we seen this great an impact on facilities and nearly every other area of society.

I have been reading different articles on the impact of the pandemic to the economy and the workforce, and one major concern that comes up repeatedly is the availability and skill set of available labor when things return to whatever normal will look like. I imagine that  in many facilities, outsourcing maintenance and engineering activities now will be considered a more practical option moving forward. 

I mentioned in the last column the external factors managers should study when considering outsourcing, including the scope of service required, the experience of the contractor and key performance indicators. By understanding the activities involved in the scope of work, managers can identify potential contractors and their relevant experience, and of course they can measure contractor performance against agreed indicators.

But what initiates the consideration of outsourcing in the first place? What internal factors influence those decisions? Let’s look at three internal issues managers must address when they consider outsourcing.

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