Away from the cut and thrust of the work environment one of Enda’s passions is to get away to Lough Corrib to battle with the local trout and salmon. Lough Corrib is Ireland’s second largest freshwater lake.The River Corrib or Galway river connects the lake to the sea at Galway, right at Silcotec Europe’s ‘home turf’.

For many aficionados fly-fishing is a way of a life, a philosophical attitude which correlates to values such as respect for nature, tranquility, tolerance, self-composure and self contemplation.

As the ancient Samurai maxim tell us: “One who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in every action” and those who know Enda through his work can probably see aspects of his mastery of the fly in his approach to business. Fly-fishing is hardly a hobby you can approach in a half hearted fashion. It teaches one to focus, to reflect, to gain understanding and the importance of research and planning. Couple this with patience and the technicalities and intricacies and complexities of tying the fly. Add the art of fly casting and you begin to see that the “simple” sport of fly fishing and casting is about focussing a complete level of awareness with the task in end. It’s no coincidence that these qualities, approach and focus exhibit themselves in Enda’s every day work.

As a family man and having a career that involves travelling between Silcotec Europe’s centres of manufacturing excellence and client partners sites across Europe, time on the Lough can be hard to get but all the more appreciated when the opportunity arises.

Often, Lean has been viewed as the domain of the manufacturing floor but this is not the case at Silcotec Europe.  Lean principles and practices go beyond the firms centres’ of manufacturing excellence  to all of a its processes, as well as being extended to Procurement and supply chain management.

At Silcotec Europe Lean is more than just a toolset, but a methodology that extends across the enterprise  and represents a way of thinking that when appropriately applied and led by senior management can provide benefits to Procurement, Supply Management and the entire enterprise.

Ann Flaherty, who has been with Silcotec in a purchasing role for over 20 years and currently coordinates the various purchasing activities between the sites has been involved in many lean improvements over the years.  From her perspective the concept and practice of lean are commonly misunderstood in relation to procurement, sourcing and supply management.

Ann commented: “At SIlcotec Europe we are committed to adding value, and reducing waste  at every touchpoint of of our processes but when I talk to people about lean in the procurement process I seem to come across some common misconceptions.

 Sometimes people think its just about being “lean and mean”, by running the company as lean as possible in order to reduce costs, thereby starving their operations of the necessary materials to produce product effectively.  When we are dealing with the kind of customer partners we do this is simply impossible.

When I talk with other procurement professionals. some seem to think that “lean” is just for the manufacturing floor and not for purchasing  and even if it does extend to purchasing that it is a set of tools used to focus on cost reduction and that  having the tools will make the company lean.

 The last of the common misconceptions is that computerisation on its own, by default, will lead to a lean procurements and supply chain  function.

Talking with Ann it is clear that 20 years of working with Silcotec Europe suppliers has given her some interesting insights into the procurement discipline. It is as if their supply chain is its own dynamic ecosystem that is made up of processes, products and companies working together extremely smoothly, adding value to the entire network as they meet their goal of exactly meeting customer requirements in the most cost effective manner.

From Ann’s perspective, lean in procurement can be approached from many angles: “ The most important perspective is, of course, that we specify value from the standpoint of the end customer. This includes: quality, speed, cost, flexibility and service. So with this in mind we look at four key areas in order to gain perspective.

 From a logistics and transportation perspective: how do we keep goods and services flowing in a smooth, uninterrupted and cost-effective fashion from suppliers to customer firms to end customers?

 Inventory optimisation: how do we keep minimal, but sufficient inventory in the supply chain pipeline in order to provide appropriate service levels without disruptions?

 Lean Procurement: how can Procurement scale and streamline its processes to minimise transactions, reduce total cost, and work with the best possible suppliers who meet its requirements?

 Lean supply chain (adopting Lean within and between both customer and supplier firms): how can each business work to eliminate waste while adding value to its customers?”

It is clear that finding new perspectives produces clarity for Ann and her procurement team and understanding that it is not just about ‘cost down’ purchasing.  There is a specific focus on the long term, not the short term which makes sense as Lean works best when continuous improvement is ingrained in the culture and becomes a way of life and it is totally ingrained in the culture at Silcotec Europe.

Does Ann see the culture as being the only reason for success  within a lean environment ?

“ No, the culture is naturally an imperative, but as far as I see the leaders of the enterprise must support Lean by actions, not just words.  The Silcotec Europe leadership fully understand Lean and then expect and require success. Our Lean Procurement gains additional traction as part of an overall Lean initiative as other functions better understand and support the effort.”

Here at Silcotec Europe we work hand in glove with our customer partners to deliver innovative cabling solutions.

Our customers choose our cabling solutions when they need to make critical connections.

Although we have a diverse range of customers, the market leading companies we serve do have some commonalities. Primarily they work in the Ideas to Market (I2M) space. They work at the forefront of technology and need to deliver leading edge new products in their respective sectors.

We have always worked closely with our ‘customer partner’s’ engineering teams to develop innovative cabling solutions. When critical connections are required, they need to be robust, durable and be delivered on time, and to budget.

We have also always worked closely with procurement teams. In recent years, it has struck us that procurement is transforming to become a more agile, strategic key player in this Idea to Market (I2M) – space. We are finding Procurement is ,now, not just about price down purchasing but increasingly looking to work with suppliers to bring market insights to the product and service creation process.

More and more we find our ‘customer partners’ are seeking to ensure the early involvement of Procurement to make sure Procurement is leading in the Idea to Market space. They are, in turn, seeking to gain insights from key suppliers like Silcotec Europe at an increasingly early stage in the product development process. In this way innovative cabling solutions are born.

All our ‘customer partners’ can sensibly be considered “best-in-class” in their respective sectors. A significant part of this success is due to the  integration of their suppliers in both innovation and business fulfilment. These sort of new age buyer / supplier relationships are based on transparency, clear goals and honest relationships, creating a win-win situation for both parties through mutual trust, long-term contracts, and accountability and stretch targets.

From our own perspective it is where our “customer intimacy” strategy pays dividends. At Silcotec Europe, we have constructed our business to put our customer partners at the centre of all we do.

Our engineering and customer account teams work as seamless extensions of our ‘customer partners’ teams. They recognise us as experts in our business and count on us to innovate on their behalf. We find they are eager to listen to suggestions about how to reduce complexity and to gain feed back on Tech Specifications.

Our investment in building these ever-closer relationships is at the core of our continued ability to build some of the most innovative cabling solutions in Europe.

Silcotec Europe manufacture high quality cable harnesses and cable assemblies and supply them to clients right across the globe.

Of the highest importance is the World class level of service of on time delivery of fault free product for which Silcotec Europe is renowned. With a 99.6% on time delivery statistic and 99.7% final inspection pass rate to protect putting the customer at the centre of all the company’s activity is key to achieving this.

Not even the Great Wall of China is sufficient frontier to get in the way of customer relationships and support. In January Paul Bullock, Kevin Granger and Tibor Barath made their latest venture to China to work with four key customers and suppliers.

The trip pulled together the key executives from Silcotec Europe for high level summits with their counterparts from partner customers and suppliers.

Paul Bullock commented: ” We work hand in glove with major electronics OEMs right across the World.They rely on us to not only provide high quality cable harness products but no matter where they are needed for us to provide the same high level of support. The trip to China exemplifies this. We were keen to extend our level of customer intimacy with our Chinese partners – it was a huge success”