Outsourcing to a Russian prison – what could possibly go wrong?
A quick reminder this morning of the dangers of buying on price…
Liz Love is the managing director of Z-CARD, a company that makes, among other things, pocket maps that you can unfold into a large map.
When she was starting her business, she wanted the products to be made by hand but supplier quotes were “astronomical” so she came up with an alternative.
This substitute was outsourcing production to a Russian prison. “We couldn’t think of anyone who would be cheaper,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
Unfortunately, there is a reason most companies are not abandoning traditional vendors and outsourcing to those detained at President Putin’s pleasure.
“When [the first products] came back we discovered there were 40 ways to finish them incorrectly that we’d never thought of. It was a total disaster. The covers were skewed, and it was a tacky product you didn’t want to touch,” said Love.
But she was positive about the lesson learned, with the article going as far as saying “the procurement catastrophe was the best thing that ever happened to the business”, because it taught her not to go for the cheapest option (and that she didn’t want them handmade anyway).
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Not sure I would have had the guts to source a key product from a Russian prison! This story reminds me of the words of John Ruskin, along the lines of “if you deal with the lowest bidder, you should set some money aside to cover the risk you run, and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better…..”
She should be brave enough to face the consequence. She is not at fault on the whole in view of “learning curve”. She is to blame for not having monitored the prison’s performance. She should find out how the deviations came and ask for production samples. She will work out a miracle. If fully convinced of the quality and lead time, she will read success at the lowest costs. Perhaps, she will offer incentives to prisoners by then to enhance productivity and “zero defect”. Never blame herself of placing a wrong order.
This was a great learning curve for Liz, ’40 ways to finish a product incorrectly.’ I bet she now has the spec pretty well sewn up. It doesn’t state whether a sample was sent, it probably was.
We’ve likely heard of similar horror stories when outsourcing from overseas. As the saying goes, “more distance more risk”.
‘Buy Local’ champions I salute you.