Helping Smaller Manufacturers Implement Performance Measurement

Abstract

This paper describes the first Business-to-Business mentoring programme, which was conducted in the North East region of England during 2000. This was a pilot for a scheme that is part of the region's overall effort to help small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) improve manufacturing praxis. A large host company mentored nine SMEs in the use of performance measurement with the help of a university-based expert facilitator. The programme lasted eight months, with support provided from the European Regional Development Fund. It was managed by the Regional Technology Centre in Sunderland. The authors show how the programme was initiated, how companies were recruited and how individual projects were selected. They go on to discuss how projects were tackled, how these related to objectives within partner companies and how successful mentoring was achieved. People-related issues, and teamworking, as always, present both a major challenge and an opportunity in schemes like this. Besides solving technical problems within the companies, the programme helped to engage existing staff skills in arriving at the various solutions, often to the surprise of company managers. It is suggested that, in addition to the many practical improvements that can be achieved, the well-known problem of changing patterns of control during small company growth can be facilitated by such schemes. The reasons why some companies benefited substantially and others failed to engage completely in the programme are also discussed.