What’s in a name?
Andy Sandford, editor of Engineering Capacity
What you call things can be a very emotive subject.
Any time the word ‘engineer’ is used in connection with someone who mends your telephone you can expect a flurry of letters to The Times from irate EUR INGs and CEngs explaining what an engineer really is.
And I remember recently that the BBC managed to spin out several hours of content on Radio 2 around the suggestion that ‘housewife’ was a demeaning and outdated term.
I am not foolish enough to want to get involved in either of those debates, but one terminological conundrum is on my mind. What do we call the people that Engineering Capacity writes about?
The traditional term is subcontractors, and in the majority of circumstances this still serves very well. But how far up the supply chain do you stop being a subcontractor? As more and more companies expand the scope of what they offer, to the point where some are even designing and manufacturing a complete product ready for despatch to the customer I can see the logic of calling them contract manufacturers – which trips off the tongue better than the more descriptive ‘providers of design and manufacturing services’. And what about plastic moulders, contract electronic manufacturers, foundries, 3D printing agencies? Is what they are doing inherently different from what a subcontractor does?
They are making something that is defined and specified by the customer, they don’t sell these things as their own products and they don’t sell the same product to multiple customers.
OK then, what about someone like GKN, or Doncasters, or Forgemasters? Are they subcontractors too? Well, yes, sort of, although I’m sure they don’t see themselves that way.
The other problem with talking about ‘subcontractors’ is that away from machining and sheet metal it means something quite different – in the IT and construction sectors, for example.
Any ideas as to what terminology we should be using? And does it matter as long as we all know what we are talking about?
The problem is that if you can’t define or describe something you can’t easily measure it or study it. Which is why there seems to be no industry research or even official figures on the ‘subcontracting’ sector as we know it – it is all wrapped up in engineering, manufacturing and vertical sectors such as aerospace and automotive. And if there is no information how do you identify market trends, areas where support is needed and unmet customer needs that specifically relate to subcontract manufacturing as a whole?
It would be good to hear your thoughts on how you would define what word we should be using to talk about these vital contributors to the country’s success and your supply chain.
Please email me on editor@engineeringcapacity.com or comment in the Engineering Capacity Linked In group.
