Your supply chain is your way of getting your goods or services to end consumers from obtaining raw materials to delivering the final product. The size of a supply chain will depend on the type of business you are. Small businesses may not have too many suppliers to deal with, where as a large or multi national company may have hundreds of suppliers to manage on a daily basis.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is all about optimising your business operations to ensure speed, efficiency and cost effectiveness. Today, ethical sourcing and sustainability also play a major part in decisions about supply chain partners. The wider economic and environmental issues are a factor for many companies when considering applicants to their supply chain, as well as how the applicant manages their own business. Your values and how you perform as a business is just as important as your ability to deliver an end product.

A supply chain manager within a company has to be sure that their partners align with their own values and are operating their businesses effectively if they themselves are to deliver efficiently and to target. Business processes, health & safety, finance management and all other areas of your business play their part when becoming part of a supply chain.

Costain Supply Chain Academy

So passionate are they about the standard of their supply chain, Costain launched its Supply Chain Academy in 2012 with the aim of supporting its small and medium sized suppliers. Using their own award winning training and development programmes Costain put their delegates through 3 months of structured learning and development at the end of which they will be better equipped and more robust organisations. The academy also fits with their own vision of building a long-term sustainable business that creates more economic, environmental and social value through greater corporate responsibility.

Attendance is by invite only and the schedule is extensive covering all areas of business; lean approaches, risk, controls, finance, subcontract management, negotiation skills, human resources and environmental awareness to name but a few of the 18 areas covered.

PRV Engineering were pleased to be invited and to complete the Costain Supply Chain Academy last year. As a company who continues to invest and develop in our business and our staff it has been extremely beneficial to us. We are dedicated to providing the best customer service possible, whilst staying at the cutting edge of engineering, so the attending the academy has been very helpful to us as a business.

costain supply chain image
Courtesy of Costain

Completion of the academy allows us to be aligned more closely with our customers and their working cultures and values, which can only be beneficial in the long term.

PRV Engineering manufacture for an expanse of industries and provide a complex and diverse range of products and services to customers that enable them to satisfy their requirements from a single source. We take great care to ensure high levels of service while also continuing to develop and improve as a company.

Top Image copyright: Ksenia Kudelkina

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