3T as Development Partner for Priva: Strategic Outsourcing for Technical Excellence

The collaboration with 3T offers Priva a solution on multiple fronts. The most important aspect is the relief it brings to the internal R&D department, allowing it to focus on what the company is globally known for: innovations in greenhouse cultivation and building automation. A second reason is knowledge retention, in response to the current trend among the younger generation to stay with a company for shorter periods.

“Technical staff is scarce,” explains Ronald van Londen, Strategic Purchaser at Priva. “Another point is that we don’t always have very large projects ongoing within Priva. If we couldn’t outsource that work, we would have to staff our R&D team for peak loads.”
 

Conscientious Approach

There is also a broader trend that employees are staying with companies for shorter periods than in the past. “As a prestigious company, we have no difficulty attracting staff, but you do notice that the younger generation is less inclined to stay in one place, which means we have to pay more attention to knowledge retention,” says Van Londen. “In that regard too, outsourcing is the better solution for us.”

In this cooperation, Priva supplies the functional requirements, which 3T then uses to design the products. Van Londen says:

3T’s unique selling point is the high quality of their design work, and the fact that they test, certify and qualify everything very conscientiously,” says Van Londen. “That’s essential for us, because we place a large number of products on the market. In buildings, these are hidden above ceilings, and in greenhouses nothing can go wrong — otherwise the harvest could be lost. Our products must function 100 percent reliably."

Dedicated Team

3T ensures this with a dedicated team for Priva and a quality management system in which all gained knowledge is recorded and preserved for Priva. “The knowledge we develop is also shared with the client, to keep them technically on board and avoid surprises,” says Marcel van Wilpe, Business Developer at 3T. “And if one of our engineers leaves, we look very carefully at what specific knowledge is involved and transfer it to the successor. Additionally, Priva can rely on other specialized knowledge we have in-house, such as EMC challenges or experience from other projects.”

3T also takes care of setting up production with the manufacturing partner. “That knowledge is also safeguarded within our organization.”

Meanwhile, Priva has entered into SLAs with 3T for the maintenance of designs. This includes lifecycle management, configuration management, incoming quality control, and defect analysis. “This step too was taken to reduce the load on our internal R&D,” says Van Londen. In this case, 3T serves as a safety net for Priva, adds Van Wilpe. “We are always ready to implement a design or product change, solve a field issue, or carry out quality inspections on manufactured products.”

Outsourcing as the Best Strategic Option

Previously, Priva worked with partners that combined design and production under one roof. Over time, this led to reduced flexibility, because design and production-related matters were too closely intertwined. That’s why the company decided to look for an independent design partner. Five candidates were shortlisted, and 3T came out on top. “The selection was based on criteria such as number of engineers, competencies in hardware and software, experience and references, and knowledge of technologies and certifications,” says Van Londen.

Priva is an international high-tech producer specializing in hardware, software, and services for climate and process automation in greenhouse horticulture and building management. In the Netherlands, the company employs around 450 people.
 

Challenging Products

For 3T, Priva is an attractive client. “Priva develops technically challenging products that are complex and need to be highly reliable. A great challenge for our engineers. Thanks to our well-structured quality management system, we are able to meet their high standards,” says Marcel van Wilpe, Business Developer at 3T, a specialist in electronics and embedded systems.

3T is part of Kendrion, a Dutch publicly listed company operating internationally. The company has offices in Enschede, Eindhoven, and Drachten and employs 110 people.

Van Londen confirms: 

“Thanks to the collaboration with 3T in the area of development, our own R&D staff can focus on what we excel in — innovation in hardware and software.”

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Source:    www.linkmagazine.nl