Within this blog we will discuss the inspiration behind the formation of TBES.
TBES was born from a consultancy placement back in late 2021. A member of staff within a well known defence organisation had the vision of forming an internal consultancy for all things support, the idea was to take traditional Equinox mode 1 tasks that would normally be recruited from the external flexible workforce, and convert these tasks into mode 2 type tasks, but utilising their own people to do the consulting. In order to do this they needed a little help from some highly experienced external Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) consultants, this is where our CEO comes into the backstory.
Our CEO, along with another external consultant and the client’s staff member, worked together to build an Internal Technical Services for Support (ITSS) team. The concept was simple; build a team of highly experienced internal consultants who can work across multiple domains and multiple projects simultaneously.
The newly formed team expertly designed a new operating model, as well as the processes and procedures from the ground up. Nothing like this had existed within the client’s organisation before, it was a blank canvas, which required a lot of massaging through the internal checks and balances (carried out expertly and passionately so by the staff member).
It was decided that the model, processes and procedures would be based upon lean six sigma, a process improvement approach that uses a collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing operational waste and reducing process variation.
Once the operating model and the processes and procedures had been developed it was time to test the theory by way of two pilot courses. These pilot courses would turn out to be beneficial to both ITSS and the Domain in which the pilots were run.
The first pilot commenced in October 2021 within the Land Domain; the requirement was to produce a single statement of requirement for a refreshed and optimised support contract. The support contract for the system in question would be merging with nine other systems that were going through the same process, all support systems resided with the same supplier (OEM).
The second pilot began soon after in November 2021 within the Ships domain, the request here was; to guide the support system through support assurance using the Support Solution Development Tool (SSDT). The consultant assigned to this task quickly realised that they were not best matched to meet the clients’ requirement having mostly worked within industry, and therefore lacked experience using the SSDT. Suddenly, just like that champagne moment; the ITSS proof of concept was proved for us! Within 2 days (and with client buy in), the two consultants running the pilots were swapped over and were up and running in their new projects, and more importantly, delivering for their clients.
Both pilot courses proved to be a huge success which released further funding, allowing the team to grow. By April 2022 the team had grown from the original two consultants and a team lead, to five consultants, a team lead and a business manager. In its first year this small team had saved the defence organisation over £2.5 million by way of cost avoidance. The team still exists to this day and continues to expand, continues to save taxpayers money, and continues to deliver real value into the organisation.
So the inspiration for TBES in the words of our CEO…
“TBES was born from the ITSS and the hard work and dedication of those early day’s consultants and the inspirational team lead. The client’s staff member is still to this day my personal inspiration, anyone who knows ‘Mr E’, or knows of him, will know just how inspirational this guy is, always positive, always a lesson to learn, always humble, and an outright lean six-sigma legend! Above all…always an available ear to talk to. ‘Mr E’ if you are reading this blog; you are a legend in your own lifetime, I have so much to thank you for which is a debt that I know I will never be able to repay. I can only pay it forward to the next generation of lean six-sigma ILS Engineers.
A similar inspiration for TBES was drawn from the other consultant on this task, this guy is unstoppable! Always impeccably dressed despite his 50+ hour weeks, what this guy does not know about consulting in ILS isn’t worth knowing. ‘Mr B’ and I spent many an hour debating legacy process, outdated ways of working, oh and that book that shall never darken our doorsteps! ‘Mr B’ was, and still is, my ying to his yang. If ‘Mr B’ and I were an arc of fire, I’d be completely left of arc, ‘Mr B’ on the other hand is more right of arc, collectively though, we balance each other out and that is vital in any healthy professional relationship. Respect, tolerance to another’s point of view, and the ability to listen are vital qualities in any consultant.”
‘Mr E’ once taught both ‘Mr B’ and I; “you have two ears and one mouth… use them in that order”.