Engineering capacity constraints
Engineering capacity constraints
(OP)
Hi,
We are a small design, manufacturing and engineering firm that produces niche market scientific instruments. Recently we have undertaken several large projects and have hired additional personnel. We are finding our selves still with capacity constraints and need help while managing our overhead. We are considering outsourcing to help in the interim. There are several companies that we can find that are out of country. Has anyone had any experience with this, both positive or negative? Any referrals (if that's allowed), or ideas?
Thanks in advance!
We are a small design, manufacturing and engineering firm that produces niche market scientific instruments. Recently we have undertaken several large projects and have hired additional personnel. We are finding our selves still with capacity constraints and need help while managing our overhead. We are considering outsourcing to help in the interim. There are several companies that we can find that are out of country. Has anyone had any experience with this, both positive or negative? Any referrals (if that's allowed), or ideas?
Thanks in advance!





RE: Engineering capacity constraints
You can use $12/hr for 1 engineer in India
$16/hr for supervisor.
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
For instance:
If doing CAD/CAE or similar work what system do you want them to use? For it to be easily maintainable in the future it will probably need to be the same as yours which will start to limit the list of possibilities. This is one I wish my place would learn!
Outsourcing will force you to prepare a more thorough spec/requirement than you may be used to. Things that you do out of habit or to company specific practices & standards will need to be explicitly detailed. This will include reference to any specific design/drawing/industry standards. This may be even more relevant if you’re outsourcing to another country. For instance, maybe you have a formal checking process where a separate, highly qualified & experienced person reviews the designs, they may not; if you don’t list this as a requirement how will they know?
Also, and especially if outsourcing to another country, consider things like ease of communication & liaison. Do you need a secure electronic data transfer system (secure FTP, encrypted email etc). Will there be a language barrier, it’s one thing being able to speak enough English to pass an exam, quite another being able to hold a technical conversation on the phone and/or write technical documents etc. Back in the UK I had enough trouble working with some US companies, let alone the Italians (don’t get me wrong their English was much better than my Italian but it could still be hard work). Will any time difference be a factor having to stay late or come in early for conference calls gets old. Also consider any cultural differences which may be a factor.
Apparently trivial things like the US using inch and most other countries using metric can be an issue. Also your standard supplier for common items (e.g. McMaster Carr in the US) may not be the one they’d use (e.g. RS Catalogue in UK). It’s one thing to get them to design in the correct units, quite another to get them to source components in the right units that are also available to you locally when you come to build them (if applicable).
Intellectual Property Rights, consider the need for NDA/Confidentiality agreements, other countries may not be governed by the same rules as yours. Also are there any export compliance issues? If in the US you may be surprised by what you need clearance to export.
What if any special legal/financial considerations are needed for dealing with a foreign company other than those above. Will the contract be in your currency or theirs.
I don’t mean to rain on your parade but places sometimes rush into these kind of things without thinking them through.
If it’s your first experience with outsourcing I’d try to get a local (or at least same country) company first, so you can get a hang of the general principles & practices, before adding the complications of a foreign company.
Is getting temporary contract staff a better option?
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
We never heard from them again. I don't think they even paid for the parts they got, much less the IP we threw in.
;---
Your mileage may vary, but it's not hard to find examples of unintentionally funding the startup of a competitor by outsourcing manufacture of your own stuff.
;---
That said, you might consider outsourcing domestically, so you are at least dealing with the same set of IP laws. (I'm assuming you're in the USA) There are at least two large- scale contract manufacturers in Northern Florida. You could probably get most anything made in any quantity big or small in Hialeah. I assume other states have similar pockets of entrepeneurism.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
ZCP
www.phoenix-engineer.com
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
Alex Palm
Bozeman MT
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
The only two things that seem constant are they will be considerably cheaper and there will be more problems dealing with them.
Whilst cost is always a factor in business how price sensitive are your products? Walk into Joes Autos and you can demand and get a discount, walk into a Ferrari dealership and they will laugh in your face.
If you get it right you can still get a top quality product at a much-reduced price, get it wrong and you could end up with a load of junk impounded at the docks whilst fighting over some legal technicality.
Personally unless I knew someone who dealt with a specific company and were happy with them I would not go down that road, but when you look at the number of major manufacturers that do………
Good luck whichever way you decide to go.
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
If you outsource engineering, then the workload of the senior engineers/management will increase due to a similar factor.
If, when it is outsourced, your company has the available resource to take on these additional quality control/project management tasks then it might work. If not...refer to the doom and gloom above.
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
good point. Is engineering the constraint or will veryinterested be paying extra to get designs done that can't be made?
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
We outsourced the engineering and the drafting, but we closely supervise both. Even though it takes up a considerable amount of time, we generally get through these "outsourced" projects without too many hickups. The key thing to minimizing the amount of time you have to put in yourself is that you keep a REAL close eye on the work being done, because it saves you time when correcting his mistakes.
It's not uncommon for us to even take that specific contractor with us to the customer for meetings and so on.
Solidworks 2006/DBWorks 2006 user
RE: Engineering capacity constraints
I am not sure what these are, but if they have any proprietary information, engineering, etc, then outsourcing may not be a good idea. They may get stolen.
Yes, there are copy right laws, patents, etc. They don't work. The only way to keep something a secret is to make sure no one else knows it.
So, if it is your core competency, you keep it.
If you want to outsource, outsource the peripheral stuff. In my industry, that would be things like:
- the travel department (use a chain travel agency and Amex)
- company cars (get rid of them and use Hertz)
- IT for general office use and servers (lots of choices to outsource to)
- accounting (use a large local firm)
- supplies and office equipment (Staples)
Just some ideas.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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