ASR Articles

1. Balancing Engineering Resource with Demand
2. Buying Engineering Services
3. Where to Find Engineers When You Need Them
4. How to Meet Automotive, Military and Aerospace Specifications

Buying Engineering Services

Selecting suppliers for engineering services is significantly different than that for parts manufacture. As a buyer you select a parts manufacturer on the basis of price, quality and delivery. In contrast, the overriding basis for the selection of an engineering services provider is TRUST. Engineering outsourcing typically requires allowing an outside firm access to competition sensitive information. In addition, deliverables from an engineering project are typically drawings or a report. These deliverables are much more difficult to inspect for quality than a manufactured part. Often, the quality of the engineering service is not shown until components are built and tested. This can be months after receiving the deliverable.

Given that trust is so important when selecting an engineering services firm, you will typically need help from your inhouse engineering staff in making a selection. Your engineers can size up the outsource firm to ensure expertise and demeanor is a good match. Unlike parts manufacturers, the outsource engineering firm will become essentially an extension of your inhouse engineering department. Giving the engineers a say in the selection is critical. Ultimately, it is the inhouse engineers who will judge the engineering services, so they should participate in the selection process.

Once a firm, has passed muster with your inhouse engineers, you need to ask the following questions:

1. Who has intellectual property ownership of any innovations? The only acceptable answer is your firm.
2. Does the engineering outsource firm currently provide services to a competitor?
3. Will the firm sign a nondisclosure agreement? (2 page two way agreement is usually sufficient).
4. Is the firm insured? This is not usually necessary for mechanical engineering services, where the OEM generally carries the responsibility.
5. Is the same CAD and or analysis software used? (Converting drawings or analysis files between software is not desired)