Outsourcing Engineering Services – Pros and Cons

We’ve worked with countless companies during our 35+ years in business. So many companies choose to outsource their engineering work, and there are plenty of great reasons to do it. However, there are also some downsides that you should consider. As an expert outsourced engineering company, we’re going to teach you more about the pros and cons of our outsourced engineering services.

By the end of this guide, you should be able to make an informed decision as to whether or not you should outsource your next engineering project.

What Is Outsourced Engineering?

Outsourced engineering is the process of paying an external company to handle some or all of your engineering work. Outsourcing looks different for different companies.

If you need to design a structural member for an upcoming construction project but you don’t have a structural engineer, you can outsource just that portion of the design. On the other hand, you can outsource the entire design of a new piece of equipment. In both of these cases, you would pay a third party, like our team at CAD/CAM Services, to do the engineering work and hand it off to you. You can outsource anything from calculations to simulations, CATIA surface modeling, complex 3D CAD modeling, and 2D manufacturing drawings.

We charge a specific rate based on the work, and we might charge per hour or per project, based on the complexity of the project.

Pros of Outsourcing Engineering Services

Let’s start with some of the major benefits of outsourcing your engineering CAD work to CAD/CAM Services:

• Saves you money. One of the biggest selling points is our ability to save you money on each project. You’re not paying salaries, time off, and benefits when you outsource through CAD/CAM Services. This equates to less money spent on each drawing.
• Better turnaround times. We have almost 100 designers and engineers who work around the clock to provide 24/7 engineering power. That means we can deliver finished 3D CAD designs in a fraction of the time.
• Free up your engineers for other work. While we handle the more medial parts of your design, your in-house engineers can handle more mission-critical designs, or work on completely different projects altogether.
• Handle more complicated projects. Since we can immediately assign a number of experienced engineers onto your projects overnight, you can handle more complicated projects without going through the pains of hiring new employees.
• Tackle more work each year. With temporary engineers, you can handle more projects each year. For many companies, this translates to more profits each year.
• Add a seasonal boost to your team. Since we can quickly provide engineers and remove them, you can adjust your team to make sure you have exactly as much engineering power as you need for seasonal dips and surges in work and projects you need to tackle.

Cons of Outsourcing Engineering Services

There are also some downsides to outsourcing your engineering services. These are easy to avoid, but worth mentioning.

• Difficulty with communication. Some outsourced companies are very hands-off and will communicate poorly with your team. They might not give you updates or join your meetings, so you’ll be left in the dark.
• Trouble finding the right outsourced team. It can also be difficult to find a high-quality outsourced engineering team to help you. Short of word-of-mouth or getting lucky, you might get stuck with a team that doesn’t meet your expectations.
• Dealing with low-quality work and missed deadlines. There are plenty of outsourced teams that cut corners and take shortcuts at your expense. They’ll send sub-par work and potentially miss deadlines without any remorse.
• Keeping your trade secrets, secret. In addition, there are plenty of shady outsourced engineers who will leak your trade secrets and share private information about your company.
• Potential time-zone and language barriers with off-shore outsourcing. Finally, working with an off-shore outsourced company can lead to major language barriers and time-zone issues where you’re not working at the same time. These delays and mixed messages can wreak havoc on your timeline and budget.

How to Pick the Right Outsourcing Engineering Services

We’ve mentioned a lot of cons associated with outsourced engineering services, but we should add some clarification: all of these downsides can be avoided when you choose CAD/CAM Services. We are an American-based outsourced engineering company that respects our customers. We will happily sign NDAs to keep your data protected, we use DoD-trusted encrypted filesharing apps to keep everything private, and we’re the first ones to give you updates.

We are here to help your team, not get in the way. Our work is always high-quality, and that’s guaranteed with our CAD Perfect® promise.

With us, you’ll get all the benefits of outsourcing your engineering work without any of the negatives. We’re here to save you time and money on every drawing, no matter how big or small the project is.

Conclusion

Our team does not cut corners, and we take our work very seriously. Whether you need 2D CAD, 3D modeling, scanning and conversion work, reverse engineering, or BIM services, you can count on CAD/CAM Services. With us in your corner, you can unlock high-quality engineering work at a fraction of the cost. Get a free quote today.

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