Strategic Plan for Utilizing Low Cost Engineering Resources at Generic Aerospace
In the past, businesses have used several different options in an effort to alleviate engineering resource constraints. These included the use of contract engineers, overtime of employees, or utilization of sister facilities' resources. All of these methods are costly and may cause other issues, such as inconsistent output, high turnover, and resource constraints for other sites. One concept that is being more readily adopted is the use of Low-Cost Engineering Services (LCES) offered by third-party suppliers. This method allows companies to utilize additional resources using several different strategies. For instance, for long-term projects, a company can use dedicated resources that only work on a specific project. For short-term projects, a company can develop a Statement of Work that outlines a given set of hours and expected deliverables. The multiple options allow companies to outsource more work and to get quicker turnaround on work packages, such as engineering analysis or product design. In addition, this practice allows companies to leverage prices to reduce design and development costs. This strategy offers flexible resource assignment and commitment.
For the project reviewed, the objective of the management team is to implement the use of Low-Cost Engineering Services for the engineering group. The management team identified the noncore competency types of work that could be sent to the Low-Cost Engineering Service resources. Work from the engineering and product development groups includes
• Engineering change support
• Legacy 2D to 3D CAD conversion
• Drawing creation
• New Product Development
• Engineering Analysis 4
• Customer Support Documentation (Component Maintenance Manuals)
The LCES initiative will allow the design and development engineering teams to focus on developing products and improving core engineering competencies. Moving the above-mentioned topics to an LCES, removes the non-core competencies of drafting, drawing changes, legacy conversions, and technical document creation, thereby reducing the workload of the design engineering departments and decreasing turnaround time on delivery. This will also allow a reduction in costs spent creating drawings, legacy parts, and Design Change Request support.
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