Are you looking for engineering services to support your in-house design team? Engineering can be successfully outsourced to save your company time and money. In this article, we will look at the five most frequently outsourced engineering services and explore why organizations decide to outsource.
1. 3D CAD Modeling
Creating a Computer-aided design(CAD) model of your concept is incredibly important for the engineering process. This allows you to get the idea out of your brain or off of the napkin sketch into a form that you can easily show and share with others. CAD models allow you to visualize and even rapidly prototype (with additive manufacturing) the product you have in mind without spending money on the expensive manufacturing process. This model will be designed with manufacturing and assembly steps in mind.
These models can even be animated to show off the assembly process and when exactly each component gets added to the assembly. A good CAD design can take time to produce and requires experience to know exactly how to produce a model that is accurate to actual manufacturing. Outsourcing to experienced professionals who have experience with a wide variety of projects ensures that they will be able to completely model your project.
2. Structural Analysis (FEA)
It is important to understand what kind of environment your product will be used in. However, without an actual product in hand, this can be difficult to do. Well, now there is a software called advanced Finite Element Analysis that can examine your product in a simulated environment so that you can have confidence in the strength and integrity before moving to the prototyping phase.
Outsourcing this process allows for experts who are used to doing these simulations to give you a good idea of how exactly your product will perform under real-life conditions. This outsourcing becomes even smoother if the same people who created your CAD model are the ones responsible for the FEA process. This way, they better understand what the model was created for and how exactly to create a model for the real-world conditions.
3. Prototyping & Proof-Concept-Design
If you have a great idea but don’t know how to or don’t have the time to build a prototype yourself, this is something that is commonly outsourced to a prototyping firm. These firms can build proof-of-concept models that are models that are used to begin user testing. Creating prototype models is exceptionally important because it allows you to gain real user feedback before moving onto mass production.
Imagine having a warehouse full of 10,000 units of your product because you were confident that your customers would love them, only to find out that there was an obvious flaw that would have been seen if you did some testing with a prototype. Outsourcing this will allow you to test out your great idea, to see if it’s feasible, and be able to show it to people in real life. A real-life demonstration goes a long way to show a customer how useful a product will be in their lives.
4. Photo/Video Rendering
Again, the CAD model is extremely important. The model is a digital representation of your project. That means that it is basically the real thing! It is possible to take these CAD models and transform them into high-resolution images and videos with a variety of backgrounds and lighting schemes.
Outsourcing this to the same people who made your CAD model is a great option for best results. This way you can begin marketing your product and get feedback from potential customers before even investing into a prototype. This kind of feedback is incredibly valuable when making critical decisions for your project.
5. Supply Chain & Sourcing Components
Finding suppliers for the components of your product is difficult. Suppliers need to meet lots of criteria that include fair prices, quality products, trustworthy service, and accurate delivery timelines. Since these suppliers need to meet such important criteria, they are a partner in your business. It is a very difficult process to find and vet good suppliers, therefore outsourcing this process is quite common.
Engineering firms like Tresca Design have an extensive network of domestic and global vendors to deliver your procurement plan. Our suppliers have already been vetted, therefore we can source any component, part, piece of equipment, or service around the globe.
Tresca Design is capable of providing all 5 services mentioned on this list. Working with a company like Tresca will aid you in the entire process; from start to finish. Your success is our success, from plan to product. Contact us today to see how we can help you with your outsourcing needs.