Share your outsourcing stories?

Bob, Are you writing about offshore outsourcing? Outsourcing of engineering or of manufacturing (typically also involves engineering)?

Or are you interested in outsourcing of work from in-house engineering to contract or consulting companies within the same country?

John

I began thinking primarily of offshore outsourcing of manufacturing, which has obvious implications for engineers, but the topic grows a little bit with each conversation. The word "outsourcing" itself seems to mean a lot of different things.

Now I'm wondering how "outsourcing" -- whatever it means locally, wherever locally is -- is changing engineers' day-to-day work, and career prospects..

Hello Bob,

Engineers have to think internationally now. Problem is that many vendors cannot grasp that. Some parts manufacturers and many distributors are stuck in the old rut: Regional reps. It's yesteryear, big time. An engineer typically doesn't even know where his or her design will be produced. That is determined in the bid process.

With production I can only say that I am quite impressed with the quality from places like China. EE work is outsourced as well but there I am not so convinced about the quality of designs.

Regards, Joerg