5 Things to Look for When Evaluating an Engineering Design Firm

 
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - April 11, 2015 - PRLog -- If you’re finding it difficult to launch products on schedule, look at the capabilities of your contract engineering team.

These 5 steps will help you evaluate the efficacy of your design team provide excellent insight into their capability to meet project requirements.

1. Demonstrable expertise and success in the EXACT discipline

2. Numerous positive references and testimonials

3. Advertised expertise

4. An internal audit function

5. Do they stand behind their design or so they shrug-off their failures and continue to bill time & materials


Demonstrable expertise and success in the EXACT discipline, seems obvious.  Too many individuals and organizations throw money away by selecting a firm or individual based on only surface knowledge of the requirements of the project.  The problem, is that the technology used today is extremely complex.  This complexity makes it more difficult for a designer to successfully move from one technology to another because the specialization required to be successful in one technology may not be transferrable to another.

To counter this, it is critical that you view past products the firm considers successful and verify it uses the same technologies as your proposed design.  Hire an independent consultant to evaluate the competence of the firm, if you must, to make this evaluation.  It will cost relatively little for the consultant to do the evaluation and the benefit will far outweigh the cost.

Numerous references and testimonials with contact information.  This is a simple request and if they refuse to provide references and testimonials under a non-disclosure agreement, walk away.

Contract firms as with all other professional service providers, gain most new business through referrals.  If they will not provide names of satisfied clients, they either do not have any or they know the technology you require is different from their previous work.

Advertised expertise.  I recently “GOOGLED” a design firm we considered using and found no mention of the expertise required for our project on their website.  I then did the same for their competitors and found multiple pages describing their successes in this particular field.

It is a good marketing practice to tout successes and satisfied clients on your website and other marketing material.  If your contractor or consultant does not market a technique or past successes, they probably have do not have the ability to succeed with your project.

QA process.  How does your component supplier ensure your factory receives quality components?  They probably have a quality assurance (QA) department responsible for quality control.  An  ISO9000 certified factory has work procedures they must follow – .  Your design team should have work procedures and peer reviews of designs and test results?  During your interviews, ask to see their work processes and meeting minutes from previous design reviews.  If  say it is “privileged” information – give them a felt-tip pen and tell them to black-out the customer data.  If the CIA can redact classified data, then your potential design firm can do the same.

Guarantee of  quality and schedule.  So your prospective design firm made through the first 4 steps so they are probably technically qualified and honest enough to share their documents and clients.  Now the real test, will they guarantee the schedule and cost targets in their proposal?  Development projects require large NRE fees but missing a launch date is much more expensive.  You can make up for cost overruns with additional sales but profits lost due to delays are gone forever.

Do not view design firms as clones of each other.  They have their own expertise and business practices.  Find the firms that claim a proven record of success in your field of need.  Then eliminate any of them who cannot prove this expertise.  The hard work and diligence required by this vetting process will be returned to your firm many times.

©2014 by Doug Ringer.  All rights reserved.

Doug Ringer has devoted his career to maximizing the value of product development projects and services. In roles in R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and product management, he has seen change from many perspectives and has a deep understanding of the critical importance of customer focus to an organization's success. He has worked across 20 states and in 3 continents, and has been privileged to assist GE, Ericsson, Honeywell, Meritor, and others.

Send your comments to me at:

Doug Ringer

P.O. Box 1788

Fort Collins, CO 80522

502-667-0828

doug@dougringer.com

www.dougringer.com

Contact
Doug Ringer
***@dougringer.com
End
Source: » Follow
Email:***@dougringer.com Email Verified
Tags:Contract Engineers, Contractors, Engineering, Manufacturing
Industry:Business, Engineering
Location:Fort Collins - Colorado - United States
Account Email Address Verified     Account Phone Number Verified     Disclaimer     Report Abuse
Forest View Company, LLC News
Trending
Most Viewed
Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share