Can you even imagine the chaos of having 85% of your engineering work packed into just six months of the year? Talk about a pressure cooker situation!The poor company faced all kinds of challenges with staying competitive in the market, including this crazy seasonality issue. And to make matters even more intense, they had to turn around designs within 24 hours of receiving an order. Talk about swimming with the sharks type of scenario. Some of the “deeper” challenges included:

  • Sales varied each day — the 24-hour turn-a-round remained fixed
  • Engineering had three levels of complexity – each ascending level requiring greater skill
  • During the peak season, current engineering resources became exhausted, with some working more than 70 hours weekly.
  • The industry is cost conscious – reduced costs mean increased survivability
  • Finding engineering talent to work odd shifts is difficult
  • Finding engineers willing to work for half of the year is difficult.

Pool with trees for process simulation and improvement

So, the company had a ton of ideas flying around, and one of the top contenders was outsourcing some of the work to India. And let me tell you, it was a real splash hit (sorry, I had to). They identified five major advantages to using Indian engineers to solve their resource shortage. First up, cost savings. Indian engineers generally earn lower salaries than their counterparts in developed countries, which means companies can save on labor costs by outsourcing to India. In fact, the cost per engineer went down by more than 50% when you factor in things like space, hardware, and perks. Next up is access to skilled labor. India has a huge “pool” of super-qualified engineers, especially in engineering. Outsourcing to India gives companies access to all of these talented professionals. Plus, outsourcing can improve productivity by taking advantage of time zone differences to get jobs done around the clock. This time zone advantage can help deliver designs on time. Outsourcing also allows companies to scale up or down as needed. Indian culture has a strong tradition of engineering education and a focus on quality and attention to detail, which can help ensure that outsourced engineering work is top-notch.

Given the desire and access to use outsourced engineering labor, the company described inputs to solve for, given the number of seasoned engineers they desired to retain full-time at the home office. The parameters follow:

Solve for the least cost by altering the number of each type of engineer

Given the requirements

  • Return the completed design in less than 24 hr (95% of the time or higher).

Given the inputs

  • Quantity of arrivals (per day of the week and by the hour of the day).
  • The percentage of type1, type2, and type3 engineering requests.
  • The cost of each (A, A0, A1, A2, A3, etc.) engineer type
  • The time needed to solve each engineering request.

Engineers

Home Office Engineers, Full-time, Maintained year-round

Quantity Cost

Type – Home Office Permanent

X

A

 Type1 Year Round

Y

B

 Type2 Year Round

2

$45/hr

 Type3 Year Round

With the ability to train other engineers at all three levels

Seasonal Engineers

Quantity

 Cost

Type  — Home Office Seasonal

X0

A0

 Type1 Seasonal

Y0

B0

 Type2 Seasonal

Z0

C0

 Type3 Seasonal

Same shift as the home office

Quantity

 Cost

Type  — Overseas (Same shift as the home office)

X1

A1

 Type1 Seasonal

Y1

B1

 Type2 Seasonal

Z1

C1

 Type3 Seasonal

Shift 2

Quantity

 Cost

Type  — Overseas (Shift 2)

X2

A2

 Type1 Seasonal

Y2

B2

 Type2 Seasonal

Z2

C2

 Type3 Seasonal

Shift 3

Quantity

 Cost

Type  — Overseas (Shift 3)

X3

A3

 Type1 Seasonal

Y3

B3

 Type2 Seasonal

Z3

C3

 Type3 Seasonal

Solve for each quantity (X, X0, X1, X2, X3, etc.) to achieve the lowest cost.

Creating a Process Model to Evaluate the ProblemWomen and child in the pool - process optimization

Who knew that process simulation could be such a powerful tool for understanding and improving complex processes? It’s like magic but with numbers. Anyway, the company used it to figure out how many workers they needed to complete all their tasks, which was especially helpful since they had different levels of complexity and varying task times. Here’s how they did it: first, they defined the process and collected data on how long each task took and what resources were needed. Then, they used ProcessModel to create a digital model of the process, including all the tasks, resources, and other elements. After that, they ran the simulation and used the results to make necessary adjustments to the model. Finally, they used some optimization wizardry to find the best solutions and make sure they could turn around designs within 24 hours or less. All in all, process simulation was a total game-changer for this company.

Other companies that outsource Engineering services to India

Honestly, company management was a little shy about outsourcing until they realized that some of the largest and most productive companies were doing precisely the same for similar reasons. See a small sample below:

  1. Microsoft
  2. Ford Motors
  3. CISCO
  4. Amazon
  5. Google
  6. IBM
  7. American Express
  8. Dell
  9. Hewlett Packard (HP)
  10. AT&T

After seeing other great companies use outsourcing, it was obvious they needed to do the same.

At the Deep End of the Pool

Process simulation is like a magical tool for understanding and improving even the most convoluted processes. It’s especially useful when you have a gazillion tasks to tackle, a variety of complexities to contend with, and a range of task times to juggle. It helps you determine how many workers you need and how much it’ll cost you. Trust me, it’s a game-changer. All in all, process simulation is an absolute must-have for anyone dealing with complex processes and trying to make smart decisions.

Click here to start your journey with ProcessModel with a free trial!