Industry Best Practices for managing outside Engineering Consultants

[sde99]

We are a small medical device manufacturer. We typically outsource our engineering work and we were wondering if there was any information available re: an industry best practice for managing outside engineering consultants. I was wondering if there had been any papers written on the subject or if you could direct me to some information on the subject. Thanks very much.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Working with engineering consultants

We are a small medical device manufacturer. We typically outsource our engineering work and we were wondering if there was any information available re: an industry best practice for managing outside engineering consultants. I was wondering if there had been any papers written on the subject or if you could direct me to some information on the subject. Thanks very much.

Simple questions:

1. Do you intend to engage multiple consultants? or only one?
2. Will he/they be product design consultants? production method consultants? or both?
3. Do you expect long-term association with each engineer (one year or more) or short-term (weeks or single product, done and out)?

The nature of the relationship is an important factor in dealing with engineers.

Some folks think of them merely as temporary employees, hired to do a pre-defined task and then leave. Some engineers, design engineers, particularly, are more like partners and have a lot more input into the job than merely making sure all the mathematical equations and dimensions result in a finished product.

So, when considering the two types of relationships

1. temporary contract worker
2. design partner

there is a different set of protocols in selecting and compensating and maintaining a relationship for each kind.

It also is important to determine the type of engineering specialty - mechanical, electrical, computer programming, production, etc.

 

[somashekar]

We are a small medical device manufacturer. We typically outsource our engineering work and we were wondering if there was any information available re: an industry best practice for managing outside engineering consultants. I was wondering if there had been any papers written on the subject or if you could direct me to some information on the subject. Thanks very much.

Your subject line when asked in google gives some interesting results. Please check them over.
Whoever is the outside engineering consultant, it becomes finally your design to both customer and regulatory. Hence as a best practice, it makes perfect sense to have your complete design input, and get clear details from the consultants how each of these inputs are met.
Since you ask about managing of outsourced engineering process, I guess the competency of the consultants are already taken care of.
Communication is the key in such interactions and someone very competent within your organization must be the pilot for you to manage (communication and decision) the outsourced consultants.
There could be lot more reading material about this, but I guess it pretty much boils down to what I mention above.
Good luck.

 

[sde99]

Thanks for the input.
Do you intend to engage multiple consultants? or only one?
Typically only one, but there is the possibility of multiple consultants depending on the type of project.

Will he/they be product design consultants? production method consultants? or both?
Design consultants

Do you expect long-term association with each engineer (one year or more) or short-term (weeks or single product, done and out)?
Typically a project will last from a few months to a year.

I found ISO 21500 Guidance on project management which has some good information...
THANKS!