You’ve Heard the Cost-Saving Arguments About Outsourcing. But What Do New Product Development Teams Really Deliver?
Deciding to outsource engineering or any part of your operations is often touted for its savings.
When you hire an outsourced team, you don’t have to face the overhead of adding to your head count, and you can seek a bid that aligns with your budget.
However, new product development outsourcing isn’t just a way to cut costs while seeking the best project results. When you choose a superior engineering team, their value goes beyond the “internal hire vs. external team” savings debate. A new product development team with a deep experience and expertise in your industry can help you implement a business strategy. They help you discover growth.
Find out how Finite Engineering can be your growth lever by contacting us today.
Outsourced New Product Development Is About Adding Value
At Finite, we like to tell “the tale of two lists.” First, there’s the list of tasks that engineers must complete to keep production running. Then, there’s the list of valuable but yet-to-be-assigned projects that could improve your market position. Despite the growth potential of that second list, businesses like yours often discover that they’re too bogged down in the present to devise a new strategy for the future.
But a new product development team like Finite can own the engineering work in your backlog. When your engineering team is focused on core business priorities, we step in with a fresh perspective, specialized engineering expertise, and ample bandwidth to focus entirely on projects that add untapped value.
Tell us about your “second list.” It’s a strategy document hiding in plain sight.
Three Examples of Outsourced New Product Development as a Business Strategy
1. Reconfiguring a Product Line for Efficiency
OEMs may find themselves building every unit to order. Customers get exactly what they want, while the business absorbs the cost, including longer lead times, more purchasing complexity, and a production line that is slowed by customization.
Moving from engineer-to-order toward assemble-to-order can solve this challenge, but you need a team that can analyze order data, find out what components are critical for the large majority of customers, and use their new product development services to standardize design. This effort runs right alongside normal production operations, and, ultimately, your business delivers shorter lead times and a less improvised approach to fulfillment.
2. Hitting a Launch Window
Businesses thrive on their ability to release new products to stay ahead of the competition. However, the same resource challenges can still show up again. Your engineering team, capable as they are of running design and development, doesn’t have the capacity to create a working prototype, especially if the work is in demand for a reveal at a trade show that would put you ahead of competitors.
An outside new product development team can take your concept through the design process and deliver production-ready drawings, while your in-house engineering team focuses on adding value for current production needs. If the launch is successful, your team can take it from there and a new line becomes a revenue stream that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
Contact our new product development consulting company now.
3. Tapping Specialized Capability You Don’t Have Yet
Not every internal engineering team has the design capability you need when a challenge arises, from finite element analysis (FEA), to computational fluid dynamics (CFD), code compliance, and reverse engineering. Although these skills are potentially available in-house, they could be siloed in another department.
With an outside team in your back pocket, you can leverage engineering expertise quickly and ensure that technical work like FEA and CFD happens during the same engagement as design work. This approach prevents delays in getting a project over the finish line, where it converts into revenue.
Explore our entire set of capabilities, then contact our team to access all our mechanical engineering services, along with new product development near you.
Grow Strategically. Choose Finite for New Product Development Consulting.
The projects sitting at the bottom of your list aren’t there because they lack value. They just aren’t urgent for day-to-day business operations. But when urgency appears due to a competitor’s new efforts or untapped growth is within reach it may be time to reconsider your engineering strategy.
Finite Engineering works as an extension of your team to keep you competitive by identifying and delivering the projects that are currently backlogged. Our job is to help you get ahead, while you continue doing the consistently strong work you’ve always done.
From agriculture and construction equipment to food production and industrial manufacturing, we take ownership of your engineering challenges, keep you updated without the management headaches, and deliver results that you can use to move forward faster.
Describe your project, and we’ll tell you how we can help with new product development. Reach out online or call our office today.
