Finite Engineering is located in Overland Park, Kansas, in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Our central location positions us strategically to benefit clients on both coasts.
A successful engagement begins with your investment. If you’re at the concept stage but lack the budget to move forward, our team encourages you to seek funding first. Once you’ve secured funding, we’ll be there to help you through the product design and development process. Projects without committed funding are out of scope for our engineering services.
We offer new product development, custom product development, and mechanical engineering. Our clients take advantage of these services through our ongoing engineering service, which is open-contract and retainer-based. Explore our solutions.
Our experience in over 40 industries allows us to address a wide variety of heavy equipment and machinery.
We provide engineering solutions for a wide range of industries, including the construction equipment industry, waste and refuse, mining and energy, and industrial manufacturing. Discover the industries we serve.
We serve original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), businesses that sell or depend on heavy equipment and machinery, along with startups, entrepreneurs, and sole proprietorships. Learn who we serve.
We use Autodesk Inventor Nastran®, Abaqus, and SOLIDWORKS® Simulation for finite element analysis (FEA), along with Autodesk Inventor®, SOLIDWORKS® and Creo for computer-aided design (CAD). We also perform site and product scanning with FARO Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment utilizing FARO Scene, and Autodesk ReCap software.
Many businesses find that their engineering teams have too much on their plates to focus on a new initiative like product development or resolving an unexpected challenge. Finite Engineering offers a streamlined, simple process for onboarding our team, so you can get engineering priorities taken care of without pressing your in-house team. In some cases, we offer specializations that your current team can’t offer, such as finite element analysis (FEA) or tank and pressure vessel design.
Although you may know you require engineering support, your busy schedule, tasks, and priorities may get the best of you, which means you may not end up getting the help you need.
Finite makes leveraging our engineering solutions fast and simple. We offer a consultative approach, where we listen to your challenges, identify what needs to be accomplished, and provide a transparent, easy-to-understand project management dashboard that allows you to track our progress toward your solution.
We can get started on your project right away. We start by developing a punch list and a scope for your project, which can begin as soon as we understand your needs.
Yes. You can retain our engineering services for ongoing projects. You will always have engineering solutions for your equipment when you partner with Finite.
New product development consulting allows your business to get expert support when you don’t have the experience or resources to bring your idea from concept to reality.
A leading new product development consultant has vast experience helping companies from many industries bring new designs to market. They likely have a workflow to complete your new product as quickly and effectively as possible.
If bringing new products to the marketplace or optimizing internal productivity are essential parts of your business, having expertise to get you there is highly beneficial.
Hiring a product design and engineering team provides the expertise you need to ensure a new or custom product performs at its highest level.
Although the cost of product design and engineering services depend on the scope, you want to ensure that the team you’ve chosen is committed to adding maximum value for your company. Along with a track record of providing inventive solutions for companies like yours, look for:
The return on investment for engineering services can be significant when considering the risks of avoiding engineering needs, including downtime, lost productivity, and unexpected expenses.
Product development is a form of engineering. Product development engineers apply the science of engineering, including mathematics, computer-assisted design (CAD), other advanced software, and data analysis to develop a product for the marketplace.
Professionally licensed engineers (P.E.) offer product development services to help you prototype, design, and prepare a product for manufacturing. Your product could be a custom design, a brand-new product for the marketplace, or even a product family.
The product development process can include:
The most general way to describe the stages of product development are these seven stages:
However, these stages are not an ideal way to describe the engineering process, which is critical to a product’s successful performance. For example, if you are building a new attachment for construction equipment, your design engineers may follow a more nuanced series of steps:
Creating a product from scratch begins when you’ve identified a problem and confirmed market demand for your solution. From there, the concept moves into development through concepting, material selection, modeling, and prototyping.
Depending on the product, you may need specific engineering expertise, including 3-D CAD modeling, hand calculations, model analysis, and finite element analysis (FEA) to test performance, safety, and durability before production.
Once a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) is built, it can be refined through testing and iteration. At the same time, businesses often protect intellectual property, prepare technical drafting and documentation, and plan for manufacturing. After sourcing production partners, the product can be launched, marketed, and continuously improved based on customer feedback.
Many opportunities are available for engineers in today’s economy. To be competitive for this work, mechanical engineers must offer experience or training in relevant areas like software mastery (e.g., SOLIDWORKS®), professional engineering (P.E.) licensure, and sustainability (e.g., LEED certification), among many others.
With the rise of AI, engineering consultants are increasingly needed for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for thermal energy tanks used in data centers. They are also needed to design equipment that supports small modular reactors (SMRs) that are deployed regionally to power these centers.
Mechanical engineers are also needed for the continued growth of renewable energy and electrification industries. Opportunities may include designing, analyzing, and optimizing tanks and pressure vessels for energy storage systems.
Companies that offer mechanical engineering consulting should demonstrate five characteristics that illustrate their commitment to high-quality service.
An in-depth exploration of a mechanical engineering consulting company’s website will help you determine whether your chosen team meets these criteria.
The outsourced engineering service industry is experiencing rapid growth, powered by businesses’ need for expertise when internal resources are strained and hiring internally is less cost-effective. Outsourcing has also been shown to reduce time-to-market.
The outsourced engineering industry is also growing because of the rise of AI, renewable energy, and IoT sectors. To ensure businesses remain competitive in these markets, outsourced engineering teams provide the ingenuity and expertise to develop custom and new products for AI, energy, and IoT-adjacent use-cases, along with equipment for other critical industries.
Outsourced engineering is an effective approach to access critical talent without straining internal teams or spending significant overhead.
Outsourced engineering teams provide a wide variety of services, including product development, technical analysis, equipment optimization, and more.
Engage an outsourced engineering team by requesting a bid. The team you choose should communicate with clarity, deliver a comprehensive plan to complete your work, and offer easy-to-use channels for project updates along the way.
An outsourced engineering team should feel like an extension of your team that naturally fits into your workflow. Outsourced firms often perform retainer-based services which you can leverage for continuous engineering needs.
An outsourced engineering firm can provide fresh talent, niche skills, deep experience, and new perspectives, while supporting strained internal engineering teams, reducing costs, and offering flexibility.
If you choose an effective team, you’ll be able to bring new products to market or resolve product challenges without experiencing downtime, lost productivity, and additional costs.
Look for a team that has experience with engineering consulting for your industry and a track record of success. Ask them about their project management approach and explore their case studies.
Also, ask if the team you’ve chosen provides ongoing engineering support, so your workflows and operations go uninterrupted.
Finding a valuable, top-rated engineering design company depends on the type of project you have in mind.
A global company like AECOM or Tetra Tech might be an excellent partner for a major private or public infrastructure project.
A consulting company like Finite Engineering or Brash, Inc. is more useful for custom and new product development to serve your internal business operations or client needs.
Choosing the right company is a matter of project scale. Next, find a team that aligns with yours based on criteria for engineering excellence, including reputation, available services, capabilities, experience, and a project management workflow that is optimal and efficient for you.
Your business may need an outsourced engineering company when you don’t have an internal engineering department. Alternatively, teams with in-house engineers may find that their team is already overextended on other projects.
An outsourced engineering team can work as an extension of your existing team or provide the engineering resources that your team does not have on staff. Depending on your needs, an outsourced team can provide full-scope engineering services. For example, outsourced engineering firms exist that provide comprehensive product development and design to help you bring a new or custom product to market.
An outsourced engineering provider offers specialized skills and resources, so that companies can get access to talent they may not have in-house or supplement existing engineering resources.
Depending on your needs, a firm can deliver specialized expertise in a specific discipline, including mechanical, electrical, software, or civil engineering.
An outsourced engineering firm can implement specific tasks. For example, product engineers may offer finite element analysis (FEA), CAD, testing, validation, technical documentation, and other services to ensure an OEM’s equipment and machinery are running as intended. An outsourced team can also manage and deliver an entire project, such as a family of new products. They can guide this process from concept to manufacturing readiness.
Engineering outsourcing providers should be compared based on similar characteristics. Start by matching the size of your project to the size of the firm, while also determining whether their team can support your needs. Some firms may not have experience with your vertical or a related market.
Also consider comparing firms by engagement model. Some teams work on a fixed-bid basis, which allows your business to agree on a predetermined proposal and know the work will be completed efficiently without week-to-week worries about scope creep. Other teams bill by time and materials, selling a block of hours, or staffing your business with external support.
When comparing engineering providers, also consider their expertise and track record, communication, and project management capability.
The cost of outsourced engineering depends on specific factors. Although access to a specialist can save money on the cost of in-house hiring and improve your time to market, you should also consider how the outsourced work is structured.
The most cost-effective engagement models are purchasing a block of hours or a fixed-bid arrangement. A block of hours offers a reduced rate in exchange for committing to a volume of work, keeping the focus on output rather than the clock. A fixed bid puts estimation in the engineer’s hands to efficiently deliver a defined outcome. Both models focus on results over hourly rates and increase the overall value of your project in addition to the savings of hiring externally.
The best engineering consulting companies can be identified by location and focus, so you can choose strategically, depending on your needs.
Notable global firms:
Notable U.S. and Canadian firms:
The best firm for your business depends on your specific engineering needs. Consider your project scope, specialized skills needed, niche focus, or even the firm’s ability to visit you on-site.
The top engineering consulting companies in the U.S. include major global companies like AECOM and Tetra Tech and specialized consulting firms like Finite Engineering and Brash, Inc.
Global companies tend to focus on specific markets. For example, AECOM focuses on infrastructure and civil engineering, while Tetra Tech is a sustainability leader.
Specialized consulting firms have the agility to serve various industries. Finite Engineering has experience with product development and FEA for industries that rely on heavy equipment and machinery for daily operations.
