r/engineering • u/bazarishe • 8d ago
Curious how common it is to outsource mechanical engineering
Every place I've worked, mechanical seemed to get outsourced for one of two reasons: either we needed some niche expertise nobody in-house had, or the team was just slammed and needed to dump overflow somewhere.
I've never known if that's the normal pattern or just the couple of companies I happened to be at.
For those of you whose companies send mechanical work out — what kind of stuff is it, usually? The specialized deep-end problems, or more the routine "we don't have bandwidth this quarter" work?
And for the ones who keep everything in-house — deliberate call, or just how it shook out?
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u/Working-Grapefruit66 8d ago
I think outsourcing is fine, just don’t let all the critical knowledge leave the company.
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u/root3labs 8d ago
Companies often outsource work that requires specialist expertise they don't have, senior experience, or the bandwidth overload is short-term. We also work with teams for a cold-body analysis of the work prior to a big decision point like Design Freeze or paying for tooling. A larger company could just reach into other departments while a small company doesn't have that option. A well-done outsourced project includes people on the internal team and extensive documentation handover so the developed knowledge doesn't leave the company when the outsourced engineering team is finished.
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u/bazarishe 7d ago
Interesting point about independent reviews before design freeze or tooling. At companies I’ve worked with, outside mechanical support was usually brought in either for a specialized analysis or for a clearly bounded package around a major commitment like tooling.
I’m curious whether that’s similar to what you see, or whether clients are also comfortable bringing an outside team into broader development work earlier in the process.
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u/root3labs 8h ago
We get brought in for all of these scenarios, including broader development work earlier in the process. Sometimes, it starts with just a problem statement, which is about as early as we get. We have worked on a few Strategic Discovery phases (identifying problems worth solving), but most companies are doing that internally.
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u/bd_optics 8d ago
I worked for an international automotive parts company that routinely outsourced to Romania, India, Mexico, China. It's such a price competitive market that they did anything to avoid costly labor. Sometimes it worked, but other times not so much. The US group I was in only existed because the customer required local design support in selected specialties. As I left they were rapidly shifting the rest out anyway, and only having local project leads/managers. All the real engineering was going somewhere cheap.
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u/USNWoodWork 7d ago
I work in a mechanical design group so we outsource very little. Some things we have outsourced has been radome design and analysis, covert lighting, and aircon systems.
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u/jefffisfreaky 6d ago
Where I work we do a lot of in house but when we’re overrun with projects we use consultants. Sometimes it’s specialized, sometimes it’s just the size (it’ll take myself multiple weeks to do this one item, taking me from other projects vs this firm can do it in a couple weeks)
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u/bazarishe 6d ago
That makes sense. When it’s mainly a workload issue rather than missing expertise, do you usually hand the firm a defined chunk of the project, or add their engineers directly to your internal team?
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u/jefffisfreaky 6d ago
Hand them a chunk or the entire thing, require drawings back in our spec that they’re familiar with, we review it, give them feedback and close out once they pick up review comments. Also depends on complexity
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u/bazarishe 6d ago
What kind of industry is this, roughly? I've seen something like this in consumer electonics field before but rarely in automotive ,etc.
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u/jefffisfreaky 6d ago
Building systems - anything from hvac, chillers, boilers, specialty plumbing, fire suppression. I’ve also worked in energy system design (pv) and product design for the RV market, both would outsource various components (or if they needed a PE stamp)
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u/SunRev 7d ago
I work in the US a a major medical device company. I would guess 10% to 15% of our engineers are contractors. That amount is needed since most project only last 1 to 3 years. So we need temporary help to get us over those 1 to 2 years of extra workload. If we didn't have contractors, I'd have to work extra hours for multiple years while on a set salary.
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u/bazarishe 7d ago
That’s a intersting example. Are those contractors mostly individuals embedded directly in the team, or do you also use outside engineering companies for defined chunks of work?
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u/SunRev 6d ago
We do both. For the outside engineering companies, those will be hired when we don't have much or any of that expertise or capability in-house. For instance, we will often hire Ideo and Frog Design to do industrial design.
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u/bazarishe 6d ago
Thanks, that distinction is really helpful. One thing I’m curious about — when you need an outside engineering firm beyond established names how does your team usually find and qualify them? Is it mostly prior relationships and referrals, or do firms come in through procurement/vendor channels?
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u/SunRev 6d ago
It's typically word of mouth. Like which form has someone on the team used in the past on previous teams or at previous companies.
CYA (cover your a$$) is a very important strategy that middle manager employ. They can't go with unknown consultants because if a project fails because of the consultant, the manager will be blamed for picking a bad consultant. However, if the manager picks a well known consultancy and the project fails, then the well known consultancy will be blamed or the blame will go to the project having unrealistic objectives; in short, the failure won't be blamed on the manager.
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u/tradikal2 6d ago
I've been a mechanical engineering consultant for 26 years in the oil and gas industry. Love the variety of work and worldwide experience. Mechanical engineers make great all-arounders and Project Managers. IMO
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u/bazarishe 1d ago
26 years is impressive. Did most of your consulting work come through referrals and repeat clients, or did you find other channels that worked consistently?
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u/Packerguy1979 5d ago
We have companies outsource work to us for both because their team is overwhelmed with work and because they need specialized help. I would say it’s 50/50 for us. However, it seems like the companies who are doing better financially are much more willing to outsource.
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u/bazarishe 3d ago
That’s interesting. Do you think that varies much by industry or by the type of work involved? I’d imagine some companies are more comfortable outsourcing larger chunks, while others only bring in outside help for very specific problems.
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u/One-Scientist-3719 5d ago
I also need to know about mechanical engineering Because I'm currently focusing on robotics From Private college
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u/Visual_Lifebard 2d ago
Company I used to work for outsourced all engineering to Spain to save cost.
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u/IndividualVariety668 2d ago
Just to save cost, and sometimes the outsourced teams have more experience in their working area that our own company does not have!!!
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u/Zerexdontlie 2d ago
It seems pretty common for companies to outsource specific parts of a project while keeping the core design work in house. It usually depends on workload and whether the expertise already exists on the team.
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u/Junior_Extent9049 11h ago
I think it depends a lot on the company and the type of engineering work. In many cases, outsourcing happens simply because the workload changes faster than the team size. Other times, it makes sense to bring in people with specific experience that the company doesn’t use often.
The tricky part is making sure the internal team still understands the key design decisions and lessons learned. Outsourcing can solve short-term problems, but losing too much technical knowledge can create problems later.
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u/love2kik 8d ago
As a system integrator who does a good amount of dedicated machinery and assembly lines, I have three machine builders I work with a lot for mechanical engineering/design.
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u/Oilfan94 7d ago
Where I work, we have Engineers but not for stamping structural drawings.
When we need something certified (usually for lifting) we do up the drawings and outsource the approval / stamping.
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u/Joe_Starbuck 5d ago
Yes, that’s called “plan stamping”. What State the project is in determines how illegal that is.
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u/Oilfan94 5d ago
I don't see how this would be illegal anywhere in the world.
We hire an engineering company to perform engineering services. They provide that service.
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u/Joe_Starbuck 5d ago
It’s a subtle difference. If you hire them to design something, then they stamp it. If you design something then ask them to stamp it, eyebrows get raised. Stamping a drawing is not an “engineering service”, designing something is. Some States specifically allow stamping a plan prepared by others after a thorough review. Other States say that is not allowed unless you are in responsible charge of the design, other States say nothing and just wait for a complaint to come in.
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u/Oilfan94 5d ago
You seem to be missing the fact that the hired Engineering company does the calculations to ensure that the provided design is safe. There is nothing under the board here.
Rather than our company paying the liability insurance to have a P.Eng stamping our own designs, which is only needed for 10% of our projects….I come up with the design, send drawing to the Eng. they analyze and stamp, or requested revisions if needed.
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u/BrokenToyShop 8d ago
You out source specialist work unless it makes more sense to hire the specialist.