Outsourcing Engineering Jobs

Today I was reading some topic about the the challenges of outsourcing. Few people are very negative in that topic about the cost and ineffectiveness. Please check here.

Here is my true opinion about outsourcing. Companies have to be really careful while outsourcing their services. Not all services can be outsourced. Where the project requires more skill and specialization, direct interaction with team better to keep it local instead of outsourcing. Those projects like engineering changes, CAD work, CAM, new concept developments, VA/VE projects etc., can be very effectively outsourced.

There is not hard and fast rule about cost comparison. It mainly depends on the skills available at offshore center, their proactiveness, resources availability etc. If we miss or overlook these factors, we end up paying more cost for outsourced projects.

Another important factor is communication. I have been the project coordinator for almost four years. It is very important to convey the requirements to offshore team. Better to give clear inputs and requirements in beginning to save time and to reduce communication. At the end, today's economy is a global pool of resources. Where skills are available at low price, jobs will go there. It is obvious for any manufacturer or trader to run their business effectively.


Jythra Engineering Services
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Engineers' Drive for Energy in 21st Century

Hello, thanks for visiting.

In my opinion, energy is the most important factor in 21st century. As the cost of energy sources (natural gas, petrol, diesel etc.) are going up, we need to concentrate well on alternate sources of energy.

About 3 minutes of energy coming from Solar insolation can meet the energy requirements of World for one year. There are no effective methods yet in the industry to capture the solar energy. Engineers should put more efforts in this direction to help the World.

Energy is the key source for almost any activity. If we can generate cheap energy, we can ensure more automation and make human lives more comfortable.

Tidal power is also another huge natural source for countries have large length of sea shores such as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Australia etc.

Once again, "drive for energy" is my slogan for engineers in 21st Century.


Jythra Engineering Services
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Unigraphics CAM - Boundary Machining

Today I would like to share the boundary machining methodology I tried recently. In one of my recent project on Aluminum machining, I have nested four parts. My intention was to create four different parts from a single stock. It includes the rough cavity cut and finish fixed contour cut.

I have used #8 counter sunk screw to hold the part and used a 1/8" dowel pin to avoid rotation of part. 1/8" Ball nose cutter was used for entire machining.

I normally prefer to use a single cutter for complete machining which eliminates the need of "Z" point reset.

Instead of machining the unnecessary stock material, I have created a rough boundary against each part which is slightly greater than the tool diameter. I wanted to separate the remaining stock in block form itself instead of machining it into chips.

I have taken care to use the transfer plane as clearance plane instead of previous plane at each level of cut. Well, it all worked well except for one problem. There was a chunk of island remained after the boundary cut which was separated from parts. I have not cleared the bottom surface of material so that this island can fall down.

Hence, it remained inside the pocket hindering the tool movement in successive cuts. Luckily I was watching the machine that time, slowed down the cutting speed and carefully removed the island. It was almost breaking the cutter.

So, here is the lesson I learnt. It is a very good practice to do the boundary machining with clearance plane transfer (don't forget this to avoid cutter fouling with in process work piece). You have to make sure the solid scrap material will fall down automatically after its separation from the blank stock.

This method can save up to 30 to 40% of overall machining time.


Jythra Engineering Services
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Engineering Services Outsourcing - Moving jobs

Today is not a good day for my colleagues and thus me. At one of our Client's place in US, there was a head count reduction. I was surprised to see my direct customer got laid-off. She is very sincere and hard working, and continuing in the job for about 19 years. Still I could not believe that few other people like her lost jobs. Almost 20% cut in head count.

The main reasons I could account for this are low economy, cost challenges and outsourcing. I am in outsourcing business for almost 8 years both at on site and offshore. In my opinion, outsourcing the engineering projects is not a cake walk. Offshore team need several inputs to complete the desired task. We cannot expect the technical competencies on few core technologies. Not everything can be outsourced. Companies has to realize and carefully assert the benefits of outsourcing. Can they justify the direct cost benefits by loosing senior most employees who carry lot of knowledge about their products and processes? May be not.

Anyways, globalization is changing social life everywhere. There are very few technology barriers across the globe due the development of globalization and Internet.


Jythra Engineering Services
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Unigraphics NX Best Practices - Wave Link Geometry

Here is one of the best methods we use in Unigraphics NX software to create linked parts.

Let us take an example of Left Hand (LH) and Right Hand (RH) parts which are symmetrical and opposite to each other. In this case, instead of remodeling the opposite hand part separately, it is better to link to the original part using wave geometry linker in Unigraphics NX.

First complete the first model (either LH or RH which is desired or shown on the drawing). Then create a new part with opposite hand part number. Add the the original CAD model to the structure of new part through add component option of assemblies.

The first feature in new model has to be extracted face from original part through wave geometry linker. If no flat face or edges available, then you have to depend on datums. Instead of creating a fixed datum plane in new part, wave link an existing datum plane from original part. Again this is also through wave geometry linker option. If face is linked, then create a datum from this in new part.

However, the preference is to link the datum from original part to reduce number of features and file size. Once the datum plane is available for mirror, use wave geometry linker "mirror body" option to create the opposite hand part. Make sure you are using right plane in view of mirror plane.

This way, the opposite hand part has 100% link to the original CAD model. Even the original model is moved/rotated the opposite hand part will update automatically.

Jythra Engineering Services

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Mechanical Engineering Trends in next two years

According to ASME, following are the main trends that impact Mechanical Engineering:

• IT/e-commerce
• Globalization
• Corporate downsizing
• Micro-mechanics & Materials
• Rate of Social Change
• Industry Standards
• Multiple Thinking
• Environment & Safety
• Foreign Standards
• Mobile work force
• CAD CAM

The impact of these trends are shown on following graph in descending order. Values are shown in approximate percentages.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Surprisingly, CAD CAM technologies are playing least role. However, information technology is playing a crucial role which includes design automations, embedded systems, low cost automation etc.

Jythra Engineering Services
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Nesting of parts while machining using CAM

While working on a recent CAM project using CAD model, we found few interesting techniques. In the first job, we requested the operator to use a 1/4" Ball nose cutter of 1" long. We were expecting there could be some tool flexing because for the first cavity profile cut. But he used almost 1 1/2" long cutter. Finally, once the machining is done there is a clear cut draft left on the part which is almost 3 degrees. Also, there was not enough overpass of ball nose at the bottom of the part leaving a radius there. It was not too bad other than doing some manual cleanup of the part after machining.

In our second batch of CAM, we nested four parts as shown on image from two separate CAD models. So, we have to make a single pre-machining block to make two separate parts of quantity two each. Also, we tried to machine only up to 4 mm around the part using 1/4" cutter. This saved us almost 50% of machining time as we eliminated machining unneeded stock. Also, we ensured the cutter overhang is only 22mm just more than nose overpass. This didn't cause any tool flex and squeak.

Another interesting thing is after doing the rough cut with 1/4" cutter, we lost the datums where we set original zero. So, for finish cut we have not changed X and Y coordinates. But, asked the operator to reset Z with respect part top surface which was intentionally left unmachined before. This helped us in quickly running the finish cut using 1/8" cutter without much time on reference point set.

Jythra Engineering Services

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Link Exchange Practices

I have few suggestions on link exchange practice. Do not blindly accept link offers from any one. Also, do not submit your site for free link providers. They will not add any value to you other than spam. Also, there is a danger of backlising of your site by search engines.

Here is a best way you can do to get link popularity. Go to famous search engines and type your keywords. Leave the top 20 sites and contact the next 20 sites for a link exchange request. Do not hesitate to share your profile and products/services. Give proper reasons/justification to them to accept your offer. It will lot of value on your page rank.

Remember, do not contact your very direct competitors. They may not accept your offer and also it is not good for both of you.


Jythra Engineering Services
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Engineering Services and CAD CAM Scenario

Global economy is becoming me challengeous each day. Survival is becoming tough in engineering community. The key factors driving this are:

• Technical knowhow
• Skill availability
• Time to market product
• Product development and production costs

In my opinion, engineering services are more critical for outsourcing. It requires lot of communication and inputs with offshore design/development team to get the things done ontime.

However, the most of the major engineering companies tried and established offshore design and development centers successfully.

It is equally important for small and medium size businesses to get reliable services from BPO/outsourcing companies.

Jythra Engineering Services

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