Engineering companies and companies that highly depend on engineering teams are under a lot of pressure coming from both investors and customer expectations. Back office operations handled by engineers are complex and dynamic and they can easily spread the engineering department thin. This can result in serious consequences related to the quality of their work and various development costs, thus making the future of the company hang in the balance. In order to reduce the development costs and ensure high quality of work, companies can do any of the following.
How Industrial Engineering can Help to Reduce Development Costs
Utilize One of The Financial Management Systems
There are numerous types of business software out there. If you would like to reduce the costs of back office operations, one way is to use a tool for accurate financial reporting on the team’s profitability. The primary goal, should you decide to pursue this idea, is to maximize employee utilization. These tools can enable you to track the utilization for each employee in the engineering department and to identify weak points in your current utilization practices. These tools can also provide you with accurate reports on the current job’s profitability. The main factors here are hours needed for the completion of job, expected revenue, and labor cost. With this tool, you will easily see if there is room for improvement.
Outsource Back Office Operations
When it comes to reducing costs in industrial engineering, you have to address the 3 main areas: human factors, process and layout design and utilization of the latest hardware and software. But, as you might have guesses, in order to experience reduced development costs, you should heavily invest into these 3 areas. This is why many companies decide to outsource their back office operations to partners who have experience in architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering. Their services cover numerous operations ranging from engineering, drawing and drafting, to 3D modeling, cost estimation and element analysis. By outsourcing engineering to an experienced and established partner, you will tap into their experience, tools and expertise. The companies that provide industrial engineering services have access to top talent and the latest hardware and software. And, you can be sure that they will bring the best practices in the industry to your project and company. If you decide to pursue this idea, make sure that your future partner has experience in your industry and to check the reviews of their previous clients.
Improve the Design Process
In order to reduce the development costs, a company should assess and improve the design process of its products and services. Industrial engineering plays a huge role in this, as engineering teams are directly responsible for this.
- These are the main goals set by the leaders in the industry:
- Product has to meet the product cost target
- Products have to be launched in time
- Products have to meet the quality targets right from the start
- Product costs have to be decreased, especially for new products
In order to reach these goals, you will have to invest into technologies that will enable engineers to make smarter and better decisions. One of the ways to achieve this is to enable engineers to gain access to prototypes as early as possible. Engineers also have to have real-time access into the status of the product’s performance. This way, you can identify issues early on and reduce development costs in the long run. Especially if you plan on upgrading the product in the future. Enable engineers to use simulation techniques. Before proceeding to manufacturing, engineers have to be able to run the simulations. With proper software and hardware in their hands, engineers can track and fix failures, thus improving the product before launch.
These are the 3 ways to reduce development costs with industrial engineering. As you can see, industrial engineering provides a lot of opportunities for improvements in product/service design, while reducing the development costs. There are also established outsource partners whose industrial engineering services stand at your disposal at all times.