Take the quiz to find out what kind of engineer you were born to be. This is a fun interactive quiz that will give you the answer to which engineer personality traits and characteristics you most relate with!

EAC Product Development Solutions provides companies with a Design and Engineering Services Team, a team of engineering experts that can provide anything from 3D printing prototypes to applying your products to an Internet of Things (IoT) platform. We refer to our team as the Extensioneering Team because we are quite literally an extension of your own team. We are here to help you with critical project deadlines and the prevention of engineering backlog.

First things first, lets address the elephant in the room. Any engineer or designer reading this article, at some level, is having the same thought.. “Why would I hire an engineering design firm to assist with an engineering project? I don’t want to replace myself.”

To that I say – no one is trying to replace you. Or your job. Let’s look at it from another angle.

Engineering and design firms want to help the client in whatever capacity they need. They’re here to assist existing engineering teams, not replace them.

If you’ve been overwhelmed with the tasks on your to-do list, then it’s probably crossed your mind that you could use the help but are afraid to ask. You are already getting s#*t done but don’t want to fall behind just because you’re in your busy season and there’s a billion things to do. By convincing your boss to get assistance with an engineering project, you can free up your time to focus on major projects that you and your team have already began while giving the projects that you have put on the back burner to another team that can help you get it done in time.

Many engineering service providers want to help you. Convincing upper management to take on the task of hiring outside engineering services may be easier than you think. You just have to find the right strategy to go about it. Here are some tips to help you get what you want.

Do Your Homework

Prioritizing which projects you plan on executing in-house and which ones you want to outsource is a good place to start. You should be researching what your options are for outsourcing – most likely your company has already partnered with an engineering services team in the past that will work with you to get your projects done. If not, then you should be prepared to do a little research on who you plan on outsourcing to.

Your team is already doing an awesome job by hitting your goals and overall getting things done day to day – an engineering services provider is just an additional team to help out while your team is in a bind for time. You should always be able to have some convincing material to help you answer this question: “How is my proposal going to help my boss achieve his or her goals?”

Just remember that you’re trying to make less work for your team with your proposal – so make sure that you’re pointing out exactly how outsourcing will work for your engineering project and for your team. Your boss will be more likely to listen to you if you’ve done your homework and are willing to give him or her a few solid options.

Highlight the Benefits

Most likely your team already knows the benefits of outsourcing, especially if you’ve worked with an outsourced engineering team before. Highlighting the benefits of outsourcing is even more essential if you’ve had an outsourced project go sour in the past. Make sure you have 2-3 major advantages in mind when bringing up the proposal to management. Examples of advantages should include the cost savings that would incur (the number one factor why companies choose to outsource even when they already have an engineering team) and always make sure to focus on how outsourcing the engineering project would benefit the consumer.

To be more persuasive, make sure you bring up anticipated disadvantages as well. You wouldn’t want to leave your boss with any surprises, would you? If there ends up being any focus or major concerns about these disadvantages, then bring up preemptive solutions. A back up for your back up plan, if you will. For example, if you expose the possible risk of leaked confidential data while outsourcing, then you should also have a plan to mitigate the risk. This should help you to be more convincing in the fact that you thought this through with realistic expectations.

Propose an Un-committed Commitment

You don’t have to make it seem like it’s a die-hard commitment if you know there will be hesitance in the proposal. If you know your boss is precarious to situations that involve a little risk, then you can explain that outsourcing this project can act as an experiment going forward. You can reassure management that your team will analyze the results of outsourcing to a third party so that you can weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of working with that specific engineering team in the future. Ensuring your boss that he or she is still in control of the outcome will put their mind at ease.

The other important take-away of hiring an engineering services provider is that it can be on an as-needed project basis. If you present your proposal to your boss and emphasize the fact that it is not a permanent arrangement, then you will have more elbow room for your other points. Your boss cares about getting things done and keeping costs down – remind him or her that hiring an engineering services provider would add capabilities to your team during a busy season without adding permanent overhead. Remember you are adding the services as an extension of your team, not having the provider take over completely.

Present Proof of Success

How has success been measured with the outsourced engineering team in the past? Which types of projects does the company have the most experience in? Don’t think that your boss won’t ask these questions. Simply, point out who outsourced what and how it worked out for that company. Consider finding an outsourcing example with the company that is similar to your own project that you’d like to outsource.

If you’re looking for ideas you could show to upper management, you could show them a case study on faster time to market or a case study on keeping up with client demand.

It may even be a good idea to get a free project scope if the company offers one before you bring the proposal to your boss. If you’re confident with your proposal, then you’re ready to talk to your boss.

Of course, there are times where you think your team can take on the world no problem because well, you’re that good. But most of the time it is about much more than handling multiple projects at once. It’s about making sure the job gets done without compromising quality and the reputation of your brand.

Have you ever over-committed and realized at a certain point that it was too much for your team to take on? Without finding a solution would mean under-achieving on tasks just so that you and your team could get everything done. Let’s face it – the working memory of human brain has a limited capacity. In fact, only 2% of the population is actually proficient at multi-tasking.

So why waste your time trying to beat the odds? Here are 3 reasons why you need to stop taking on too many projects.

1. It’s a Sign that You’re Not Delegating your Tasks Appropriately

Stop doing everything yourself and let others help you. Delegating your tasks to those that have the time and expertise to do so will help you eliminate the risks of under-performing on projects.

It’s important for us to realize that we can seek help when it is needed. We can’t always do everything ourselves. It is better for you to let someone take over some of your tasks so you can focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figure something out yourself, let the experts help you.

Manufacturing and Product Development departments are turning to Engineering Services offered through small to medium sized companies and handing off projects to engineers outside of their own business to meet time-sensitive deadlines.

2. It’s Intensifying Your Time Management Problem

If you’re already past the point of planning ahead, then you can still manage the time you have left by dividing your remaining tasks into manageable goals. The plan is to increase productivity in the long run by finding ways to save and manage the time you currently have. Finding a long term solution for time management will result in working smarter, not harder.

Time management is not something that everyone is great at all the time. The important thing is to recognize when you are having a hard time and seek out the appropriate solution.

3. It Means that You’re Not Prioritizing your Projects

Determine what the optimal number of projects is that you should be managing to ensure appropriate planning and strong execution and control. You should be spending 75% of your time and effort on the projects within your team that are top priority. The other 25% of projects should be assigned to those that can take on the project with minimal interjection on your part.

Eliminate a chaotic work environment by handing off the lowest priority tasks to others and gaining back control of your highest priorities.

Why you should turn to EAC’s Engineering Services Team

Our Engineering Services Team at EAC Product Development Solutions – coined the Extensioneering Services — work with manufacturers, academic institutions, and engineering and design organizations throughout North America. Our engineering experts are located in Burnsville, Minnesota and are working around the clock to ensure they deliver engineering solutions that exceed our customer’s expectations.

Delivering quality work is a critical part of maintaining the trust of your customers. Our engineers leverage years of experience and deep knowledge of engineering disciplines to provide you with fast, high quality, and innovative design services. EAC has completed more than 400 projects over the last 20 years. We take pride in our ability to adapt to the ever-changing technology landscape to provide innovative solutions to our customer’s problems.

If you’re leading a team that could use some help, fill out this form to receive a free project scope.

For some engineers, specifying a screw thread is no more than determining diameter and length and then searching through a parts catalog. For others, a custom thread is the difference between a successful surgical outcome with enhanced quality of life or a disappointing result that may require a revision surgery. A bone screw, whether used in a reconstructive, spinal, or other application, can be such an example.

A bone screw typically begins with a conical tip. The major diameter of the screw quickly increases to provide purchase in order to draw the screw into the bone. However, the minor diameter increases more gradually to reduce insertion force until the final portion is engaged into the bone. At this point the increasingly large tapered minor diameter provides a press fit into the outer (cortical) layer of the bone. This thread geometry is illustrated in Figure 1. The overall thread geometry is critical to providing stability to the affected area to allow bone growth and ultimately healing.

EAC’s Engineering and Design Services team recently worked on a project that clearly showed the advantage of using Creo versus SolidWorks to create this critical thread geometry. Several years ago the Engineering and Design Services team worked with an orthopedic company to create a series of bone screws varying in diameter and length for reconstructive surgeries. They used PTC Creo to create CAD models and drawings. The company was recently acquired by a global orthopedic corporation that used Solidworks 2016. The larger company insisted that the CAD models and drawings be recreated in SolidWorks 2016 for compatibility with internal corporate standards.

While working on the task, the Engineering and Design Services team found difficulty in reproducing the identical thread geometry using SolidWorks. Creo uses a single thread feature containing two individual sketches; one for thread profile and another for thread trajectory. This feature easily creates the varying thread tapers for the screw. Figure 2 shows the completed part and associated features in the model tree on the left hand side of the picture.

Recreating the same geometry in Solidworks requires 11 separate features and 8 sketches as shown in the model tree in Figure 3. Separate threaded features were required for the straight thread and the tapered thread at the tip of the screw. In addition, two helical curves were needed for each of the threaded features. One curve was required to provide the thread trajectory while the second helical curve was needed to fix the thread profile normal to the longitudinal axis of the screw.

The additional time to generate the needed features in Solidworks was significant for each part when compared to Creo and combined to substantial time savings for the entire project. This example illustrates why Creo is a superior application to SolidWorks.

The pressure to develop more and better products in less time is increasing. Your 3D CAD solution should enable you to provide your best work to produce your innovative ideas quickly and add advanced capabilities when you need them. The best tool for this is PTC Creo. PTC delivers the most scalable range or 3D CAD product development packages on the market today. Read more about why you should design using PTC Creo here.

As I was sipping on my coffee and brainstorming how to begin writing this blog, I had an epiphany. I could sit here and tell you about 6 ways to build an effective IoT strategy, I could. Or I could tell you to go to this page, and download a brochure that discusses everything I would have mentioned in this blog.

I was going to provide 6 ways you can develop an effective IoT strategy, with exclusive information detailing how EAC Connect Services can do such a thing. However, we have a brochure that does that. So, in an effort to minimize redundancy, how about you read through the brochure, dig through our IoT blogs here, and after you do that, we’ll give you a call.

The IoT is expected to drive exponential growth over the next 10 years. So much so that ‘things’ will outnumber human life. You don’t want to miss the opportunity sitting right in front of you. Join the movement. Call us –  EAC Connect Services is here to help you develop your IoT strategy. Let us be your partner in the ever-changing world of the IoT.

Recently you may have heard talk around the topic of agile engineering from PTC, Formlabs, and even us, here at EAC. We have many events throughout the year regarding lean product development; reviewing agile engineering, systems thinking methodologies, and more. Be sure to check if we’re hosting an event in your area here.

In the meantime, our friend Joris Peels over at Formlabs wrote an article discussing why agile engineering is the future of product design that reviews the benefits of agile engineering versus “the old way.”

In case you haven’t heard, in May EAC Product Development Solutions became a North American Channel Partner in the commercial, discrete manufacturing, and educational space. We now offer The Form 2 3D Printer to our customer’s to insert high-quality stereolithography (SLA) prototyping into their engineering and design workflows, for a fraction of the cost of competing technologies. Learn more about The Form 2 here.

Why Agile Engineering is the Future of Product Design

Agile Engineering is a popular process in software development, but few hardware teams apply these practices to develop physical products. For many hardware teams, implementing Agile Engineering practices saves time and money and improves the end product.

In Agile Engineering, teams quickly iterate, test, and gather feedback on product design. It divides big challenges into measurable chunks of work and promises more accurate and rapid product development cycles. Teams are self-managed and work in short two-week sprints driven by user feedback. This feedback guides teams to build a product that meets user needs.

Rather than start with a lengthy requirements phase that covers the entire span of the project, requirements are created as the team works. Requirements are specific and tied to user value. By testing features and new builds, teams verify if they are solving user problems and developing the right product.

The Benefits of Agile Engineering

With digital manufacturing tools such as mills, laser cutters, and 3D printers, hardware engineers can now develop ideas while concurrently testing them with users. Key benefits of this method include:

• Continuous collection of feedback from customers means that designs are tracking with customer needs.
• The interplay between design, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing allows teams to understand each other’s needs and challenges better.
• Each iteration gives you a physical prototype to hold and discuss. Kinesthetic learners, experiential learners, non-technical people in a technical meeting, people new to the subject matter–they will all learn from holding and discussing an actual prototype.
• Testing the physical prototype helps you identify and solve problems.
• More, quicker, and cheaper iterations mean that a higher number of possible solution paths can be explored.
• Continuous testing means that engineering risks are exposed throughout the process.

Agile Engineering unites teams across the organization and creates a better end product. By responding to user feedback with prototypes, teams develop products that users want.

The Old Way vs. Agile Engineering

In the “Old Way,” teams predicted demand months in advance. They turned a single prototype into mass manufactured goods. This method was risky: teams had a hard time predicting future demand. As a result, companies often had either product shortage or unsold inventory. Instead, Agile Engineering tests prototypes. It improves them with consumer feedback. This method develops products quicker and reduces risk.

*After week 7, an Agile team receives feedback on sales numbers. If the product is successful, and if it can be produced more cheaply using mass manufacturing, then they may decide to design the case for injection molding.

In the Old Way, the company has to predict market demand and consumer tastes months in advance. If Company A makes a decision once a season, and Company B makes informed decisions every day, then Company B will get ahead. Agile Engineering saves companies not only time, but also money in the long run. The Agile method has a higher startup time and initial cost, but the cost per final product is low. Plus, the end product is shaped by market demands, ultimately yielding greater profit.

Cost Comparison

Another benefit of Agile Engineering is that it encourages teams to fail quickly. By failing faster, teams learn and improve at a faster pace than those that do not. Learning from failure through prototypes helps companies quickly build better products. By validating assumptions and collecting data, these products are made in a more accurate, evidential way.

With traditional methods, teams painstakingly make world maps and then spend months planning a possible route through this imagined world. Only then do they have a product and really know where they stand. With Agile Engineering, products emerge in the first week of product development. Teams set off and check their compass often.