How does outsourcing CAD drawings work?
Introduction
There are two reasons why a company would be looking to outsource their CAD requirements.
- The current CAD Department cant handle the work load
- There is no CAD Department
This article will be focusing on scenario number 2. Even though expanding a CAD department has its own challenges, the understanding of Computer Aided Design would already be present.
Why outsource CAD – because its not that simple in-house
Why outsource CAD
More and more projects require CAD Drawings of some kind. The requirements are set out in the contract. Submission of the relevant drawings are usually requested prior to proceeding with install, fabrication or manufacture. The electronic CAD files (2D or 3D) produced by a CAD Services can be used/changed or compared by all disciplines involved in a project. Further, CAD files are used for direct implications into the manufacturing process (such as DXF or NC files for Steel fabrication and STL files for 3D printing).
Getting CAD Drawings done is far more than just a CAD license or a CAD Technician. Further, outsourcing does not just have a cost benefit. More importantly, the benefits are in the quality of the drawings produced by a professional CAD outsourcing company.
Many companies know it is not effective to have their own CAD Department and prefer to stay with their core competencies and outsource their CAD.
Why not just employ or hire a CAD Guy instead of CAD outsourcing?
To get good quality drawings made takes more than just employing a CAD Technician.
You will need:
- A workstation, suitable for CAD (very approximate £1,500 – £3,000), depending on requirements
- CAD License (between £1,000 for basic 2D to £20,000 for high end 3D)
- Support contracts for CAD (must have a professional business) espanolfarm.com/
- Data Management procedures and Software
- CAD Standards & Libraries
- Desk
- CAD Manager (manager to have an understanding of CAD, check drawings in conjunction with client requirements)
Implications of outsourcing to India/Oversees
Outsourcing to India seems a great idea when you compare the hourly rates. However, after the time it takes to manage a team on another continent, the high possibility of the requirements not being followed correctly will probably result in the cons outweighing the pros.
For more information on this subject please see my article here.
Benefits of Outsourcing to a professional CAD Services
Cost Benefits:
One often thinks that outsourcing might be expensive when evaluating the hourly rates. However, if one takes into account a Draftmans salary, Computer Hardware, CAD Licenses & Support contracts in relation to how many hours of pure CAD will be offset against these cost advantages become apparent. A successful CAD Company will have next to no downtime. This means that the fixed costs are spread over a full working year of pure CAD which is about 1800 hours.
So when evaluating the cost of outsourcing, estimate how many hours of CAD only you would require.
Quality Benefits
A Outsourcing CAD Service does Computer Aided Design as their core competency. A professional service will have internal checking procedures, Data Management & Revision Systems as well as a managment structure to guaranty a high level of quality.
Knowledge Benefits
CAD Services work with CAD all day, every day. Therefore their staff including Management & Sales will have a very high level of Computer Aided Design knowledge & experience. They understand which software to use when and how the drawing should be layout out and the information it should include.
Process of outsourcing CAD Drawings to a CAD company
Every project is slightly different. However, here at Restoric Design we use a very simple way that has proven successful for small Jobs as well as large construction projects. As with many aspects in live, the goal is to make it simple enough that everyone follows the procedure. There is no reason to overcomplicate something, as people will either just not use it or apply their own procedure.
At Restoric Design, we have many account customers. They get billed monthly, depending on the amount of hours used. We always agree a hourly rate and minimum time for commencing work in the outset. Some of our customers require work to get started within 24 hours others 1 or 2 weeks. Therefore our hourly rates for account customers are mainly based on the CAD package required and turnaround time.
The procedure we use is simple. Using Cloud Data Storage we use a 4 Folder system:
Process of outsourcing CAD
This process has proven itself across many disciplines and project sizes.
For more CAD Outsourcing please contact Restoric Design on 01462 429 707 or email us at info@jensen-consulting.co.uk.
