Engineering everywhere

Companies are increasingly leveraging global resources and tools to help develop products faster and more cost-effectively.

Following in the steps of IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) before it, product development and engineering services is poised to see the next major wave of outsourcing, according to some industry experts. Consumers' demand for more product and automakers' need to get products to market more quickly and cost-effectively has put a strain on engineering resources domestically, leading more and more companies to explore outsourcing.

While similar in the fact that certain business functions will be contracted out to individuals in countries such as India and China, this next wave of outsourcing is expected to be unique from previous efforts.