Cost aside, the biggest advantage of having an offshore design center on the globe is the time difference, for example, the headquarters in US and the extended team sitting in Bangalore. There is of course a big "IF" attached to the statement and that is an efficient concurrent engineering process and tools. Actually, more than concurrent, I would say sequential designing would be the efficiency enhancer. The same tools that enable concurrent engineering would be used.
Consider a situation where the idea is generated through R&D in the US center. A project plan is drawn up that consists of 5 modules given to five group of engineers to work on. These 5 modules would be designed in parallel, in their own sandboxes. Within each group, every engineer would have their own sandbox where the subassembies would be created. One of the teams would maintain the master model where the individual engineer would place their subassemblies so the pieces fall in place to form the complete picture. All PDM tools enable concurrent designing, including features like revision control, access control, part number generation, processes for production release and so on. Apart from this, some PDM tools like teamcenter engineering can work on servers located across the globe, synchronizing and updating the data on the servers automatically and mirroring them instantly.
When the engineering teams are located across the globe, the groups can take advantage of the fact that working hours are spread over 16 hours. The engineer can work during his/her working hours and then check in and the engineer on the other side would take up the same design from the mirror server at that location. This kind of relay desiging and baton passing can happen when the design goals are clearly defined in the statement of work, efficient communication channels are in place and the engineers are not too possesive about their designs! Then, let the magic of collaboration begin.
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