Customer expectations evolve with time, changing the nature of the products and services. Today’s digital products/platforms have completely revolutionized the way we think, live, and consume. They’ve also redefined how service is delivered and what delivery looks like. For example, a virtual vs physical shopping cart, a recommendation engine vs a salesperson, or a streaming platform vs a DVD. To stay ahead of competitors and continuously develop and improve products, companies must look for ways to simplify their processes and portfolios. Speed and efficiency are critical, particularly where hardware and software are deeply intertwined. Companies can choose to do it all in-house, or they can partner with experienced engineering service providers. Where Industry 4.0 is concerned, however, engineering service providers offer a clear advantage.
Why Use Engineering Services in Product Development?
Engineering is the process of building products, platforms, and technologies. “Engineering services” typically refers to the bundle of product/process-related expertise and services provided by a third-party provider. These engineering service providers can help product companies improve their product-making ability. There are two types of providers:
Product companies may choose to outsource work to engineering services firms for many reasons, but most organizations choose to partner for access to the depth of product-development experience and process-management expertise.
Figure 1: Benefits of Engineering Services on Product Management
Engineering services firms help product companies with all aspects of making and launching products. Based on their experience with similar companies across sectors and geographies, the firms’ help can range from improving processes inside a company to leveraging market-leading partnerships and academic collaborations.
Figure 2: Benefits of Engineering services on Product Launch
A good product is an outcome of an integrated strategy. Some companies may have tens or hundreds of products requiring a solid strategy to manage the complete product portfolio. An effective strategy needs relevant technology standards, partnerships, compliance, and access to the right markets. Success is not only driven by how good the product is, but by the quality of the product ecosystem. Engineering services firms can help by establishing the latest proven strategies in models, frameworks, and product lifecycle management.
Engineering Services in Industry 4.0
Engineering services partners can deliver particular value for companies working with Industry 4.0 principles. This new industrial revolution is creating a fundamental change: merging the physical (devices) and virtual (software systems) worlds. In this merged world, products and their means of production get networked and can “communicate,” enabling new ways of production, value creation, and real-time optimization. While productivity gains like reduced production time and better utilization are Industry 4.0’s more commonly known benefits, the approach has an impact in a number of other significant ways.
With enhanced production time, increased asset utilization, and augmented inventory management, productivity gains will be realized. The use of sensors to monitor production processes and correct errors will improve product quality. Machines and robots will be smarter and more flexible, able to execute various production steps. And all of these benefits will result in faster time to market.
Additional advancements will be seen throughout the work environment. Automation will improve safety and ergonomically adapted workstations will promote better working conditions. Collaboration will increase with the availability of more data and optimized use of resources will boost environmental protection. All of the new technological gains will support further innovation.
Companies will find Industry 4.0 challenging, as new skill sets and insights are required to adopt these profoundly different technologies. Engineering services firms, having worked with organizations around the world, offer unique perspectives on solutions that use these new technologies. Those perspectives help product companies in their journey to achieve a networked state of cyber-physical systems with the associated data infrastructure.
Figure 3: Skills Required for Industry 4.0
Product companies can leverage various combinations of these new technologies to create industry-specific solutions. Examples include creating digital representations of physical objects/systems for simulations, creating a network of sensors attached to tools/devices/vehicles for tracking, product experience validation through AR/VR, and prototype creation using additive techniques. An engineering services partner can likely make valuable contributions in each of these cases, speeding the product company’s adoption and evolution.
Wipro’s engineering expertise spans connected products, software, wireless, data platforms, and Industry 4.0. EngineeringNXT is the umbrella for Wipro’s engineering-services offerings. Having worked with the world’s leading corporations in a variety of domains, we look forward to helping product companies leverage engineering services to build competitive advantage, implement simplified processes/tools, and create business models for successful growth.
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Ishan Srivastava
Strategy Consultant, ER&D, Wipro Limited
Ishan Srivastava is a strategy consultant with the Engineering, Research and Development (ER&D) group at Wipro. He helps define key ER&D strategic initiatives and their operationalization. Earlier in his career, he was part of the team that pursued large deals and managed partnerships for ER&D. Ishan holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore and BTech from IIT Madras.