15 Feb FEA and CFD – Make or Buy
Since 2003, FEA-Solutions (UK) Ltd has been providing engineering analysis and numerical simulation for over 281 customers around the globe.
Over the years, some of our customers asked us to help them decide if it was better for them to do FEA and CFD in-house, or to outsource. In case your company is in a similar situation, the following thoughts might help you in your assessment:
If it comes to a Make or Buy decision, most people first think of a cost comparison. On the Make side, apart from the staff cost, software purchase and license renewal has to be taken into account, as well as continuous training effort and the fact that many companies wouldn’t be able to make a highly paid simulation specialist busy with analysis all the time. On the Buy side, the cost is usually only the fees of the consultant.
But there is much more to a Make or Buy decision than just a cost comparison.
A non-financial consideration is for example that most companies would need only one analyst, meaning that there is no second person in the organisation who is qualified to check in detail what this analyst has done, which is not an issue when outsourcing.
The most convincing argument for a Make decision is if your company regards FEA or CFD as a core capability needed to advance your product. If that is the case, even the outcome of a cost comparison shouldn’t affect the decision significantly.
If you have to decide on Make or Buy for engineering analysis, please call us today on 01202 798991. Be assured that our recommendations will always focus on the benefit of your organisation only.
It should be noted that our biggest customer initially decided to do FEA in-house, but nevertheless uses us during periods of high work load and to develop new analysis methods.