Could India recreate the success of the software industry in the engineering and design space? That's the question being asked as the trend of companies here providing high-end engineering and design services through the out-sourcing model escalates. At first glance, the engineering outsourcing space looks like a complex maze of activities, stretching across myriad verticals with each requiring specific engineering skills. The areas range from automotive to aerospace and from industrial machinery to energy generation plants. Of special significance, in India, is the work being conducted in automotive, aerospace and electrical design.

Over the years a number of captive units (Indian R&D units of a single company) and third-party vendors (that take on outsourced work from numerous firms) have been set up. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) industry, companies with captive units in engineering and development include Bechtel, Flour Daniel, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments and Motorola. In addition to these, IT vendors like Wipro and Satyam Computer Services have also leveraged their skills in the engineering domain, coupled with project management and a global service delivery capacity, to become important players in this space. Finally, there are specialist engineering services vendors like Neilsoft, Sierra Atlantic, Geometric and QUEST.

"From a demand perspective, the automotives and aerospace verticals are believed to be the largest customers for engineering and design services. India's world-class local automotive sector and burgeoning aviation sector, has created the necessary skills - both technical and managerial for ready employment in the industry," says Joydeep Datta Gupta, ex-ecutive director of PwC.

As with all other forms of outsourcing, the biggest advantage is seen to be India's vast talent pool. According to estimates, India produces over three lakh fresh engineers and a few hundred engineering PhDs every year. Add this to the existing graduate pool and the numbers seem huge. On the surface, this looks like a large and attractive resource. The fact, however, is that not everyone will make the cut. While quite a few would find opportunities in the engineering out-sourcing business, companies' requirements get tougher where high-end knowledge comes into play.

"We had called six bright graduates for an interview but for three of them I had to walk out of the interview in a couple of minutes because though they had very nice qualifications and marks, when it came to the real basics of engineering there was a deficiency. Strong fundamentals and a passion for engineering are an absolute essential when you want to work in specific areas like the aerospace segment," says the HR head of an engineering company that receives outsourced work.


If you're wondering whether your skills fit the bill here's a look at some of the verticals under engineering outsourcing services: automotive, industrial machinery, aerospace along with mechanical design support, con-struction engineering of bridges and power plants. All these require not only engineering knowledge but also an extensive understanding of computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques. Skill requirements will differ according to the level of work you are expected to undertake. At the low end, there is the use of CAD and simple crafting models. The middle part consists of analytics, and the higher end is designing automated components. In terms of employment, graduates and diploma holders would be employed for the low- and middle-end work, but higher-end work requires people with very sound fundamentals in the field of engi-neering.

Ask any HR manager in this area and right on top of their list of needs is employees with a sound basic knowledge of the appropriate stream of engineering along with an understanding of the practical applications of the skills learnt. Since computer-aided work is extensively used, such skills are also quite important. Many companies take a good look at the academic perform-ance of fresh engineers and tend to select those with high scores.

There is also a distinction that many players make with respect to the software industry. According to industry players, they tend to avoid candidates with a software background, preferring to look for hard-core engineers who are very sound and comfortable doing the kind of work undertaken by these firms. Any specific domain knowledge gaps are then filled n through training."Our employees are from the IIT and other leading engineering institutes. We look for people with computer science and an electronics engineering background. This is a specialised field and one has to have strong knowledge of data structure and algorithms." We do not recruit people with software backgrounds," says; Sanjay Churiwala of Atrenta a provider of predictive development solutions for the electronic systems industry.

Prashanth Chunduri, HR manager of Neilsoft which provides offshore, engineering services in the mechanical engineering segment, says the "Among the qualities required are hard-core engineering (mechanical or civil engineering) knowledge plus communication skills. The candidate should have a passion for engineering. There are multiple projects on the same time, plus domain understanding is very important covering areas like auto, industrial machinery etc. Other skills required are geometry skills and analytical skills along with digital knowledge."


After the initial hiring training becomes very important. There is training in the skills that candidates will require on the job plus training in technology. Many companies prefer to have a model whereby there is some initial
classroom training and then the candidate learns on the job as they move from project to project.

"We have our own academy through a tie-up with a leading engineering college in six places across the country. The candidates are trained in the institutes especially in the aerospace domain. There is also on-the-job training and we have consultants. We filter the candidates, pick them up and after that there's training for six month to 18 months.