CAD Outsourcing Success it depends on some obvious factors and others not so obvious. Here are the basics:

A. Are you and the CAD drawing supplier good communicators?

1. The supplier must understand your language and vice versa

2. Each of you must reply to each other’s messages within one day

3. Provider must have online screen sharing tools (like GoToMeeting)

4. The provider must be available during some or all of their working hours

5. The provider should not hesitate to pick up the phone and call you

6. The supplier should send you gifts (from Amazon.com, for example) for Christmas and New Year to show you their concerns.

7. You and the provider must communicate by voice at least once every 14 days

B. Does the vendor have the technical skill you need?

8. Request samples of CAD drawing work done with your preferred CAD drawing program (AutoCAD, Microstation, etc.)

9. Provide supplier with sample CAD files to capture your layers and other styles. Then give him a simple test task, which he can do for you at little or no cost. Look for fast delivery and very few errors at checkout.

10. If your drawings require unusual skills, such as developing sheet metal surfaces for bending and welding, you will need to train the supplier if you think it is a good fit. Do this by assigning three or four progressively difficult tasks with lots of one-on-one instructional discussion between them. Look for enthusiasm to learn and a quick grasp of information.

C. Do you have time to manage your outsourcing project?

11. The vendor needs guidance and supervision just like an in-house CAD draftsman, but not as much, because a competent vendor will have trained technical managers supervising their CAD draftsmen. You only need to communicate with these managers, which is much less time consuming than communicating with individual CAD drafters. Do you have hours available for this?

12. What you need to understand is that in the early stages of onboarding a particular vendor, extra time (one time only) should be spent explaining their layers, dimensioning, drawing symbols, and other style-related topics. Are you willing to do this?

D. Are you looking for good value for money?

13. Just like anywhere else, beware of cut-price providers…they are unlikely to have management resources, backup writers, backup power generators, screen sharing tools, large email inboxes and specialized hardware such as plotters and high-speed processors.

E. Does the provider improve over time?

14. Over time, the supplier should be able to create their CAD drawings with almost no questions asked and very few errors.

15. At some point the provider should offer you a bonus in cash or kind

F. Have you visited the provider in person?

16. This of course depends on your budget, as traveling to Romania or India is not cheap. Once there, you need to check for multiple CAD writers, meet the key people, and try to verify all the resources that the vendor claimed in email exchanges.

G. Conclusion

Here are the 16 guidelines…keep them in mind when trying to outsource CAD drawing. The chance of your success will be an order of magnitude greater than if you entered without any knowledge of the subject. Good luck!