As more companies seek to control design costs by down-sizing their internal design departments, they are forced to work with a wide variety of design consultant companies. I intend to describe a process that any company can use to maintain the quality that they desire, while utilizing design service companies all across the world. I explain which sections of the design process they can export, and which ones they really should control.

Most companies have "horror" stories about what happened when they sent the job out to Company X. A few are able to send work outside, as long as it goes to Company Y; but only a very few can cultivate the type of relationship that it takes to do work successfully with multiple vendors.

This discussion is aimed at Service Bureaus as much as it is aimed at large companies. Having worked on both sides of the issue, as a manager and as a designer, I bring a unique prospective to the discussion. I will explain how it benefits a service company to ask for the information that the customer should be providing.

I discuss areas such as communication, design review process, quality control, schedules, budgets, and change control. These are areas that most companies assume they know, but are the source of 99% of the problems associated with Service Bureaus.

Bio

I have been a Mentor Designer since 1986, and have worked for both large and small companies. I have managed Service Bureaus, and have managed work being sent to Service Bureaus. I have an MBA from San Jose State University, and wrote my Masters Thesis on Service Bureaus. I am currently the Design Co-Ordinator for Set Engineering, in charge of sending out all of the Mentor Designs for a major engineering company.