It has become abundantly clear to all electronics engineers that the workplace is morphing at a rapid clip. In fact, you could say the change is as drastic, if not more so, than when the electronic calculator and the PC replaced the slide rule.
This time it's more a sociological than a technological evolution, though. Younger engineers, according to their senior colleagues, are coming out of school heavily reliant upon the latest software tools. They lack an understanding of the underlying math and physics and are largely unable or unwilling to pick up a soldering iron.
But it's not just the mindsets of the up-and-comers that bother experienced electrical engineers. It's also the mindsets of their employers. No longer can an EE count on lifelong employment. The newest generation of design tools facilitates distributed design. Thus, firms now export more of their product development work to lower-cost locations and make greater use of contract workers. Life just isn't the same anymore.
ENGINEERS SAY "OUT WITH OUTSOURCING"
The undisputed hot button right now is outsourcing. You don't need a pink slip to care about outsourcing, whether it's defined as the exporting of jobs to other countries where labor costs are lower or a decision to focus on "core competencies" and hire outside vendors to do everything else. Either way, the goal from a management perspective is to improve the bottom line by controlling costs without making an impact on time-to-market. Engineers see it quite differently:
"It... (inhaling vigorously)," says Carol Baumann, a senior engineer at AnaCom Inc., "has been happening for decades in the manufacturing arena. But now that it's affecting higher-level positions, it's become a hot topic. I always 'buy American' when it's an option."
Increasingly, however, buying goods manufactured in America or partaking of services provided by individuals who live in the U.S. is not an option. Needless to say, some engineers surveyed by Electronic Design have a problem with that.
"When I'm doing market research and call people to interview them, I ask where they're located. They tell me Trinidad, Tobago, India, and everywhere else around the world," says Henry Lucas, an engineering manager at a large aerospace firm. "If I have a problem and I'm dealing with a U.S. firm, and if they don't have an answer, they at least can understand the question, and they'll usually follow up. Now, trying to get answers about boxes built overseas, the people you talk to can't understand the question. And the higher you go, the worse the English is, and the lower the technical competence. Either it's a dry hole, or they send you stuff that's nowhere near what you're looking for."
LOST IN TRANSLATION
"We're working with engineers in India, and we're losing a lot in translation," says Alan Kopnicky, president of PLC2GO Inc. "Engineers there are methodical, but not highly motivated. They go really, really slowly. [When you] spend one-fifth the money, it's not surprising that things take longer.
"Some jobs are more likely for outsourcing than others," suggests Branin A. Boyd, vice president of engineering for Thermal Instrument Co. "Jobs such as [pc-board] layout and board assembly can be moved [to parts of the world] with little overhead. Other jobs, such as customer service and trouble reports, may seem to work at first, but I feel that negative customer reaction will return those jobs to an area closer to the firm sooner or later. This is a temporary disturbance in organization that will take awhile to find a working solution."
Boyd's scenario is being played out: "Our government gives companies incentives to export work out of the country," notes Kopnicky. "The pc-board industry in this country has literally been destroyed. About 70% of fab houses have disappeared in the last two years. This country was founded on people being innovative, and we're giving all of our innovation away. That's nuts. It's called 'selling us short.' Maybe by the time it all comes crashing down I'll be retired."
Meanwhile, some companies may be tiring of outsourcing. Adam Nowotarski, an RF engineer at Willtek, saw about 100 of his colleagues "lose jobs they had been doing for years" when their employer decided to outsource its manufacturing overseas. "I've kept in touch with people at the company, and I understand that now they're thinking about bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.," he says. "Engineers were having issues with very poor quality. There were a lot of defects, and the manufacturing yield was low."
"It's too soon to determine the long-term cost-to-benefit ratio of outsourcing engineering design and development," adds Alain Gronner, vice president, technologies, for Carmel Telecom Inc., "but stories are beginning to appear about firms returning to 'onshoring' after being burned by outsourcing. The long-term economic health of our country may be seriously compromised if we keep losing manufacturing and engineering capabilities to other countries. It's not a sustainable proposition."
"As a consumer I feel that it can lead to better price/performance ratios, but I don't think it is healthy for the country as a whole," suggests Alastair Roxburgh, chief engineer at Alpha Digital Technologies. "It is a wider trend than just manufacturing. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has already scared almost all encryption research and reverse engineering overseas. Now competition and desire for profit is scaring manufacturing overseas, too. R&D is probably next."
Brian Hinton, a power development engineer at a large computer company, believes that the outsourcing of engineering jobs is "fueled by corporate greed." He explains, "Outsourcing has contributed significantly to widening the trust gap between employees and employers, so we are seeing more and more of the 'us against them' concept," he says. "Another impact of outsourcing is on engineering salaries," Hinton continues. "Merit increases and recognition for doing a good job mostly don't exist anymore. But competition has basically forced the outsourcing issue so we're stuck with it at present."
"Today, companies' social responsibilities are defined only by laws and what would cause outrage in the press," says Bob Zeliff, manager of advanced development at Goodrich. "While outsourcing has some world and competitive benefit, open-loop outsourcing is only about dollars next week and next month, and it sacrifices employee and social responsibility to that greed."
"Outsourcing of engineering or design, especially to overseas vendors, puts me in a gloomy mood generally," concludes Alan Roehr, a pc-board designer at Daktronics. "I keep hearing about the loss of engineering jobs in the U.S. and it is not something I can be proud of."
Following along those lines, Amos Young, an engineer at AMI Semiconductor, doesn't see much that's positive about outsourcing. Speaking primarily of the domestic variety, he says, "I see the company allowing the outside firms to slip schedules, where that wouldn't be allowed if the work was done in-house. I see the outsourced work requiring almost the same amount of effort from our engineering staff as they use to do their own job. [The in-house staff must] train this outsourced group to do the work they claimed that they knew how to do."
Other engineers are more sanguine. One of Adrien Abbasi's previous employers closed a facility in Silicon Valley and split the work done there between operations in Minnesota and Scotland. "They offered us a nice (severance) package," says Abbasi, a design electrical engineer at Optivus Technology. "I didn't take it personally and would have done the same thing if I were in their position. Things always work out for the best."
Abbasi's current employer has handed off tasks to third-party firms. "It is reducing our design responsibilities, which reduces our projects and tasks, but I personally wouldn't mind because we're so understaffed," he says.
DELIVERING PIZZA
Abbasi moved from one engineering job to another, but others, especially older engineers, have been less successful. One is making a transition to the automotive industry, but in a retail sales capacity. A friend of another engineer is leveraging his PhD as a pizza delivery person.
Even more ominous than current job losses from outsourcing is the trend's impact on engineering creativity, according to Alexander Tokhtuev, lead software engineer at GE OEC Medical Systems. "Creative work is more proscribed and encumbered by more guidelines," he says. "As opposed to being done by an engineer or a workgroup, designs are being provided by consultants. Everyone sees that their input is very localized."
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