Engineering success consists of applying technology, science, and process to transform materials (or ingredients or computing power) into something more useful as defined by customer needs. Until recently, the only global aspects of product engineering had to do with the transportation of input materials or final product from or to a remote location.
Backdrop
A series of rapid changes in the 1990s led to a rapid rise of what we call Global Engineering, with its unique disciplines, challenges and attributes. Communication costs plummeted while bandwidth improved dramatically. Telephone calls, emails, instant messaging and now video conferencing have become virtually free relative to the cost of most engineering projects. This means that engineers in Boston can consider collaborating with their counterparts in Beijing or Bangalore without worrying about incremental telecommunication costs. At the same time, files containing gigabytes of drawing, model or other data can be transferred using the undersea optical fiber cable for minimal costs.
The rise of large container ships and of overnight air services enable the shipping not only of tradable goods but also of engineering samples, tools, and supplies between most major city pairs in less than 72 hours.
The use of standard components and subsystems as well as the development of techniques such as Design For Six Sigma and Object-Oriented Programming has enabled large engineering projects to become modularized and parseable.
Bright young people in the West have turned away from engineering and technical careers as society has not valued or rewarded such disciplines. In countries such as India an engineering degree is treated on par with medicine or law in the West and so the best minds have continued to be attracted to technical disciplines.
Financial experts at large companies and venture funds, who long understood the concept of cost arbitrage, encouraged Chief Technology Officers to apply labor arbitrage to their engineering workforce.
Finally, the advanced first world economies of North America, Europe, and Japan have started to stagnate while emerging countries have continued to experience rapid growth in their GDPs, in the size of their middle class, and in their aspirations of the “good life”.
