Connecting engineering operations to strategic management: a framework for decision making in engineering offshoring

This paper investigates the implications for management and engineering functions and strategies when the product development process is globalised. Five case studies of Danish multinational corporations were conducted. The findings showed that offshoring engineering presented companies with challenges to both management and engineering.

These challenges are addressed by management at the operational level. However, this resulted in both positive and negative impacts. We propose this is because there is a decoupling between global engineering operations and the strategic level of the organisation. The Global Decision-Making (GDM) framework described here is a decision-making framework for engineering offshoring decisions for product development activities.

The framework proposes that risks in engineering offshoring can be reduced by connecting engineering operations to strategic management. This paper, built upon empirical data, provides a framework wherein to view engineering offshoring which both strengthens the academic field and responds to the needs of practitioners.