AWL-Techniek outsources its off-line programming to India

Harderwijk, The Netherlands – An increasing number of projects of an increasingly complex nature, where more robots are integrated, have made the last couple of months the busiest ever for AWL.

This situation has caused an overflow for the RobCAD engineering department, and an extensive recruitment campaign in the Netherlands has not resulted in the desired capacity increase.

Due to the increasing demand for RobCAD capacity, AWL searched for alternatives. Outsourcing RobCAD engineering is difficult because of the specific knowledge and skills required (project engineering, understanding of welding processes, balancing robot times and RobCAD programming).

The quality of the design supplied by AWL must be guaranteed at all times and therefore AWL decided to keep the accessibility study in-house. The off-line programming is outsourced to India, to date with excellent results. The organization in India is very competent, provides excellent quality work and communication runs smoothly. By using an FTP server, information is quickly interchangeable, and a go2meeting makes it easy to watch what is happening on the other side of the world on the screen, and even makes it possible to take over each other's screen.

The main advantage of this outsourcing is that AWL creates additional capacity. It also provides a significant cost saving. Normally, with regular projects, the RobCAD Engineering department spends 60% of the time on programming, simulation, and accessibility studies. The remaining 40% is spent on determining the path, the presentation, and communication for the robot. By outsourcing to India, this 40% was reduced to 10%.

"We have tried to outsource the off-line programming before, but until now there have been mixed results. In India ,we have a party with which we have a good working relationship. Not only do they deliver quality, they are perceptive and can respond quickly, which is extremely beneficial, particularly in these busy times" according to Roel Klompmaker, project engineer, robot simulation, at AWL.