Quote:
Originally Posted by crabman
Does it matter if they hired out or consulted with an engineer assuming he/they do a proper workmanlike job of vetting the design? I'm bringing up this point because smaller companies don't keep high(er) priced talent on staff until the cost/benefit of hiring versus consulting pencils out. I know most of you know this I guess where I'm going is for me personally I don't care how it happened. I just care that it did happen.
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I think it matters a bit.
1. I thought there were prior claims that this elusive engineer was an employee. I may not be recalling this correctly.
2. Commitment to engineering: Given a certain volume of work (different designs) along with simulation, overseeing of tests and a continual striving for product improvement and innovation it is unlikely a contracted engineer working part time could keep up and do a reasonable job of all of these key areas.
3. A contracted engineer may be likely to take less time and care in his/her second position than his primary one.
4. A contracted engineer may not have the same level of liability, both formal and informal liability.
So, yes, I agree, it is possible for a wheel company to be doing some valid (perhaps minimal) engineering through an outside contract, however, in my humble opinion a large volume wheel manufacturer should have an employee engineer. Again HRE was not at all bashful about proactively sharing their (top notch) engineer and engineering.
I'm not at all expecting an affirmative reply and thus I (and many others who care about the details) will assume the worst.