whichwayisupTime may tell!
I have experienced projects using workshare hubs, aka “High Value” centres.
These have been mostly based in India, but also in other emerging nations.
The problem I found, is that while there is definitly an initial cost saving, I have yet to see the “Value” that this system of design is supposed to bring to the party.
The first thing a company sees when it goes down this route is the difference in rates. A piper in India will get paid approx. 1/4 – 1/3 of the rate of a UK piper, so the initial savings seem obvious.
I worked on one of these projects where the High Value centre (we’re not allowed call it a low cost centre any more) boasted that they would be supplying a team with 30 years piping experience.
It soon became obvious that this 30 years experience was the COMBINED experience of the team, a team of 8 pipers, the most senior of those had about 7 years experience, that left the average experience of the other 7 guys around 3 to 4 years.
Now, in my experience, this is a team of junior pipers, led by an intermediate piper. And it showed.
While the work was done quickly initially, it was found to reflect the experience levels of the guys performing it, it had to be reworked several times before it came even close to something we could present to a client.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not on an “India-bashing” rant here, if this standard of work was being produced out of an office in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland, Perth, Aberdeen or some other place where piping is an established profession, there would be serious repercussions!
I have seen plenty of bad design coming out of the UK, but the pipers involved are usually shown the door and issued with a DCM (Don’t come Monday!)
Value is not just about money!