Actualités

Soutenance de thèse de Moustapha Dandache, 31 Janvier 2012,

Moustapha Dandache

"A general approach to address outsourcing in the design phase of industrial products – application to an industrial context in the petroleum services industry"

Jury

• Professeur Francois Péres, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tarbes, preésident
• Professeur Pascale Zaraté, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, rapporteur
• MdC Patrick Sebastien, ENSAM - Laboratoire TREFLE, rapporteur
• Professeur Jean Claude BOCQUET, Ecole Centrale Paris, encadrant
• M. Daniel Rey, Responsable industriel

Keywords

design outsourcing, systems engineering, development process, make or buy, decision aid

Abstract

The oil and gas industry is facing increased market uncertainty, more demanding clients and a harsher competition. Clients are seeking increasingly precise exploration data while digging deeper for reservoirs. In this context, oil and gas industry service providers need to develop more complex and innovative exploration tools. Consequently, equipment producers (design and manufacturing) can no longer rely on internal capabilities and need to integrate outsourcing into their product development process. The 80’s and 90’s witnessed a large-scale trend of outsourcing in support services and manufacturing from equipment producers. Nowadays these firms are looking to involve suppliers earlier by introducing outsourcing as early as product design. They are seeking design outsourcing to gain access to new technological knowledge outside the firm boundaries, maneuverability in new product development and to manage cyclical work load. At the same time they want to prevent exposure to risks of knowledge leakage and dependency on suppliers while maintaining a competitive advantage.

In our research project, we propose a global model for design outsourcing that would allow a firm to address both strategic and operational issues related to outsourcing. This model enables the firm to create value from design outsourcing while easily integrating it to its operational processes. First, we audited a major equipment producer in the oil and gas industry in order to understand outsourcing practices. We also performed an extensive literature review about outsourcing. Accordingly, we developed a general process that addresses design outsourcing at several levels of a firm. We identified a strategic level where long term issues are tackled and an operational level where project specific issues are tackled. These levels are integrated through an information system layer that facilitates communication across different levels of the firm and between the firm and the supplier. Since the make or buy decision is integral to outsourcing, we gave it special attention; we identified a generic list of attributes that constitute a first checklist for decision makers when addressing the make or buy decision. Using a multi-criteria decision aid methodology we also developed a MACBETH-based decision aid model to support the decision making process. Close collaboration with field engineers and managers at the industrial firm gave us first hand validation of our proposals.