Big Rocks Engineering

Happening TODAY!!!

Join us for Manufacturing on the Rocks — an evening dedicated to connecting manufacturers, engineers, industry leaders and innovators in a relaxed setting.

📅 June 11, starts at 4 PM
📍Conflux Co-Learning 8221 Minnesota Ave, St. Louis, MO 63111

Let us know you'll be there!

"We'll just bring it in-house" is the most expensive sentence in manufacturing.

I'm not saying it's always wrong. Sometimes it's exactly the right call.

But I've watched it go sideways enough times to know the math rarely works out the way people expect.

Here's what usually gets underestimated:
1️⃣ The ramp time. Getting a new internal capability up to production quality takes longer than the optimistic timeline almost every time.
2️⃣ The overhead. Equipment, space, trained operators, quality systems — these costs don't show up in the initial proposal.
3️⃣ The opportunity cost. While your team is standing up the new capability, what isn't getting done?

Outside engineering and manufacturing isn't a crutch. For a lot of companies, it's the smarter allocation of resources — especially for specialized work that isn't your core competency.

The question worth asking isn't "can we do this in-house?" It's "should we?"

Happy to think through that with you if it's a decision you're facing. http://www.bigrocksengineering.com

What happens when manufacturers, engineers, and innovators get together for one night?

The strongest partnerships are built on a solid foundation.

Come discover what's possible when great minds come together at the Manufacturing On The Rocks event, hosted by Big Rocks Engineering.

📅 June 11
📍 Conflux Co-Learning, 8221 Minnesota Ave, St. Louis, MO 63111,

Tag a colleague who should attend! 👇

Success is never truly finished. No matter how much progress you make, there are always new challenges, lessons, improvements and goals ahead.

Just like a road that is constantly being repaired, expanded, or improved, the journey toward success is ongoing. You may encounter detours, delays, obstacles, and unexpected changes, but those are often part of growth rather than signs of failure.

Great engineering removes friction. It anticipates problems, eliminates them upfront and delivers something so seamless that the end user never notices how much work went into it.

That’s when engineering stops being visible—and starts being trusted.

"𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐈 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞."

That's what a customer told me after we'd been working together for a while.

They're a small manufacturer — maybe 20 to 40 people — building boat trailers for some of the biggest boat brands in North America. They'd tried hiring a full-time engineer and couldn't make it work. The cost didn't justify the output at their volume.

So instead, they called us when they needed us. We'd update the 3D models so they could program their lasers and plasma cutters. Fix a dimension that was off before they ran the parts. Help them try a design change before committing to tooling.

No salary. No benefits. No overhead. Just the engineering hours they actually needed, when they needed them.

If your shop could use engineering support but can't justify a full-time hire, that's exactly the gap we're built to fill.

Contact us today: https://bigrocksengineering.com/contact-us

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟𝐟 — 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡, 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰, 𝐨𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 — 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬.

Here are three documentation issues that quietly kill the RFQ process:

1. No 3D model. Suppliers have to build their own assumptions about geometry. Two suppliers quoting the same part can come back with completely different interpretations — and you won't know why until something doesn't fit.
2. Incomplete tolerances. When drawings don't specify tolerances, suppliers default to their own standard. That standard might be tighter than you need (you pay for it) or looser than you need (you find out at inspection).
3. Missing material or finish specs. "Steel" isn't a spec. Neither is "painted." Vague material callouts lead to substitutions you didn't approve and quality problems you didn't expect.

The fix for all three is the same: a complete technical package before the RFQ goes out.

We build those. If your quoting process feels like a guessing game, that's usually where we start. 𝐡𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐬://𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠.𝐜𝐨𝐦/𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭-𝐮𝐬/

If your offshore manufacturer keeps missing the mark, the easy assumption is that they're the problem.

Sometimes that's true. But more often, the real issue is what you handed them.

A sketch isn't a specification. A sample part isn't a drawing package. An email description isn't a work instruction.

We worked with a consumer products company selling through major retailers. Every time they handed a new concept to their manufacturer overseas, something got lost. The product came back close — but not right.

The fix wasn't a new supplier. It was documentation.

We created the full technical package: 3D models, engineering drawings,and assembly instructions. Same supplier. Better results. Because the communication was finally clear.

Before you switch vendors, ask whether the problem is the supplier — or the brief you handed them. https://bigrocksengineering.com/contact-us

Good ideas usually come from combining existing pieces in new ways, not from nothing.

Think of it like building something:
👉 If you only have 2 parts → limited outcomes
👉 If you have 50 parts → way more possible combinations → better ideas

Creativity isn’t about isolation—it’s about exposure, collection, and combination.

Early in my career I worked on a new product development project for a power electronics company.

We were designing a battery lifecycle tester for electric vehicles — full scope, ahead of schedule, under budget. Nine months from the finish line, the client decided to bring it in-house.

They took 36 months to finish what we had nine months left to do.

I share that not to take a shot at them. I share it because I've seen it happen more than once — companies pull engineering work back in-house to save money or protect IP, then spend far more in time, overhead, and missed market windows than the outside engagement would have cost.

Outside engineering isn't always the right call. But the decision should be made honestly.
If you're weighing that right now, I'm happy to think through it with you.

— Mike Hill, www.bigrocksengineering.com