How is it possible to offshore engineering services?

Aren't there physical constraints to outsourcing engineering services, as against outsourcing IT or business processes?

 Engineering services, especially in design, can easily be exchanged offshore.Almost 30% of companies have outsourced a piece of their new product development and introduction (NPDI) process. And another 40% are expected to outsource activities in the next two years, making  offshore outsourced engineering services one of the fastest-growing outsourcing markets.

Engineering work is generally not seen as a commodity. It is seen as an iterative process of design and reevaluation. There are many stages— planning, design, manufacturing or construction, and then finalization. Each step requires the skills and expertise of an engineer in different ways. The final step may require an engineer to actually operate, teach the operation, or sell the product.  While the entire engineering process does not seem conducive to offshore outsourcing, there are pieces that can be outsourced. Typically, a company outsources projects or engineering tasks to another company within the United States. However, some of this work is starting to go offshore. Larger engineering companies would actually set up divisions abroad where they would hire foreign engineers to work for their company. For example, Boeing has a Russian division designing airplane components. General Electric employs over 6000 engineers and scientists in Israel, Hungary, India and China to research and develop (source - http://www.wise-intern.org/journal/2004/WISE2004-LoriSimpsonFinalPaper.pdf )