Have you ever tried to assemble a piece of furniture and wondered why it doesn’t quite look like the display in the store? Have you ever tried to repair an appliance and wondered why it didn’t go back together quite the same way as before? Or have you had screws left over after reassembly that you know should have gone somewhere? It takes a creative mind to come up with the next generation automotive technology that will be used to design future automobiles. But if that technology cannot be mass-produced, then it will never leave the drawing board. Manufacturing engineers are the true heroes in the automotive world as they design the systems, machines and processes that build the next generation of automobiles and deliver them to the end customer.
Manufacturing engineering overviewManufacturing engineering is a complex field that deals with a variety of different functions required to build, assemble, test and ship the next generation automobile. There are a variety of different roles included under the job of manufacturing engineering including:
● Process and assembly development
● Logistics and materials planning
● Tooling design
● Test design and development
● Robotics
● Manufacturing Systems
● Production/Final assembly test
● Packaging and Shipping
Each of these roles falls under the manufacturing engineering umbrella, but each has a very specific responsibility in the design and creation of an assembly process. To illustrate the importance of each role consider the simple example presented below of creating a hamburger in a fast food restaurant chain and how each of these tasks help to ‘assemble’ a new hamburger. Building a new burger seems simple, but to do it reliably and repeatedly so that each one is consistent over thousands of burger purchases is a complex process. You can see where each of these manufacturing processes is required and how they are needed to develop a consistent and reliable process.
Including the manufacturing team in developing a new design
Imagine that the marketing team has seen that jalapenos are a hot commodity in the market today and request that their design engineering team develop a new jalapeno burger that they can offer. The design engineering team then develops their concept design and ingredients list and contacts their manufacturing engineering team to review their design with them. The manufacturing team reviews the design to make sure that they have the technology available for the new burger, including the extra processing step required to roast the jalapenos to make the new design stand out.
One of the biggest challenges that manufacturing engineers face is when the design engineers do not include them up front in the design process and don’t let them provide input into the design. If design engineering completes a design without manufacturing input and then essentially ‘tosses it over the wall’ to manufacturing engineering then there is a high probability that there will be issues with assembly and it may not be manufacturable. Design for manufacturability is a huge part of the automotive development process and very critical to any project’s success.
Developing the manufacturing process
Now that the manufacturing engineers have the concept design, they begin to lay out the assembly process for the new burger. They develop the process flow and create individual assembly stations needed to correctly assemble the burger. The flow for assembling the new burger starts with receiving the ingredients, then cooking the burger and roasting the jalapenos, assembling the burger, inspecting the end product and then packing and shipping to deliver it to the customer. The process flow must be designed so that it flows in a logical order and ensures that everything is assembled in the correct order. For example, the burger assembly cannot be completed until the burger meat has been cooked. The role of the process engineer is to understand all the requirements for assembly and to design the process flow so that steps are completed in the correct order. After the process flow is laid out, the other manufacturing engineering specialties get to work.
Coordinating logistics and materials planning
When the concept design has been created and a bill of materials is available, then the logistics and materials planning teams in manufacturing engineering step in to begin their work. The bill of materials is the ingredients list needed to build the end product. The logistics and materials planning groups will review the ingredients and identify sources for each ingredient on the list. They will set up the logistics so that they will have a steady, non-interrupted supply of each ingredient to support the estimated volumes that will be sold of the new product. Sometimes there is a special ingredient that will require them to develop a supplier that can meet the specific needs of the product. In the case of the new jalapeno burger, the logistics and materials planning teams have to find a new source to provide fresh jalapenos on a year-round basis in order to maintain the high quality levels for their end product.
Designing specialty tooling for the assembly process
Assembling a new product will often present new assembly challenges that require custom tooling to be designed. If you consider the new jalapeno burger, the new feature is the jalapenos that must be roasted. Your tooling engineers have already designed the tools required to cook and flip burgers but the jalapenos are a new challenge and require custom tooling to properly roast them. The tooling engineers will design a tool that allows the jalapenos to be roasted and provide roasted jalapenos in the correct amounts to the burger assembly process.
When a new design is being developed, it is important to include the tooling engineers early in the development process to make sure that it will be possible to build a tool to assemble all portions of the design. The design engineers must always remember that if you can’t build it, you don’t have a product-so include the tooling designers early in the design process.
Testing process development
A key part of the assembly process for any product is testing for quality assurance and functionality. Manufacturing test engineers pair up with quality engineers to outline the testing protocol that allows you to monitor the incoming and outgoing quality of any materials and ensure that you are building quality products. The testing process for the new jalapeno burger could be a visual check that includes verifying all the ingredients are in place or it could be a height check to make sure there are a top and bottom bun and a burger in the middle. For complex automobiles, the testing process will involve more detailed testing and use of computer programs to set up test sequences on testing equipment. Regardless of the complexity of the design or the product, the test engineers must design appropriate tests to verify that all thecritical parameters for the design have been met before shipping the product.
Automate processes with robotics
One role in the automotive manufacturing process involves robotics to allow for the quick assembly and movement of large pieces. Robotics is essential to automotive manufacturing to increase throughput and reduce human assembly requirements for large automotive components during assembly. There is an entire manufacturing engineering specialty that revolves around robotics and they work with everything from material movement to spot welding during assembly. Even the burger assembly process can benefit from use of a robot during the burger preparation step of the burger. Robotic arms can be used to flip burgers and deliver them to an assembly station to reduce the amount of people that are needed to prepare a burger.
Developing manufacturing systems
Manufacturing systems integrate the entire process within an assembly line and allow you to monitor throughput and quality levels while also controlling the assembly process with a series of checks. Manufacturing systems will make sure that each part goes through all the assembly processes, meets all quality requirements and passes all required tests. Manufacturing systems engineers will often integrate these systems into an internal network so that they receive real-time notifications of how the assembly line is performing even if they are not onsite. The fast food industry utilizes a type of manufacturing system to monitor their delivery times and correct order statistics.
Final assembly processes and shipping
The final product has been assembled and now it’s time to run one last test and then ship the product out. Final assembly test involves a more detailed test of the end product to verify that it meets all thepart requirements that it was designed to meet. Final assembly manufacturing engineers partner with quality engineers to develop the requirements for the test. Manufacturing engineers design test sequences that allow all the important functionality to be verified. This ensures that only the highest quality products are shipped out the door. In the burger industry, the final test will be visual to verify all the key ingredients have been included. There could be a taste test as well to verify that the burger still has the best taste possible and that bad ingredients have not been received.
Packing and shipping the end product
One thing that is often overlooked is that the end product must arrive to the customer in an undamaged and ready-for-use state. This is one of the last steps in the process but definitely no less important than any other step. Packaging must be designed to protect the product during shipping and shipping arrangements must be made for delivery. Shipping automobiles is much more complex than the jalapeno burger’s wrapper and bag, but both products need some type of protective covering to avoid damage and ensure appropriate shipping.
As you can see, from the beginning to the very end of every assembly process, there is a team of manufacturing engineers working together to assemble a high quality product that meets all product specifications and arrives to the customer in perfect shape. So no matter what area of manufacturing engineering you choose to specialize in, you will be working as one part of a large team to develop and ship the next generation products.
The Automotive Design Engineer: From A – Z
Design engineers are the minds behind the automotive technology and products that we use every day. When you choose a career in automotive design engineering you are not just choosing one specialty as a career choice. Underneath the hood, inside the doors and even underneath the vehicle hold examples of a design job for every engineering degree no matter what your specialty. If you are looking to become an automotive engineer, consider these design specialties from A to Z :
If any of these jobs pique your interest check out our 2-part post on the most critical skills you need to become an automotive design engineer (Here is Part 2)
Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering
This engineering specialty may typically be associated with aircraft but they also have a very important function within automotive design. Aeronautical and aerospace engineers work with vehicle structures and aerodynamics and assist in designing vehicles with the least amount of wind resistance possible to reduce fuel consumption and make the vehicle more efficient. They work with the design teams and test concept vehicles to optimize how the vehicle will travel when it’s on the road.
Biological, Biomechanical and Biomedical Engineering
When you think of biological and biomedical engineering you may not realize they have a place in automotive design engineering. Passengers in a vehicle are living beings that have to interact with the vehicle and the vehicle must be designed for comfort and safety during normal use and for the potential of a vehicular accident. Both of these engineering fields work with the automotive design team to design comfortable seating for people of all sizes. They look at ergonomic issues, how people interface with the vehicle, and they study how test dummies react in a crash situation when an airbag is deployed. All of this testing and design must be done to launch the best possible vehicle to the market and garner the top safety awards that help to sell more vehicles. One of the key design focus areas in the automotive industry is the Human Machine interface and how it will impact the design of future vehicles.
Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineers have a place in the field of automotive engineers as they look at the design and performance of all the chemicals within the entire vehicle and their interactions. The automotive industry utilizes a reporting system called the International Material Data System (IMDS) which requires that all materials from every screw to a drop of adhesive be listed in the data system. Chemical engineers will review this data and search for alternatives if a restricted, banned, or potentially dangerous chemical is reported. There are requirements that all vehicles must meet for appropriate chemical levels within a vehicle which makes the IMDS system important.
Communications and Computer engineers
Communications and computer engineers are more involved in the cars of the future as they become integrated with computers. From the engine, to the onboard GPS and radio, all the components are now managed by computers and these computers must be networked so that they can communicate with each other to assist with on-board diagnostics.
Electrical & Electromechanical Engineering
Electrical and electromechanical engineering are increasingly integral to the design of the next generation automobiles. In the old days, electrical engineers focused on simple circuits supply powers to lights, spark plugs and simple mechanical components in the vehicle. But now their role has expanded to designing detailed circuit boards that control the multitude of electronic components that make up modern vehicles. The role of electrical and electromechanical engineers continues to expand with the push to develop electric vehicles. This is being championed in the industry by the International Energy Agency electric vehicle initiative.
Environmental Engineers
Environmental engineers have become more common in the automotive industry as all industries push for ‘green designs’. These designs will reduce the impact of the vehicle on the environment through all its life phases from the design, production, driving, and disposal stages. Many environmental engineers also work in engine development to reduce emissions and to get those MPG numbers as high as possible, while saving mother earth.
Materials and Metallurgical Engineering
Materials and metallurgical engineers design and create new materials that will meet the needs of next generation vehicles. They create the materials and test them in the concept designs to determine if they will meet the performance requirements of the vehicle and improve the vehicle from generation to generation.
Mechanical Engineers
The real meat and potatoes of the automotive design engineering profession are the mechanical engineers who have their hand in all aspects of the vehicle design. Mechanical engineers will design, develop and test every part on the vehicle from the body components to the engine and controls. Mechanical engineers will work with mechanical models and determine stress points on the vehicle body that could cause unnecessary wear and tear on the vehicle. They work with crash dynamics allowing the vehicle to dissipate the force of a crash away from the occupants and prevent injury. No matter what function is being performed by the vehicle, mechanical engineers have a role in designing and testing it.
Optical Engineering
A little known field of automotive engineering is optical engineering. Within the vehicle we have several systems that must be illuminated for visibility when driving at night. In order to evenly light these systems, optical engineers employ several strategies to spread and diffuse light so that it will be displayed evenly to the driver and passenger for easy viewing.
Plastics Engineers
As vehicles evolve, the demand is there for lighter materials both for the interior and the engine compartment. This is where plastics engineers join the automotive design team. Plastics engineers help to identify new materials that can be used in innovative ways to reduce the weight of a vehicle and help to improve fuel efficiency.
Power Train Engineers
Power train engineers get to the root of the automotive design and work from the engine through the transmission, to where the wheels hit the road and propel the vehicle forward. These engineers design everything from the high power sports car with the turbo charged high torque power trains to the highly efficient electric vehicles on the road today.
Software and Systems Engineers
In the old days automobiles were more mechanically based. With some general tinkering problems could be fixed by most backyard mechanics. Those days are long gone and now vehicle issues are diagnosed via an on board diagnostics (OBD) computer system that is run by a custom developed software and integrated into the entire vehicle computer system. OBD is required on all vehicles from 1996 on and regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Troubleshooting vehicles now requires plugging a hand held computer into the OBD port and running a program that generates error codes. The program also helps in determining and completing vehicle repairs. Software and systems engineers are the ones who design this functionality into the vehicles on the road today.
Thermal Engineers
In the old days vehicle cooling systems were centered on a radiator and when vehicles were stuck in traffic jams there was always the possibility of a vehicle overheating. Thermal engineers have developed new methods and materials that help improve airflow and heat dissipation in the vehicle’s engine compartment making over-heating a thing of the past – even when operating in the most stringent conditions. Thermal engineers are responsible for working with the engineering team to make sure that all designs operate in the most efficient, yet comfortable way possible.
These are some of the engineering specialties that have roles in the development of the next generation automobiles. No matter what your engineering degree, there is a place for you in automotive design engineering!
What is Automotive Engineering?
Well, to figure it out we should probably start with what an engineer is:
Dictionary.com defines engineering as:
“The art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences, as physics or
chemistry, as in the construction of engines, bridges, buildings, mines, ships, and chemicals.”
Well that seems pretty broad, and I am not sure who thought “mines” deserved a call-out amongst the more common things that are constructed. That being said, the title I think best sums up an engineer is:
Engineer = Technical Problem Solver
An engineer is someone who uses technical skills and calculations to solve an issue. The issue could be something that is a large ongoing problem, or it can be improvement to something.Either way – the engineer’s goal is to add technical value to a product or process.
For automotive engineers the focus is primarily on land vehicles. Cars, Motorcycles, Four Wheelers, 18 Wheelers, and even industrial equipment are included on this list. Pretty much every vehicle that doesn’t fly, float, or ride on rails can be wrapped into automotive engineering. (There are many exceptions to that as well!) The field is so large that it commonly overlaps with many other industries, including construction, aerospace, and the military.
Bottom Line: An automotive engineer is someone who uses their technical skills and knowledgeto solve problems in the automotive industry.
But what kind of problems?
Even if you are an automotive engineer you probably take for granted the incredibly complex piece of machinery that sits in your driveway. Your car is a people mover, ecosystem, navigation machine, coffee house, music hall, and meeting room all wrapped up in a tight package. Looking at any part of the car, you can see the result of years of decisions and improvements on everything. From your transmission to your floor mats, Automotive Engineers put in thousands of hours of thought into your car.
Take your rear window for example:
● This is a simple part that you don’t think much about much. However, automotive engineers designed your rear window to create a specific amount of drag, while making sure that acoustically, the car is quieter.
● The piece of glass also contains your rear defroster, which is a tiny resistor that heats up to melt the ice off the back so you can still see if it’s snowing.
● There are seals that are surrounding the window that make sure it stays on your car. However if you crack it, these seals need to be able to be removed and reapplied so the car can be fixed.
● Speaking of cracks, the glass was specifically designed so that in the event of an accident it will break up into small beads. This is designed to avoid shards that can injure the passenger.
● Since your car is one of a few hundred thousand, this piece of glass needs to be made in a process that can handle thousands per day.
● Despite all of the design requirements – the window must be made using the lowest cost possible, while maintaining all original design requirements.
● Each piece needs to be controlled and made in the same way, despite all of the small details that could go wrong in the process.
● This production process also need to be tested and regulated to ensure that safety and design considerations are always being met within the high volume process.
● Each piece of glass might be off by about a millimeter or so in width so there are engineers responsible to make sure that the glass will always fit the car.
● The producer of this glass needs to make sure that they make the glass correctly every single time, or they will waste millions of dollars in scrap.
● The glass needs to maintain all design, safety, and manufacturing requirements and ship to the customer without breaking.
Now, that is just for your back windshield. I can’t even begin to start on how much engineering goes into the engine because I would be writing this for a week.
3 main groups of Automotive Engineers
As you can see there is a diverse group of automotive engineers needed for every vehicle out there. On this site, I will inform you about the different types of engineers in 3 broad groups:
Each of these groups is responsible for different stages of a part’s lifecycle; however each team needs to work consistently with the others to make sure that the part or vehicle can to the customer get on the road. For example: The design engineers are always working with the manufacturing engineers to make sure the parts can be manufactured properly. The manufacturing engineers need to work with the quality department to ensure that the process they designed is repeatable and stable. And so on…
Automotive engineering is a very intense but extremely rewarding career. Getting into automotive engineering is very exciting. There are many perks that come along with being in this industry and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
The 6 Essential Qualities of an Automotive Design Engineer (Part 1)
Automotive Design Engineers are the people in the automotive world who turn ideas into functioning designs. There are many different types of design engineers in the automotive field, but most of them require a similar skill set. I have been a design engineer in the automotive world for six years now and it has been an incredible rewarding career. Over the time I have worked in this field, I learned a few specific things that really helped me advance my career and were essential to get me where I am today. Part one of this article talks about the three most important technical skills you should really focus on if you want to be a great automotive design engineer. Later in Part 2, I’ll discuss the three most important non-technical traits you should focus on.
1. CAD Experience
If you are a design engineer you will be working with CAD (Computer Aided Design) sometimes once a day and sometimes every minute. It is your main tool for determining quickly how your parts function and fit together. You should really know how to create, move and analyze a 3D model.Showing that you know at least one CAD program is absolutely necessary to get any job as a design engineer.
How much drafting ability you actually need depends on the size of your company and what specifically you are making. At the smaller company where I was designing bearings, I used CAD almost every day and took a part from a general calculation or idea all the way to a finished design print for a customer. When I worked for an OEM, and now that I am in a larger company, I used CAD only for analysis and calculations. OEMs and larger companies usually have a separate department that is entirely dedicated to making models and drawings. As a design engineer at these types of companies, you are responsible for making the part function and making sure that the calculations and tolerances are correct. However all changes are controlled by a separate department (or outsourced).
Whether you make the drawings on your own or you need to interact and analyze them, you will need in-depth knowledge of how your CAD system works. This can be tricky because it seems like every company uses their own CAD brand for their systems. I have worked at 4 different automotive companies and have used 5 different brands of modeling software! The good news is that these different software products are all very similar in their own concepts. The tricky part comes with where all the buttons are located, how to open your screen, and how to take a cross section or make a sketch onto your part. (This can be really frustrating when switching systems!)
My advice would be to start with the base model of 3D modeling: Solidworks. Solidworks is the go-to program when you are first learning how to think as a 3D designer. It is user-friendly and intuitive – in fact most designers will tell you that they wish the more advanced programs (CATIA/Pro-E/Unigraphics) were as simple and user-friendly as Solidworks. For learning 3D CAD I recommend using the training company Solidwize(affiliate) if you are just starting out. All of their programs are online based, and they will focus on the concepts that you will use 90% of the time wherever you go to work.
2. GD&T Expertise
The first thing you should know as an Automotive Design Engineer is GD&T. When referring to GD&T, I mean everything from engineering drawing symbols, to tolerance stack ups. You cannot design an automotive part without understanding the core concepts of dimensioning first. It is critical that you get some hands-on experience with existing drawings, and understand how a drawing is controlled. When you move from individual parts to assemblies, any poorly dimensioned or uncontrolled features will stick out like a monkey at a funeral. Knowing features and controls of parts is of paramount importance to design engineering. Before you can get into complex stress calculations, or load properties of different materials, you need to know how to read a basic engineering drawing.
For a great course on GD&T, check out GDandTBasics.com. This site is by far the best resource to cover all the training that an engineer will need for GD&T and explains in detail every geometric symbol that you need to know in automotive engineering.
You need to know:
● Basic dimensioning principals. This means you should understand how to use basic math and trigonometry to determine the length of any feature on the part – especially the ones that are not directly dimensioned.
● How tolerances stack up with each other, and be able to add them together to determine worst cases.
● The envelope principal and the limitations of geometric control.
● Geometric drawing symbols and how they are controlled and measured.
● Chamfers and fillets how they are used.
● How datums are used in a drawing and how specific features relate to them.
● Surface roughness properties.
● Title blocks and what information is contained within them (can vary by company).
These concepts are just the start of what you should know for automotive engineering. At each company and within each design role you will have to know even more in depth topics. The good thing about these advanced design concepts is that you will usually be trained on them specifically for your role once you start your job. However, each and every company will expect you to be an expert of core design concepts, so make sure you learn your basic GD&T. You won’t last long without this knowledge.
3. Design for Manufacturability (DFM) methods
As someone who has worked both in the early stages and the later production stages of design, I can tell you that the more you know about the manufacturing process the better. It is a fact in economics as well as in automotive production: The later that a change is made; the more expensive/difficult the change is to make. This is why the manufacturability of a product should be determined well before the part ever hits the floor.
As the automotive industry advances, the role of the design engineer ties more and more into the production realm. In the past, application or design engineers created the functional design of the product and then it was handed over to the manufacturing plant to create the product. Now the Application Department is expected to support the production throughout the life of the vehicle production in a nearly full capacity. This means that any overlooked problems with the manufacturability of the parts will always be the design engineer’s responsibility. Deviation requests from the production department will come up time and time again when a material is difficult to fabricate, or two parts will not assemble. These can range from minor annoyances to complete redesign of a part (and potential millions in costs). This is why the later design stages and handover to production is so critical. As a designer you should be deeply involved when the parts are beginning their prototype production. Sometimes you may only have a limited scope of what can go wrong with the part. However when assembly trials start, the real problems begin to come out.
Manufacturability comes from experience but usually breaks down into common sense. Remember the KISS method – Keep It Simple, Stupid. If you are a design engineer your goal should be to put out the simplest, cheapest product that meets the functioning requirements, nothing more. Keeping things simple is much harder for your typical engineer who wants each and every design to be perfect. There is an old saying, that goes “A great engineer can do for a dollar, what a good engineer can do for two.” That door dampener you are designing might benefit from adding a shock absorber, but if all it needs to do is help with basic door movement, you should leave it out. Knowing the impact of each feature, part and tolerance you designate on a part will make you a great design engineer. Your first goal is always function, but your second goal should always be simplicity.
The best way to keep a focus on design for manufacturability is to make sure the production engineers are kept in the loop near the middle, and later design stages.
The 6 Essential Qualities of an Automotive Design Engineer (Part 2)
While Part 1 of this list focused on the technical and skill related aspects of design engineering, Part 2 focuses on the productivity and political skills you should acquire to become a good designer.Following are three of the most important skills to develop in this area:
4. How to Be Organized
Automotive design engineering is incredibly complicated. Tell someone you are an automotive design engineer and they expect you to be a methodical Poindexter that has all his calculations memorized and can draw up a part in a day. While we wish this was the case, design engineers are not superheroes. When it comes to designing a part, 10% of the information will come from your own brain and your knowledge of engineering. The other 90% will come from calculation programs, historical test logs, and design rules that have been in place for years. You have an immense amount information available to you when you are a design engineer. And keeping it all together is sometimes of a feat in itself.
If you are trying to determine the risk of your decisions or trying to support a design decision you must keep your information organized and readily accessible.Here are a few great ways to stay organized as a design engineer:
● Make a list of all the resources that you use on a regular basis. Think of the calculation programs you use, the design rules you need to access and the test or historical data you use to make decisions. If the resources are on your network or in files, create an excel sheet that provides links that are easy to access.
● Print and post your most frequently used references in your office. I always make sure that I keep a list of up-to-date part numbers, a hole/journal tolerance chart and a full assembly view of the project that I work on the most. What information do you access 10 times a day? Be sure to post that on your wall.
● Make sure that you or your team has an easy to navigate folder structure. Since automotive engineering takes place in a team environment 95% of the time, you need to always know where their supporting data is for your work. Keeping folders dated and labeled in a consistent way ensures that you can all find what you need quickly.
● Keep project meetings on an agenda. When you are designing a part you will most likely have multiple meetings about every little detail. These meetings need to be well organized around a specific focus. Always make sure you send an agenda about the topics that you want to discuss to keep everyone focused. Send out meeting minutes with agreed upon due dates for items so that you and others can keep on track and monitor progress.
5. How to Determine Risk
As a design engineer your main goal for a part is proper function. Proper function could mean that a part needs to achieve a specific goal, or that it needs to last for a certain amount of time. Whatever the case may be, safety and proper function are always your focus. Like Dr. Frankenstein, you assume the risk of whatever monster you create, good or bad.
Many times in prototype or serial production stages, there are factors to consider beyond just the safety or the strength of the part. Sometimes the design you create will work perfectly, but cannot be produced without significant costs, making it cost-prohibitive. Here is where a good designer needs to go back and determine what features are the most critical for the design and how to meet the cost constraints of the project. Balancing risk with cost, knowing where to cut, and figuring out unique solutions are important skills for any design engineer to acquire.
Cost factors come up near the beginning of the project, but the largest risk factor facing design engineers is when a production issue arises. As I stated before, an automotive design engineer is usually expected to support a project well though the production phase. Multiple times during production, things will go wrong (big understatement). In an automotive environment, these problems rear their ugly head far too often and will be sure to get everyone’s attention. A supplied part may come in just outside of tolerance and will require the design engineer to sign off saying that it will not affect function. If it does affect function, then the line will have to go down and the plant will miss its quota, or worse miss a shipment to a customer. Believe me, you will have the production managers and manufacturing engineers pushing you to approve every deviation that is put in so that they can build. With deviations to parts and process, the design engineer needs to be able to weigh the pros and cons and accurately judge the effect of rejecting or approving defects.
So if you approve the deviation there could be a risk to function but if you reject it you may be shutting the line down (and the plants income stream) until they fix the issue. So how do you determine what is the right call? The three best ways of doing this are:
● Know which dimensions are critical and which are “nice to haves” – yes all features are important but knowing which dimensions are absolutely not changeable will help make your future decisions much easier.
● Determine from history what has worked and what has not – If you have history on your deviation or history from a previous product line, this can greatly help you make a clear decision on whether something can be deviated from or not. Historical data can help in a pinch, but is not always available or relevant to the problem you face.
● Go from worst case to actual case – When two parts are designed together, they have a certain “worst case tolerance” i.e. if you have a 25mm rotating shaft at max tolerance, the minimum of the housing should be greater than 25mm. If a deviation comes in for the shaft being 26mm, the housing may not fit if it is at its minimum. If there is a mating part that could interfere at a max/min tolerance, it may be wise to have a statistical sample of the mating part measured, to determine how close you are to the “worst case”. This way you can see how the parts will actually fit together, when they are matched in assembly.
6. How to Support an Argument
Since you will essentially be the “part expert” when you create it, many people will need your knowledge on different decisions made about the part (like deviations). This means that you will need to present a case or show the facts about a part. In the example above about deviations, you may determine the risk is too high and have to support why you decided that the line had to shut down. Other times there may be a critical feature on a part that you know is critical to function, but is very expensive. Whatever it is, you will have some directive that your manager or department will lay out for you to achieve.
When presenting on a topic,do not present design information without a factual basis for everything you say. You should provide proven data or at least historical or statistical studies that support why you want to go in a certain direction. Screen shots and CAD models are a must for a design engineer to visually present why they should go with your ideas. If you are looking for the best way to get your data into a presentation, look no further than Snag-it. This screenshot software is incredibly versatile. It enables you to quickly get any bit of information off your computer, highlight and mock up the important bits, and drop it right into your presentation or email. I used this at work for years and liked it so much I purchased my own copy at home. It can be purchased on amazon – usually for a discount. I would highly recommend getting this program to any design engineer.
One of the most important skills for any engineer is the ability to break down complex information into the most important details. At every automotive engineering job I have had this was done using one of the most annoying but important tools available – the “One-Pager”. A One Pager is just what it sounds like, a one page document (usually a power point and sometimes two or more pages) that lists all the critical information about a particular project. Why did I say it was annoying? Because sometimes you are presenting incredibly complex information to management individuals who may not be technically savvy. In this case you have to consolidate the information down to the bare basics. Here is where the 80/20 rule comes in to play with your projects. You need to figure out what information is absolutely critical for someone to make a decision on your topic. Yes, making a 20 page presentation on your actuating clutch is good to share information amongst the design and production engineers. But when presenting to management on a topic, their time and need for detail is limited. Be sure to keep your presentation to a handful of slides at the most and cover only the most important topics. Being concise, effective, and persuasive will make you look like an all-star to management.
So what other knowledge do YOU think is important to a design engineer in the automotive industry? I would love to hear about any stories (good or bad) that you design guys and gals have from your experiences!
The 4 Best Things I Got To Do As an Automotive Engineer
These are the 4 most memorable and most enjoyable things did during my automotive career (so far). Although these are very exciting experiences, keep in mind my day-to-day is not at all like this. I still enjoy my daily career, but these experiences stand out as great memories. All of these were truly rewarding and made me confident that I chose the right career path.
In no particular order:
1. Visited BMW’s secret prototype lab in Munich
I cannot tell too much about what I got to see here or else they can have me shot. Being an automotive nerd, it felt like I was in the automotive mecca. Being able to see the not-yet-released prototypes of Mini, Rolls Royce and BMW was an automotive lover’s dream. One of the coolest things that I can now talk about was seeing the 4 series BMW development. In order to get into the lab we had to scan our badges in front of a large “tube” which would open up, scan you to make sure you were the only one entering, and then open up on the other side. Once inside, everyone was wearing blue labcoats, and carrying all this advanced machinery around on special carts. I felt like I was in some evil villain’s secret lair. I had to hold myself together to avoid geeking out as they were transporting and installing the Rolls Royce engines right in front of me. I kept wanting to say to everyone “Can you believe they are building a Rolls right there!” However, the hard part was that they were as familiar with these builds as I was with my desk stapler so my excitement had to be contained.
2. Spend over 5 months of my life in Germany, specifically St. Leon, Friedrichshafen and Munich.
My career has taken me to Germany four times, and each time I loved it more and more. The automotive world is so amazingly global and I made sure to join companies
where traveling was a good possibility. What makes it more exciting when you travel for business, is that you get a very different world view of the location than when you visit on vacation.While in Friedrichshafen, I was commuting on the autobahn every morning, which made my daily commute in the US way more boring when I got back home. While on other business trips, I commuted daily on the U-Bahn and worked out of these companies’ main headquarters. After work I visited all the numerous local hangouts and beergartens. My German was (and still is) pretty awful, but I managed to live and work in an amazing city that was both foreign and exciting. I would recommend that everyone find an opportunity to live and work in a foreign country, because it gives you a completely different perspective from your normal daily routine. Luckily, Automotive Engineering is the perfect field to do just that.
3. Test drive M3 on BMW’s performance center track
Ok it wasn’t actually a test drive; however it was a mandatory training that we had to do when starting at BMW (some called it training, people like me viewed it as part of the benefits package). I can say that this was one of the most exciting days I ever had working. I would have paid hundreds of dollars to do this outside of work, and the fact that I could whip around in a 400+ HP car on a test track was unreal. We had to do brake tests from 100MPH, run slalom and loop courses, and train on a wet skid pad. The best part was on the skid pad when the instructor decided to yank the E-Brake. We had to correct the oversteer with a combination of aggressive steering and acceleration. You could have seen my geeky wide smile from a mile away as I was attempting to hold a 360 degree power slide in an M3. Afterword heading back to the office, I remember shaking with an adrenaline rush- this was by far one of the most exciting experiences I have had.
4. Seeing the first thing I designed myself, go from lines on a computer screen, to a physical product.
The first thing I designed that went into actual production was a small 35mm bushing. Nothing special to look at but there was so many calculations, applications data, and material specifications that went into designing this part that it was just pure magic to see it materialize into physical form. I still have it on my desk and talk about it like it’s my child when people ask me. I remember bringing it home the first time and my girlfriend said, unimpressed, “it’s just a circle”. But no matter how small it looked, I knew I had taken something that I worked on and applied what I had learned to produce a physical part that would go into hundreds of thousands of vehicles each year. As a designer it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks when you are looking at that computer screen. I have helped design many components since then in a team environment that have been much more complex and impressive, but nothing truly on my own. So every time I look down at that “circle” it makes me feel proud that I was able to contribute to the automotive world in a small but awesome way.
I am not trying to impress you with these, because I know there are so many other cool things people do every day in the automotive field. My goal is to show you that in addition to good pay and interesting daily work, there are some exciting experiences that come along that you are unlikely to find in most other professions.
The 4 People You Need to Become Friends With as an Automotive Engineer
Automotive Engineering is a rewarding but challenging career choice. You will be solving many problems during your career and most of the time you will rely on a network of people to get you through your day. Sometimes, a problem will be so bad, that there are only a few people at work that can help you out. Here is a list of four people that you must get to know well as an Automotive Engineer.
1. The CMM/ Measurement Technician
If there is one group that is always overworked, short on time, but absolutely essential to automotive engineering, it would be the measurement technicians. As an engineer we will always need to analyze things and find out why part A won’t play nice with part B. You could use a pair of calipers to measure the two parts – however when you are trying to take a sample of 20 shafts and 20 housings that don’t fit, you might as well just use a random number generator. In comes your CMM/ Measurement specialist to save the day.
When your project is urgent and you need data on your desk yesterday, you need someone you can go to fast. At a big company (and even worse at a new one) you need to compete with everyone else who has the other 99 parts that won’t fit together that day. (All those projects are marked as urgent as well!). So your best bet is to always be polite and don’t try to game the system with them early on. If your project really is urgent then tell them exactly when you need it. If it can wait, then tell them that as well. If you are honest about your time schedule, they will be more likely to trust that your project is super-hot when you say it is.
Another tip is to make sure you always let them know the full problem and listen to their suggestions. Clearly mark drawings and describe what you are looking for. They are engineers too and are usually very eager to help you.They also may have seen something similar issues in the past and could help solve your current problem. I can think of several examples right off the top of my head where the CMM operator suggested why something could be wrong and it ended up being the root cause. Make these guys your friend early and be sure to get to know them on a professional level.
2. Your Counterparts from Other Departments
No matter what type of engineer you are, and which department you are in, – you will be working really closely with many other groups of engineers. Within Automotive Engineering, you will have your own department of similar engineers, but most of your work will be with a product group of engineers from different departments. These product groups focus on a set of parts of a section within the vehicle (depending on whether you are a supplier or OEM). You may work on a certain product line as a manufacturing engineer but you will have to work with the Design Engineer, Supplier Quality Engineer, Purchasing Executive, etc. Whenever you are solving issues you will be working closely with these people.
Each department has a separate responsibility for that part and often the interests will conflict. It is important that you learn to work together to ensure that you don’t get stalled with political troubles. There is a lot of give and take when it comes to fixing a long term issue. The best product teams know that sometimes they will not always get exactly what they want, but work towards solving the larger problem as a whole. I have worked in good teams where everyone was focused on solving the problem and everyone got along great. Everyone came out looking like a hero and really helped the company as a whole. I have also worked with bad teams where it was like pulling teeth to get anything done, and the whole team suffered as a result. Remember, you only need one horrible person to make the whole team go crazy.
It is important to understand that everyone has a different stake in the problem, but only together can it really be solved. Forming a good relationship with your product group or section team mates is essential to succeeding in automotive and enjoying your work more.
3. The Change Management Department
The Change Management Department are the people who approve your changes or deviations. They are the gate-keepers on how you will get things done. Sometimes it is just one Purchasing Executive; sometimes it is an entire department. You need to make sure that you do not aggravate these people too much. Usually there are a lot of rules for engineering changes and these guys don’t have patience for those who break them. Make sure you are trained well on how to enter changes and what each specific step is that you need to take.
If you are productive and do not cause them extra work, they will be more likely to help you in the future when you need to push up a change or get approval from the department head who rarely checks his mail. Like the Measurement Technicians, they hear that things are urgent way
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