Need some advice for competency development and transition to Design Engineer role 1

[pratikbpatil]

Hi,
I work in Home-appliance industry. My job profile is engineering analysis. This comprises of creating predictive system models for appliance performance in tools such as MATLAB, Dymola, Simulink etc. So I have good physical understanding of appliance performance. I have opportunity (in 1 year of time) to move to a role of Design engineer. From discussion with my colleagues who are in same role, I came to know that this role involves: [[ 1. Ownership of design/manufacturability for a specific subsystem of new product. 2. Creating design concepts for this subsystem 3. Gathering evidence and proving that given concept will work from assembly/performance/manufacturing perspective through various tools. 4. Organizational aspects which require coordinating with cross-function to get all requirements and approval for concept and maintaining documents such as DVP&R and FMEA ]]
From what I could gather this role requires knowledge in following areas (which I need to gain):-
1. Some exposure to actual design (mostly Pro-E)
2. Manufacturing and design knowledge for Plastics and Sheet Metal parts
3. Maintenance of documents such as DVP&R and FMEA as integral part of product development activity
Assuming that I have very basic knowledge about these points (meaning practically insufficient), how can I go about to being competent in these subjects? Do you think, I missed some crucial subject(s) which also should be included on this list?
Basically I am an engineer aspiring to go from thermodynamics/mass-transfer system analyst to design-engineer whose responsibility are as discussed above. I am looking for advice on how I can use the time in between to make myself more suitable for that role.
Any advice on where I can find resource for learning mentioned subjects or processes is highly appreciated


Regards,

 

[GregLocock]

Learning DVP&R and FMEA should not take too much of your time, I think our newbs get 3 days to knock them over. In an established industry like whitegoods you should be modifying previous DVP&R and FMEA, nothing changes a whole lot.

I don't have any suggestions for the others.


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[zappedagain]

- Review the design recommendations on vendor sites that make Plastic and Sheet Metal parts for your company of interest. Review the recommendations and explore any questions that you have about why these recommendations are in place. Ask what could go wrong if you don't follow the recommendations.

- If your move is within a company where you can get access to the design documents, start reviewing existing designs. Explore any questions that you have.

- You might be able to access a student version of Pro-E; I know they are available for AutoCAD Inventor so you can start learning the tools.

Z

 

[robertib]

One thing that you almost certainly will find useful is to speak to the guys who would make / assemble the components you would design - here we make sure all our designers have some experience assembling the product, so they know where things can be improved.

 

[RolMec]

From a practical learning p.o.v. the very best thing would be to hang around those people you already know and doing the job. If your company is somehow open to "lost time", why not propose some days / weeks of traineeship where the actual fires are burning. You could reason that your transition would be smoothened and know-how aquisition started.
As from the job side p.o.v., following up one design cycle of a / some given product and reproduce the correct design & org. steps for yourself would give you a fundamental structure to your future actions and also the best possible guideline where to focus.
My experience is that in engineering everything bases on the design & communication software, as this is where you produce the documents to make the interfaces. Why not look out for some crash course to get aquainted to the specific & more important software you shall need to use? It would give you time to think if you already know where to find the correct buttons'n icons .. ;-)
Best of luck, &
Regards

RSVP

 

[pratikbpatil]

Hi,
Thank you everyone for guiding. I have joined a crash course of Creo Parametric and requested to be free aid/ (non-committed resource) of particular design engineer while he goes through concept selection--> CAD --> Approval --> DFM & Drafting process.
I guess my mindset about collecting reading material for competency development was wrong as most people on this forum and other have advised actual participation in active design project.

 

[KENAT]

2. Manufacturing and design knowledge for Plastics and Sheet Metal parts

There is lots of stuff out there which is actually quite useful. As well as books there are threads on here, articles at Engineering.com and often design guides on vendors sites. Now much of it will be rules of thumb or customized around a certain companies process etc. but may still be useful for instance:

thread1103-410064 gives a couple of design guides:

http://www.qualitytool.com/resources/Design-Handbook-Rev3.pdf

http://files.engineering.com/downlo...e=Dayton_Rogers_Design_Handbook_E-Edition.pdf

For RIM my employer has used this company

http://www.premoldcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Premold_DG_7th-rev-3.pdf

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[HiDrPo]

Best way is jump in with both feet. Sounds like you've taken the right steps.

Focus on doing less right than almost getting more done.

To error is human, to forgive is not company policy. The guy who does two jobs perfect becomes the golden boy. The guy who gets four out of five jobs done is a incompetent bum.