What is most important for production engineers?? 2

[dean427]

I have a degree in chemical engineering and am about to start my career in offshore production engineering.

I am wondering what knowledge/skills are most important for graduates to have when entering in this type of role? For instance a good knowledge of process control? fluid dynamics? strong leadership potential? etc etc..

Really what I'm asking is directed to senior engineers in this area and what are the major issues they encounter with new graduates??

All concerns and ideas welcome!

Cheers

 

[lacajun]

[ul]
[li]Good listening skills[/li]
[li]Do your job to the best of your abilities[/li]
[li]Ability to think[/li]
[li]Common sense coupled with your knowledge[/li]
[li]Patience[/li]
[li]Willingness to go the extra mile[/li]
[li]Willingness to continue learning[/li]
[li]Ability to work with others[/li]
[li]Learn their culture[/li]
[li]Learn the business[/li]
[li]Learn the economics of the industry[/li]
[li]Ask questions and don't "ass-u-me" anything[/li]
[li]Stay out of politics[/li]
[li]Honesty[/li]
[li]Treat all people with respect[/li]
[/ul]

You'll learn controls and fluid dynamics better on the job. Get Crane's Technical Paper No. 410. Get a copy of The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by W.J. King. Most of all, enjoy yourself and have fun with those you work with. These next few years will be some of the best of your profession so lay a good foundation for you. Good luck and all of God's best to you!

 

[Latexman]

SAFETY!!!!!

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[msquared48]

Producing.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[desertfox]

Hi dean427

Congrats on getting your degree.

My advice in addition to lacajun's excellent list is, don't assume that others who might not be as well qualified as yourself don't know anything.
The amount of stuff I learned over the years from people without formal qualifications as been unbelievable.

desertfox

 

[lacajun]

I'm sure glad Latexman remembered safety. It was on my list but I forgot it as I put it together; desertfox is right, too. I've learned a lot from people without formal qualifications

 

[rbulsara]

what are the major issues they encounter with new graduates??

( p.s.:I am not saying you may have all these issues, but just answering what you asked and adding to what others have said.)

Getting them to start learning, when they think that they have learned everything with the degree. Especially learning to deal with people. Many find it very difficult to accept as to how much they do not know when they are starting.

Respecting those without technical degrees, but with indispensable craft skills (operators, mechanics, plumbers, welders, riggers, fitters, electricians, ,... etc. among others). They in fact make or break you as they are the ones who will in fact implement your ideas.

Learning to put theoretical knowledge in practice. Realizing that the real world applications are not as cut and dry as technical theories and formula might suggest.

Learning to understand business and economic side of the equation, which many a times trumps the best possible technical solution. This is of paramount importance when trying to deal with bin counters (MBA's) who may have influence on your progress up the ladder. Learning to make best trade-offs.

The list goes on.


Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

Queue theory. It's very relevant and much less boring than most of the other production engineering disciplines.

- Steve

 

[dean427]

Thanks for the thoughts guys!

Yes I've got a copy of TP410 and Unwritten Laws of Engineering is currently on order from amazon

 

[ash9144]

Just to add to what others have already stated...The hourly folks are critical to your success or failure. You need to be sure to understand the problems from their perspective and include them in your solutions. Don't be afraid to get out in the unit and get dirty with them. If you are willing to work with them to find mutually acceptable solutions they will go the extra mile to make sure it works well.

 

[KENAT]

Except when schedule, safety or other concerns preclude it - do a little of your own research before asking a questiion.

For instance, every few months a new grad in his first job will post a similar question to this. There have been some fairly long threads about it, which if you can find them may be of assistance.

Sadly I think they're still fine tuning the search on this site so it's not brilliant yet, but the google search at the top of the screen should work reasonably well.

Now they will be more general, than specifically for production engineers but will probably give you some ideas.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[IRstuff]

A critical concept that many production engineers fail to grasp is that process tweaks have unintended consequences, and at 20 years into a process, it's highly unlikely that you will stumble upon a beneficial process tweak. In fact, it's highly likely that such a process tweak will produce grossly suboptimal results.

I was involved in a 1986 tigerteam investigation into why an EPROM process was failing miserably, to the point that writing data into one location would erase data from other locations. Turns out that that production engineer came up with the brilliant idea to increase the longevity of the diffusion furnace tube by decreasing the EPROM oxidation process temperature from 1100°C to 1050°C. Increasing the process time accordingly, and the oxide appeared on the test patterns to match perfectly with the previous runs, there appeared to be no apparent loss in yield, and the furnace tube life increased by a factor of 4. Obviously, a win-win.

2 yrs later, we ran an EPROM memory device on the same process, and instead of getting 40% yield we got 0.3%. This was traced, EVENTUALLY, to the the aformentioned oxidation process. While others concocted various "fixes," I concentrated on looking at related process literature, which I eventually found. A full 15 years prior to our ingenious production engineer's wonderful tweak, the engineers at IBM published an article fully explaining the deleterious effects of reduced temperatures for that oxidation step, fully describing the exact effects that we were seeing on our devices. Changing the temperature back to 1100°C immediately improved our yields to over 30% on the very first run, and subsequent runs had even better yields.

So, why did the other product not show the same effect? It turns out that it did, but it has so many other yield loss mechanisms that the EPROM yield hit just wasn't obvious enough. Had the production engineer done a thorough process yield analysis, he probably would have seen the effects.

The moral of the story is that a production engineer MUST do a massively thorough due diligence search before making any process changes. There will have been hundreds of prior production engineers looking for the same sort of changes, and they will have likely published why they were bad ideas.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

What is most important for production engineers??

Same as any other engineers ... a paycheque.

 

[stanweld]

Don't underestimate the effects of "a little bit of water".

 

[Latexman]

Throw your operators and maintenance folks a bone occaisionally.

Good luck,
Latexman