Jaguar Land Rover -Â Design Engineer for Bumper&Grills Team
My first assigned program was the replacement of one of JLR's most iconic products, the DEFENDER.
There were many design changes to the A surface for this model, which required extensive CAD work from me, as the Bumper Assemblies consisted of around 30 parts. I worked on five A-Surface releases, each significantly different from the last, requiring me to redesign the concept of those parts with a fresh A-surface every time. With each release, I improved my skills, allowing me to deliver the required CAD faster and faster.
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My skills were noticed, and I was chosen as one of seven engineers to move inside Studio Design, where I worked directly with Design and Packaging Engineers to achieve faster solutions and enable the delivery of the Design Vision.
Working in the studio is great for a CAD Engineer. You can see prototypes on a 1:1 scale of the models you're currently working on, allowing you to easily visualize how those parts will look and how they should fit together.
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During this time, I gained the ability to work side-by-side with my Lead Engineer and design in real-time what he asked for, sometimes altering the parametric model on the spot to obtain a totally different solution. Together, we even proposed solutions for parts for other teams, such as Bumper beams or spare wheel carriers, to ensure a robust design for our bumpers.
For a few weeks, I've been asked to provide CAD support for another department, and so I've got the opportunity to work on underfloor heat shields. I've managed to adapt very quickly with the responsible engineer and those models, so I delivered the CAD faster than expected.
From January ‘15, I was assigned to other 2 programs: Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. This doubled the workload, but these were JLR’s top models, so I was happy and proud to do the heavy work. I have put all my efforts to quickly turn around any ideas that my Lead engineers or our design department come up with. I was surpassing the speed of many supplier engineers on board. As you can read below, I went beyond my duties, as I was really proud and engaged to work on these premium models.
In April ’16, I’ve completed the training and delivered my first generic model using advanced modelling technics (AVA- Advance Vehicle Architecture) for the scope of positioning the PDC sensors on the bumpers and creating all the PDC Brackets. My project was classified as the best this training ever produced, and I was invited to present to our main Body Town Hall event.
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Referrals/Colleagues: Keith Rose (LL4), Heather McEntee (Manager), Martin Green (SME), Greg Bull (Module Leader), Andy Hill (Lead), Paul Collins (Lead), Robert Jercan, Ionut Moraziu, Ionel Tiganu.
FLEXIBLE, MODULAR ARCHITECTURE
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The underpinning framework that will enable this efficient, concurrent engineering is in what Rogers describes as associative vehicle architecture (AVA), JLR’s approach to digital engineering that is based in computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE). “It is really about embedding our engineering knowledge base into our CAD and CAE tools and beyond,” says Keith Rose, CAD and AVA Senior Manager.
The AVA system is a growing set of computer models of the different parts and subsystems in a car that “embeds the science as algorithms and parameter values based on our engineering strategy for that part or system,” says Rose. “The vision is that the AVA is the live culmination of all the engineering knowledge that you have got,” adds Rogers. “That is why it is so powerful. You continuously build and add to the previous strategy, or best-so-far knowledge, rather than reinventing it every time you start a new product, encouraging engineers to formally integrate the learning from last time.”
The approach with AVA enables JLR to create results that may have previously taken days in hours, enabling the engineers to maximise their time on the most important part – using every minute to create the very best products possible for its customers.
