A Working Day for Russell Davey

SERP Engineer

After graduating from Hertfordshire University with a First in 'Computer Aided Product Design' Russell wanted to get involved with working on CAD systems. With a keen interest and hobbies in the Automotive world, USE* provided Russell with the initial opportunity to work as a SERP engineer on luxury and off road vehicles. The prestigious OEM where Russell was initially based used the most advanced of these CAE systems to perform digital assessments. The focus of this was to highlight warranty cost savings via implementing design changes. From this point USE* has supported Russell to progress into a Program Champion Role with a lot more responsibility over a program for integration with design and development.

Russell has since progressed within USE* to be deployed at one of the worlds biggest Global Automotive OEM's. With this customer, Russell's focus is on the development of future Commercial Vehicles. Within this OEM he is also developing new processes to improve product development in relation to serviceability.

Within my current role as a SERP Engineer my typical day can and will vary from one day to the next.

In the early hours of the working day I will answer emails or call backs which have come about over night as this is very common working within a Global Network where everyone is on a different time frame. To be prepared I will need to review calendars and ensure I have everything ready to run the day. The Engineering and Program teams rely on us heavily to have the information or design solutions in place on time to proceed. The pressure is on everyone within the Global network to avoid creating a bottle neck in the design process.

As a Global customer, communication within engineers throughout the world is extremely important; keeping in contact helps to develop a Global product line. Web and audio meetings are a daily event with engineers from Germany, Turkey and North America. This means it's rare to find me free between mid day and mid afternoon as it’s the only time everyone can attend most meetings.

An entire day can be changed at the drop of a hat when a pressing issue, which could potentially hold up a program or compromise serviceability, rears its head. Immediate action needs to be taken where 1 to 1 contact with the engineering team is important. A good forum for this is block meetings where engineers from all sectors of the design process are present or can call in so changes can be made to benefit all attributes whether its service, manufacture or aerodynamics.

To keep my direct upstream manager in close contact with the program's design phase and progress a daily trip to the coffee shop stokes up the fire. It’s a great time for any issues or developments which need to be discussed further to be brought up.

The basis of our work is still digital serviceability assessments on anything from the access to a dip stick to the removal of an actuator from within an Auxiliary blower unit. The aim of these is still to reduce warranty costs but there is also emphasis on maintaining and improving the great reputation this OEM has for its serviceability and reliability. It's important to highlight that within the commercial vehicle world every minute a vehicle is off the road the owning fleet / customer can't be using the vehicle to earn a living.

Almost every day the design team will evolve design solutions to improve the product or improve issues. This means keeping on my toes to continually progress all the issues at once. If you reach a dead end or where a trade off between different attributes is reached I end up escalating issues to the Chief Engineers. These Chief Engineers are empowered to decide if a small change will be implemented which would avoid/provide future warranty cost appending/savings. For these meetings it is important to be prepared as you need answers to all potential questions at hand, which involves forecasting the warranty cost impact of the design change!

Process development is a large part of the work carried out within this OEM. We integrate with product development system engineers, warranty analysts, program management, special service tool suppliers, workshop manual and customer handbook authors, etc to develop new processes and improve serviceability for future commercial and passenger vehicles.

As digital assessments are not 100% in the real world, it's important to be hands on too. Signing off some designs can only be done on rapid prototypes or early prototype builds. Our involvement in these stages is a key part of the process when avoiding warranty cost expenditure and tooling cost changes. This also allows feedback from the technicians first hand in addition from what we receive from the field.

It would be a lie if I said this is a normal day, but it highlights the variety of work and integration within this OEM that USE* engineers complete

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