August 28, 2015
Engineering Knowledge Management
This entry provides an introductory orientation to Engineering Knowledge Management solutions and why they are important for design teams.
August 28, 2015
The “Right the First Time” Principle
No engineer plans to make the wrong decision. Product development, however, is a highly constrained endeavor. Products must be designed on a specific schedule. Engineers have to take company-wide considerations into account. Products are only getting more complex in terms of mechatronics. It’s surprising that more mistakes aren’t made when designing products. To counter all of these issues and more, some engineering …
August 28, 2015
Recruiting and Retaining Engineering Talent
In dealing with highly technical issues, complex development processes and technically oriented engineers, engineering managers rarely get the chance to actually manage. Instead, they often act as firefighters, dealing with the emergency of the day. Due to generational dynamics and hyper-specialization, however, the landscape of engineering staffing is changing. To get ahead of the curve, some organizations have become far more …
August 28, 2015
Just in Time Engineering (JITE)
When engineers are placed on a tight deadline, the reaction is fairly common: rush to complete work as quickly as possible. However, a new philosophy regarding design has recently emerged that actually takes the opposite position: make no design decision before it is absolutely necessary. Defining Just in Time Engineering (JITE) The philosophy of JIT is simple: inventory is waste. JIT inventory …
August 28, 2015
Agile Product Development Processes
As more electronic hardware and software are incorporated into traditional mechanical products, manufacturers are seeking better ways to integrate design activities across engineering disciplines. As a result, many design and development practices are exchanged. One such initiative, Agile Product Development, involves the application of agile methodologies to mechanical design, electrical design and broader product development. Defining Agile for Hardware A …