The employment of Electrical and Electronic
engineers – a practical appreciation from both
sides of industry
Harry Chandler
SeaValley Consultants
Abstract:
The young engineer in the world of work has the objective of being paid a reasonable
income for indulging his/her passion or hobby. The expectation is that the employer will
provide the necessary environment in terms of location and equipment, opportunities to
learn more about the subjects that interest him/her, and provide congenial company.
The employer’s objective is to obtain (and to retain) the services of the young engineer at
an affordable cost to join a team to assist his/her business to maintain or improve short
and long-term profitability.
Regrettably, these objectives are frequently in conflict to the mutual detriment of the
employer and the employee.
Many young engineers find the world of work unsatisfactory. They do not have the fun
they expect and do not achieve their full potential.
The employer is not able to exploit the potential of the young engineer and his/her
business is not as successful as anticipated. The engineer becomes a cost, not a resource.
Many employers are keen to know why they are unable to use newly qualified engineers
better. They note that small businesses are usually able to provide a more satisfying work
environment than large businesses and to get more out of their people. Some large
employers go to considerable effort to make a large business look and feel small with
varying degrees of success. They note that the newly qualified engineer needs support
and guidance and take action to provide support. These efforts do not always work.
To be effective, the young engineer needs skill sets that include technical skills in
relevant disciplines, personal skills to follow procedures and to ensure that faulty
procedures are improved, social skills to work in teams, and management skills especially
in project management. Some young engineers recognise the need to develop themselves,
and take positive action to improve their skill sets, others do not.
Universities are increasingly aware of the need to improve engineering progression and
achievement and have taken action to smooth the transition from the academic world to
the world of work.
This paper develops these themes and suggests routes to the future to the mutual benefit
of the young engineer and to the employer of the young engineer.
Summary
The problems of the newly qualified engineer starting his or her first job in electrical or
electronic engineering are the same today as they were 40 years ago.
The paper reviews the present situation from both the employee’s and the employer’s
perspective.
It suggests where remedial action can be taken and ways and means of creating a “winwin” situation.
Introduction
The author has been employed in the engineering industry for approximately 40 years.
Originally he was employed as an electronic design engineer in the late 1950s and early
1960s at the leading edge of electronic engineering. During the 1980s and 1990s he
provided Information Technology services for engineers, scientists and manufacturing
personnel in an organisation producing “high-tech” electronic components. During the
past 40 years he has been able to witness at first hand the careers of engineers and their
managers in the UK engineering industry. He has been involved with attempts to improve
the effectiveness of engineers both directly within industry and by lecturing at various
UK universities. He considers that many of the young engineers leaving universities are
not well prepared by universities for the problems that they are likely to encounter as
practicing electrical and electronic engineers. This state of affairs has contributed to the
less than satisfactory condition of the UK electrical and electronic engineering industry.
This industry has not prospered in the way that was envisaged 40 years ago and has not
prospered in the way that the electrical and electronic engineering industries of other
nations have prospered.
Background
Many studies have drawn attention to various generic problems in the UK electrical and
electronic engineering business. These problems include general problems with the
markets, which may be summarised diverse with unpredictable demand. There are
additional difficulties with predicting the product specification required and the phased
demand for products. Customers increasingly demand shorter lead times and custom
designs. This has serious implications with the design process, the supply chain and the
quality process. Competition is worldwide and with the complication that different
countries protect their indigenous suppliers in different ways. Profit margins may be
adequate initially, but are reduced to wafer thin levels in a surprisingly short time.
Frequently, customers wish to place orders for what had been perceived as obsolete
designs with “minor modifications” at a lower price than the original design. Finding old
designs can be a serious challenge when the original company producing the design has
been taken over, the original engineers have departed and data is stored in obsolete
systems. Stocks, which in the past had provided a buffer against demand fluctuation, are
now a positive embarrassment due to a combination of inventory holding costs and rapid
design change. Because of the long life of today’s electronic products in all markets (not
just with consumer goods) the periods between re-ordering are lengthening. Customers
increasingly demand reliable products with substantially enhanced capabilities before
repeat purchasing. Cosmetic overhauls unsupported by functional improvements are
unlikely to stimulate demand. Finally, the design engineer is faced with the problem of
many products requiring built in software to give the product the edge over competition.
The microprocessor may be low cost. Reliable custom software is not.
In addition to design issues, there are other factors that need to be considered by the
manufacturer. The current exchange rate of the UK pound to other countries currencies is
considered to be a serious obstacle to trade by some authorities and there are the
problems implicit in ever decreasing product life cycles. Cash cows are becoming the
exception and research and development costs continue to increase.
Many customers of UK sourced products complain that products are frequently delivered
late and when they are available, initially do not always work according to specification.
Substantial unplanned and irrecoverable cost may be the result of such problems for the
manufacturer.
All the foregoing issues affect the environment in which the engineer works. In addition
to the technical skills the engineer needs to have significant complementary skills. The
engineer is becoming a mini managing director. Without adequate training and support,
the engineer is likely to find the engineering activity a difficult challenge. Considering
the position of the young engineer in this situation, the new graduate is rarely
immediately profitable to employ initially and the young engineer is rarely noted for
entrepreneurial flair. These problems suggest that if engineers and the industries with
which they are associated are to prosper, focused action is required to assist them and
hence industry that employs them. Graduate apprenticeships which used to be a method
of closing the gap between the young engineer and the employer have withered away.
Have the universities suddenly acquired yet another new job?
The Employer’s idea of an engineer’s core responsibilities
The employer expects engineers to be the driver for product development, introduction
and support. He does not usually expect the engineer to be good at marketing, selling or
buying although it is clearly to the advantage of the employer if the engineer can fulfil
these duties. As the marketeer, the salesman or the buyer is unlikely to have had an
adequate electrical and electronic engineering training, they are not usually expected to
design products and perform other engineering tasks.
The employer expects the engineer to produce certain “deliverables”. The deliverables
will depend on the tasks for which the engineer is employed.
Firstly, I will consider product specifications, that is the translation of the requirement or
specification into a design that meets all the conditions required of it. These conditions
are likely to include:
- The design to be manufacturable
- The design to be capable of being manufactured to the required quality in the
quantities required at the costs required and within the time required
- The design to use common or approved parts, materials, fasteners, adhesives,
coatings, processes and test procedures
- The manufacture of the design to be capable of using existing or available stocks
- The manufacture of the design to be capable of being made anywhere using standard
machines, tooling and processes (by English and non-English speakers)
- When the design cannot be manufactured using standard or existing parts, materials,
processes, etc., the engineer is expected to identify suitable ones. This may involve
sourcing new parts, materials, suppliers, and equipment of various types (e.g. test,
measuring and manufacturing equipment).
- The production of adequate documentation to enable the following;
- Maintenance of the design
-
Modification to the design under approved version control
Manufacture of the design
Safe operation of the manufactured item
Maintenance of the manufactured item
Disposal of the manufactured item
- Meeting of any special conditions for example, traceability, and non-standard
documentation for some markets
- Testing of the manufactured item as a complete item and at appropriate stages in
the manufacturing process
- To inform anyone needing to know about any hazards to the manufacture,
operation, or disposal of the item
- To confirm that the product conforms with all appropriate legislation
- Documentation of the reasons why decisions were made the way they were
(project note books or similar)
All documentation and other records to be approved and made available to those with
a need to know in the way required by the organisation, to be kept in a safe place and
archived under proper control at the end of the project or similar work package.
Secondly, in addition to providing deliverables, the engineer is likely to be responsible
for various “Non-Deliverables”. This means that the engineer has other core
responsibilities.
These other core responsibilities are likely to include the following:
- Identifying problems with the requirement and resolving these where possible
- The Design approach to be used
- The Design strategy to be used, including the definition of work packages
- Making estimates of time and cost to design and manufacture the product and
revising these in the light of experience
- Project Management using a variety of software tools. Some of these tools may be
specified by the employer and others by the customer or his representative
- Time and cost to completion estimating for the design and manufacture
- Identification of the resources required and planning their use. These may be
additional people with certain skills and internal resources e.g. Plant services,
Quality, and Information Technology, and can include increasing infrastructure
capacity and capability. The resources may be for specific items for the project like
tooling, or Information Technology hardware and special software
- Specifying the type of additional resources and their acquisition when required. This
may include both technical and non-technical resources
- Cost planning, so the business can arrange the necessary finance
- Identifying training requirements for those involved with the project and getting
training when needed and ensuring that the training has been adequate
- Reporting to others on the progress of the project in a variety of approved formats and
at specified times and recommending corrective action to be taken to correct project
slippage should this occur and if necessary getting additional resources
- Identification of project risk and taking or recommending the necessary action to
achieve the desired results
- Personal Time Management
- Working with other departments and getting their co-operation willingly.
These departments or other organisational units not directly under the engineers
control are likely to include some or all of the following:
- Manufacturing
- Industrial Engineering/Production Engineering
- Quality management
- Finance/Accounting
- Other service departments, for example, the Drawing Office, the Training
department and the IT department
And at the same time, keeping up with best engineering and associated disciplines
practice…a tall order!
The wrong product
Many organisations have produced products which for a variety of reasons have not
succeeded. There are many reasons why organisations produce products which are
“wrong”. A wrong product is not necessarily caused by an engineer, but could be the
result of failures by others in the organisation. To ensure that corrective action is taken, it
is essential to determine what went wrong.
A wrong product can be:
- One that does not meet the customer requirement
- One that does not fulfil the specification
- One that does not sell
- One that makes a loss, or consumes resources that were destined to be used elsewhere
- One whose support costs are higher than planned
- One that does not delight the customer.
This unfortunate situation happens for a variety of reasons which are likely to include:
- Poor marketing
- Poor selling
- Poor design
- Poor manufacturing
- Product Quality and Cost Issues
- Poor administration
- Lack of capacity
- Competitor’s products are perceived to be better than yours
- The use of inadequate engineering tools, especially Information Technology tools
Considering the engineer who has been involved with a product failure, what are the
problems caused by engineers and how can the engineer cause product problems? Clearly
the answer depends on the engineer’s responsibility and role.
It is unlikely that the engineer is responsible for all product problems, but it is likely that
some core problems are the responsibility of the engineer and the Engineering
organisation. It is always useful to review the engineer’s responsibilities and then to take
appropriate corrective action in co-operation with the engineer. The “blame culture”
approach rarely leads to long-term success.
Increasingly the engineer is dependant on Information Technology or IT. IT is unlikely to
cause product problems by itself, as IT is a service and/or a tool. The way in which this
service or tool is used is the crucial issue except where the service or tool fails in some
way. As the user of the service and/or tool has the ultimate responsibility for its use the
engineer needs to satisfy him or herself that the tool is adequate for the task. This
particularly applies to electronic engineering. If the tool is not perceived to be suitable,
this may result in the engineer being involved in difficult discussions with those who
selected the tool in the first place. This may put the young engineer in an impossible
situation as a senior person may have specified that a particular tool be used.
Unsatisfactory IT provision may cause products to be designed that do not work correctly
or cause confusion and high costs to the organisation. At worst poor engineers supported
by unsuitable or inappropriate IT can threaten the existence of the whole organisation.
Considering the improvement of engineer progression and achievement, it is useful to
look at this subject from the perspective of the engineering employer and that of the
young engineer.
The Engineering Employer
The employer is likely to have objectives which include survival, to be profitable and to
increase profitability, to be world class, to be a good employer, to obtain and to retain the
services of young engineers who will fit into the organisation at an affordable cost.
The reality of employing young engineers is likely to include:
- The employer’s objectives and the young engineer’s objectives are occasionally in
conflict. These conflicts need to be resolved.
- The technical quality of young engineers is very variable. Mathematical ability (or lack
of it) can be a real problem in electrical and electronic engineering
- The young engineer is likely to have a weak appreciation of general business knowledge
and particularly of the quality process
- The young engineer may not appreciate the importance of following the employer’s
processes and procedures and not thoroughly understand them. Existing solutions are reinvented. The capabilities of service organisations are frequently ignored
- Frequently, when in doubt, the young engineer re-invents a design or process
- Requests for expenditure for equipment are not adequately justified. The young
engineer considers that a request unsupported by evidence is adequate
- Many engineers believe that sales, marketing and purchasing get in their way rather
than help the engineer
- Engineers consider budgeting, costing and estimating to be a black art and surprise the
employer by providing unprofitable designs
- Engineers’ time management is weak. Estimates of time to completion are optimistic
- It costs time and money to provide education and training, support and guidance to the
young engineer. The key resource is the time of experienced engineers
- Suitable trainers for engineers are a rare commodity and appear to be in danger of
becoming rarer
- Experienced engineers are easier to fit in to the company than graduates straight from
university
- Young engineers leave when they are becoming effective
- Frequently, the young engineer needs to be “spoon fed” and given substantial personal
supervision/ tuition in areas that were apparently covered by the engineering degree
-
The young engineer expects to be given training supplied by the employer, even when
such training is not relevant to the employer’s business
The Young Engineer
The young engineer is likely to have the following objectives:
- To be paid a reasonable income for indulging his/her passion or hobby.
- To have the expectation is that the employer will provide the necessary environment in
terms of location and equipment,
- To have opportunities to learn more about the subjects that interest him/her
- To work with congenial company
- To “get into management”
The reality of the world of work is frequently a disappointment to the young engineer for
the following reasons:
- The widely held perception that pay outside engineering is higher than in engineering
- Engineers do not have the fun they expect at work
- The employer’s design and development equipment and facilities are of a poorer
standard than expected, and some working conditions are poor
- The engineer has to justify expenditure on equipment. His or her word for the need is
not adequate by itself. This surprises the young engineer
- The feeling of being a small cog in a big machine. Suggestions are not acted on and
appear to be unwelcome.
- The employer is not prepared to pay for career development that does not match the
employer’s short-term needs
- The employer does not provide adequate guidance to achieve the employer’s objectives
- Many young engineers report that they enjoy their job and the company is congenial
- The engineer does not achieve the career that he/she expects and does not achieve
his/her full potential
In spite of many studies and well-intentioned actions resulting from these studies, little
has changed over the past 50 years. I suggest that as employers expect competent
engineers, universities could do more to provide the required competency.
The role of universities in training engineers
Universities have an important role in providing suitably qualified young engineers. It is
possible that some universities provide totally appropriate tuition. From personal
experience, many graduate engineers lack key skills, and as a result, do not progress as
well as they expect in the world of work. The following is a suggestion for a module in
electrical and electronic engineering first-degree courses, ideally to be taken in the 3rd
year of the course.
Module Title:
What is expected of newly qualified engineer in his/her first industrial employment.
The aims of the module:
The module sets out to narrow the gap that exists today between the aspirations of the newly
qualified engineer and his/her employer. After completing the module the newly qualified engineer
will have the technical foundation and the understanding of all the processes that are necessary
convert ideas into saleable, “maufacturable”, and profitable products. The engineer gets more “job
satisfaction” and the employer is able to apply the newly qualified engineer’s skills to the benefit of
the business after a relatively short induction programme. The expectation is that within a matter of
a few months, the engineer will be retained and become an ambassador for the business.
The contents of the module are:
Thorough understanding of the following processes from the perspective of an electrical and
electronic engineer:
- Business strategy
- Selling and marketing
- Research
- The supply chain
- The product introduction process, i.e. concept to saleable and supported product
- The role of Industrial Engineering
- Product life cycle management
- Quality assurance
- Finance, accounting and costing
- The roles of the various service functions including training, information technology and
communications, the building services and plant functions
- Human resources functions
Business process understanding:
- The importance of the “team” approach to engineering success
- The design process and quality process used in businesses
- Project methodologies and how to manage projects
- How to get approval for capital items, for example Test equipment, IT equipment
- How to get training, both to develop technical skills and business skills. (The
employer is likely to add to the engineer’s skills toolset, if the engineer is able to
convince the employer that such additions will be to their mutual benefit)
Understanding the engineering design process.
The designs produced by the engineer should be to the organisation’s standards, and for
manufactured items and assemblies, use standard materials, components, and fasteners,
manufacturing machines and tooling to avoid cost and waste. The engineer needs to
understand how to produce work packages with auditable deliverables. The successful
application of changing Information Technology is essential to the engineer and to the
employer. Today, computing provides the glue for the engineering process in most
industry and facilitates change when the business needs to change. The application of
Information Technology can make it possible to enforce standards and reduce costs at the
earliest stage of the product introduction process. The engineer needs to appreciate
certain techniques and their advantages and disadvantages. They include:
- CAE, 2D and 3D CAD, CAM, Product Data Management
-
General solvers, for example MathCAD and industry specific solvers
Specialist design software
The exchange and sharing of data, images, and processes within the internal
engineering community, within the whole organisation, and outside the
organisation
The engineer has a role to play as part of the supply chain. Understanding is needed of
techniques and software to assist with manufacturing and administration. These include:
- Supplier identification and development
- MRP1 and MRP2 computer systems
- Accounting and costing systems
- Project administration and project purchasing
The engineer needs to appreciate the big IT picture. This includes:
- Computing infrastructures likely to be encountered,
- How the enterprise integrates commercial and engineering computing
- The importance of IT architectures that permit change.
- Computer desktop issues with particular reference to ease of use.
- “Real time” control systems
- Commodity and industry specific computing tools.
The suggested module should be taken in year 3 and with substantial external assistance.
The style of module: lectures, group assignments and presentations to external examiners.