As part of 41055, I was required to complete reflections on various topics in professional engineering practice
Principles of sustainability to create viable systems
During my internship, I was often tasked with investigating trending failure modes during the manufacturing process and providing a solution to improve yield. On one particular occasion, I looked into bubbles in the plastic raw material from our supplier. There was such an increase in these physical defects that some batches had a yield of 0%, and we were running out of raw materials to make our product. Upon discussion with the supplier, we found a misalignment in the inspection criteria, so while they deemed the material acceptable on the outgoing inspection, our incoming inspection was failing. My job was to find out what the ideal inspection criteria were. This meant that I had to find out why these tolerances were chosen in the first place.
This is where I began to get frustrated. While this inspection criterion was present throughout lots of documentation, there was no record of why the tolerances were initially chosen. During my investigation, I discovered that the values had changed throughout the years. These changes were not documented properly. There was no report on why the tolerances were updated or any verification and validation to support the change.
I found this irritating as the company focused on lean manufacturing. This is the process of streamlining tasks during production and simultaneously minimising waste. The waste may not always refer to physical waste products and can include intangible assets such as time. AS there was no prior documentation of previous decisions and changes for this matter, I felt I was wasting my time having to redo investigations and documentation.
I recognise the difficulties that may have caused this situation. The company is rapidly expanding and becoming established. It is likely that a few years ago when the initial criteria were developed, there were different documentation practices, as well as a large pressure to get main design tasks finished and smaller tasks, such as documenting inspection criteria decisions, were not prioritised.
This situation highlights the importance of sustainable engineering. Dowling
et al. (2016) presents values and mindsets that engineers should possess to practice sustainability. Most applicable to this situation would be to conserve resources, including time. Lean manufacturing principles reflect this belief to streamline processes and reduce waste.
Through this experience, I have become more aware of my thinking. Additionally, it has allowed me to change my perspective on approaching future frustrations in the workplace. This situation taught me to always document my thought process critically so that future engineers can easily pick up the design history of a task and can save time during investigations.
References:
Dowling, D. Hadgraft, R. Carew, A McCarthy, Hargreaves, D. and Baillie,C. (2016) Engineering your future: an Australian Guide, 3rd edn, Wiley,
Milton, Qld.
Professional Practice within intercultural and global contexts
The company where I undertook my internship is a global company. It is based in Sydney but has small offices in the US and throughout Europe. Therefore, my colleagues and I were aware of the global context in which we worked. The Sydney office where I worked daily was multicultural. Many colleagues had studied in various different countries before moving to Australia. The majority of senir management were based in the US. I recall one particular situation where I was in a meeting with my manager and senior management. I was presenting my findings for an investigation into manufacturing failure modes. Towards the end of my presentation, I was cut off by one of the senior managers and told to move on.
Initially, I was very embarrassed and spent the rest of the meeting being very quiet. I felt upset as I would not talk to someone this way. I believe I went too in-depth on some technical aspects, which was seen as a bit of a tangent. I thought they should be more understanding that I was an intern and still learning to present in a professional setting.
However, upon reflection, I decided not to take this comment personally. The manager was definitely a busy person and wanted the meeting to be as efficient as possible. Also, any lack of subtlety for moving the conversation on could be due to cultural differences. While I was taken aback at the comment and found it abrupt and rude, the manager probably thought nothing of it as it was normal behaviour in his workplace.
Bennet (2004) describes the differences in communication style and nonverbal behaviour between cultures. This also goes both ways. I thought the manager was too direct and could have used more tact in his communication style. However, I may have been too sensitive to the comment due to my culture and environment. I do not have much experience in the corporate workplace. Therefore, this experience was a part of the learning curve.
From this situation, I learnt not to take comments like this personally. I also learnt an important lesson about communication. For example, I must understand the stakeholder's position when preparing my presentation and tailor the discussion accordingly. Next time I can present key points and have further information ready to discuss only if asked.
References
Bennett, M. J. 2004, Becoming interculturally competent. In J.S. Wurzel (Ed) Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education. Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation