Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at the Driving Change Conference organized by the Center for Automotive Research and supported by a research consortium of the Indiana, Michigan and Ohio Labor Market Information offices. This event brought together representatives from the automotive industry, educators and HR professionals to network and discuss the skills required in our industry. With me on the panel discussing “Automotive Technology: Greener Products, Changing Skills” were Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird (GM) and Bob Storc (Magna E-Car). Brett Smith (CAR) moderated.

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I own a lot of khaki pants.  The reasons for this are very sound, mostly having to do with the fact that is almost impossible to get in serious fashion trouble while wearing them.  You can add a nice top and you instantly become rather nattily dressed while wearing the same pants that will get you through a factory, in and out of multiple vehicles, and underneath a piece of laboratory equipment that needs sorting out.  The only time I have ever been scolded for wearing khaki pants and a blue shirt is when four of us showed up at a meeting all dressed the same way.   Khaki pants are eminently practical, efficient, functional, and reusable – just like engineers.  For some reason, though, there seems to be a paucity of engineers on the fashion runways.

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I was talking with some colleagues from the supply base recently. Finding the number of high caliber engineers required to develop the new product demanded by OEM programs was an almost universal challenge. The available pool of engineers is not only depleted due to the migration of experienced engineers away from traditional automotive homelands (and many out of the industry), but it is also troubling that new graduates are not enthused by the prospect of joining the industry. And this against the backdrop of SAARs for this year that are keeping pace with predictions that many viewed as optimistic even in Q4 of last year.

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I used to live in Dayton, OH, home of the Wright Brothers, and got to learn much about how the first Wright Brothers plane was designed.  There was no design or stress or manufacturing department to Wright Brothers, Inc. – Orville and Wilbur did it all and accomplished a great feat.  I now live in Seattle and have been to the Museum of Flight where you can see how the early Boeing airplanes were designed.  Great things can be accomplished by people with a passion for an idea. 

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It almost seems as though there is no such thing as a purely mechanical system anymore. The proliferation of electronic controls into the automotive industry is evident through almost every vehicle system. With this trend comes the complexity of developing a mechanical design, controls software and hardware, plus system calibration. Recently Altair worked with Faurecia on the optimization of one such system. In this case Faurecia wasn’t adding electronics to a different part of the vehicle, but taking a new approach to an electronic window regulator design.

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