Why I created this course?
My journey - as a CAD Engineer to A Design Engineer
(CAD design - Component design - Assembly design - Product design)
Yes there is a big difference between a CAD engineer & a Design engineer
Hey hi,
Greetings for the day…!!
My name is Lalit…!!
I have 12 years of experience in Vehicle Integration, Product Design & Product Development. I have worked with Fortune 500 companies like Cummins India Ltd, Force Motors Ltd, John Deere India Pvt. Ltd, Greaves Cotton Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd etc. I worked in Research & development (R&D). I was fortunate that I got an opportunity to work on Engines, Transmission systems as well as Vehicle architecture. I supported New Product Design projects, Current Product improvement projects, Resolution of complex field failure issues & Cost optimization projects. I always consider Design for Manufacturing, Design for Assembly, & Design for Service while working on new concepts. I used to carry out Design Failure Mode Effect Analysis along with the cross-functional teams, to address any potential failures of a new design by incorporating the corrective actions in the design phase itself. Added to this I always use the Six Sigma methodologyto resolve any technical issues. I have strong Value Analysis & Value Engineering experience, especially in structural part design. I have high competency in tractor subsystem design, validation, and testing. I have individually contributed to improving the in-house test capabilities by designing testing fixtures & methodology for the organizations I worked for. I was involved in various homologation activities carried out for various products and safety-critical components. I have excellent CAD skills (Expertise in surface & solid modeling in a top-down approach, handled large DMUs) & I have worked on complex casting, forging & heavy fabricated components.
Educational Journey
The entire experience looks fabulous, isn’t it? However, The journey was full of challenges. I belong to the rural area. There is a small town, Faizpur, in Jalgaon district (Maharashtra) where I completed my higher secondary certification (HSC). After HSC, I wanted to go for medical. However, I was not successful in cracking admission in medical college, due to a comparatively lower score in the medical entrance examination. And financially, we were not strong enough to opt for private medical college. I discussed with my family if I could take another chance to reappear for medical entrance, but everybody was of the opinion that one year would be wasted if I did so. Finally, my elder brother, who is a mechanical engineer, he suggested me to opt for mechanical engineering. Now, as I had not focused more on getting admission in engineering, I ended up with far lesser marks in the engineering entrance examination too. As a result, I had to be admitted to one of the private engineering colleges in the nearby vicinity of my hometown.
After securing admission in engineering, I gave my 100% effort & with God’s grace I completed my engineering with flying colors. After completion of my engineering, I was completely blank. I was completely unaware about my next steps. Now, the formal education has completed where we used to study the syllabus. I had no idea how to hunt for an engineering Job. I was not much aware of mechanical industries, where I can apply for the job. Even after completion of the technical degree, I was completely unaware about its importance. I was under the assumption that with mechanical engineering I will be working in one of the automotive garages.
With this dark path, I left my hometown for the first time after completion of my engineering. I came to Pune. By that time, my elder brother had little success in his career. He was an expert in CAD during that time & he used to work on complex 3D modeling of the components. He taught me a few of the commands to generate 3D objects & 3D assemblies. I was surprised, learning 3D CAD software, what I had learnt during engineering & what I had to learn now. Eight to nine months passed, while practicing the CAD software. While learning CAD, I joined a CAD training firm where I worked as a CAD trainer to support my expenses. I started training aspirant students.
My parents wanted me to go for an MBA. So, while learning & training CAD, I used to prepare for the MBA entrance examination. At the end of the year, I got admission in the Master of Management Studies (MMS) under Mumbai university. I left my job as a CAD trainer & shifted to Mumbai to pursue MMS. Next two years I completed my MMS, back to the college routine of syllabus study. I was under the impression that, after completion of MMS, I can easily get a job in a management role with a handsome salary. But, it was for the first time when I realized the fact that searching for a good job needs a lot of preparation. From resume writing to interview skills. I was average in communication, so it was very hard for me to beat candidates belonging to metro cities.
Even after completion of my masters, I was on the same dark path. Not knowing my next steps. I studied engineering as well as a management programme, but I did not have a job. For the first time I realized the importance of practical learning, the importance of ability to apply what we learn in college, into real life. Academically, I was very sound, but when it came to application of the knowledge, there I failed. It was my third year after completing my engineering. Most of my contemporaries secured jobs in production, quality or testing in various companies. Even some joined as professors in engineering colleges. Most of my engineering fellow members had secured jobs with more or less salary. With 2 years of experience in their field, they were on track. It was very late for me to realize the importance of practical knowledge, interview preparation & job hunting. I was the person with two paper degrees, no technical knowledge & poor communication skills. During the same period, I faced turbulent issues in my personal life, which forced me to accept any type of job.
Journey as a CAD engineer
For the first time, I decided to restart the journey. I decided to search job in engineering field only. Based on my previous CAD skills I started applying for the job through job portals. Even, I got a few calls for an interview & I measurably failed. Now, I started realizing that I need a breakthrough, otherwise I might have to face a disastrous situation.
With this, I came to know about one of the CAD centers that is CAD Tech Design Center in Aurangabad. With whatever information I had received about CAD Tech Design Center, I knew that I would definitely get a chance to work with them. I joined the CAD Tech Design Center & officially it was my first job. My starting salary was zero. Just imagine a person with masters working for free. It was a hard but much needed decision. I was almost broke in my personal life. I was on the verge where I just wanted to be engaged in some activity regardless of other things. Here, in the CAD Tech Design Center, I was provided with professional CAD training for one month. I practiced a lot. And then I was appointed as a CAD trainer again, but this time for professional people. For those people who works for a mechanical organization & are keen to know & understand the CAD tools. For those I used to provide training. In a few months I got an opportunity to work onsite with Greaves Cotton Ltd. This was the first time I entered inside the R&D center. I came to know about PLM. PLM was just new at that time. I came to know about various processes in R&D. For the initial days I worked as a CAD engineer where my job was to create 3D models from 2D drawing & check in all the data into PLM. In a few months people started recognizing me for my CAD skills. My reporting manager initiated a new conceptual modeling task with me & I successfully delivered the same. This way, I started working on concept modeling. By that time I understood the importance of CAD skills. I keep on exploring more & more strategies to cover up the concept modeling, as working on concept modeling calls for frequent changes in the model. I focused on creating different strategies to develop concept models, so that whenever different changes were demanded I could do that with minimum possible commands. Thus helps to save a lot of time. Usually I used to work on casting & forging components.
While working onsite at Greaves Cotton Ltd. I used to cater inhouse projects at CAD Tech Design Center as well where the team used to reverse engineer the home appliance products like, washing machine, cooler, refrigerator, molded tanks & few of the vending machines. I used to work almost 13-14 hours a day. I was pushing myself because I just wanted to be engaged in a task & I wanted to learn different modules on a fast track basis so that I can at least meet salary expectations as per four years of experience - Remember, Three years I was jobless after engineering & this was the fourth year, where I just wanted to gain an experience which will help me to project myself as a candidate with four years of experience. Sooner I mastered myself as a casting & forging designer along with insights for designing plastic components, sheet metal components, molded components etc.
Journey as a Component Designer
In a few years, I was earning a good salary. I got good opportunities to work with MNC clients as well. One of my good experiences was when I was working onsite at John Deere India Pvt. Ltd. where I was responsible for transmission layouting for tractors. While in this role, I learnt deeply about GD&T, Its application based on requirement & its importance to communicate the design intent. I realized that specifying GD&T on drawing will help the manufacturer to clearly understand the design intent & it helps to minimize the rejections as well. I was very curious to know how the rejection gets reduced with application of GD&T & I end up with understanding the entire ASME Y14.5 standard. With this I became a component designer where I was able to design & specify the components individually.
Sooner I realized that, even though I was doing very well, my financial growth had staggered. On introspecting & analyzing I identified that there is a certain earning limit for CAD profile. Because as you demand more monetary gains, chances are there that you could be replaced by other CAD engineers with less experience. So it was very clear that the CAD profile with higher experience & higher expectations is not going to help in the long run. For the first time I realized a clear difference between a CAD engineer & a Design engineer. I was under the impression that working on CAD is nothing but design engineering, however the reality is different. Design engineering is very vast. To be in a competitive market, one must shift from CAD profile to Design profile.
Journey as a Design Designer
Even though the service industry is good to start a career with, I noticed a few intricate points while providing services on client end such as, you might not have access to important engineering documents, library or standards which may help you to increase your expertise otherwise. The only way to be competitive is to keep enhancing your technical knowledge. For that, one must be working for the OEM companies where you can grow yourself technically as well as financially. I seriously wanted to remove a tag of service provider. I started searching for opportunities in OEM. I appeared for some interviews & I cracked a few interviews. I got an opportunity to work with Force Motors Ltd. I was appointed as a Junior Manager. Though I had to work as an individual contributor, joining Force Motors Ltd. was my greatest decision. I was very happy that I was not a service provider now, instead, an individual contributor. In a few months I realized the actual meaning of design engineering. Here the scope was very wide. I was not only limited to concept design but I was responsible for its manufacturability, prototyping, assembly, fitment trials, lab testing, field testing & its implementation on the production line. I completely understood the journey of a new product from concept to production. As soon as I joined Force Motors Ltd. the first thing I did was read various standards & test reports. I tried to understand various test parameters & their significance. Another advantage for me was the technology center, proto shop, testing facility as well as the manufacturing facility were located in the same premises. Added to this Force motors Ltd. have its own foundry shop as well as machine shop. I often used to visit all these facilities to understand various parameters, processes, methodology, to understand certain challenges while manufacturing. During my tenure I used to visit different suppliers multiple times which gave me another opportunity to understand the manufacturing processes at supplier end. Further, I got the opportunity to design sub-systems individually, transforming myself as an assembly designer from component designer. I contributed to a few designs to address the government regulations. Slowly I was involved in homologation activities where I supported on an engineering front to address the queries raised by government officials. It was a good experience while interacting & visiting the government agencies such as CIRT, CFMTTI, ARAI etc.
Now I am working with Cummins India Ltd as a Plant Product Engineer. Here I am supporting the current products. Here I am responsible to support the operations team, quality team, planning team, procurement team, order management team & global customer engineering team to resolve their queries on the engineering front. It took me 12 years of corporate experience to get an opportunity to transform myself for the management role.
Major take away
The crux of the story is, why to wait for 12 years to get a lead role in your carrier. Why not earlier. I did not have right guidance, right resources & right direction in the beginning of my career. What if I had received all the required sources & guidance at the start of my career. I could have certainly saved at least 5 to 6 years of my journey. I acknowledge & recognize that, if someone would have guided me at the right time, I would have grown within a few years & could have saved a lot of my time. I invested a huge time to be on the right track.
I understand that for many aspirant candidates, the situation might be the same. They might not have proper guidance, proper resources & proper direction & they are following the same footprint as I followed. I know they will surely be succeeding in achieving their goals but at the cost of time. For those aspirants who really wanted to speed up their carrier I have designed a technical course - "Core Mechanical Design." In this course aspirants will be able to sequentially follow all the modules & with consistent efforts they will be far ahead of the competition. Giving this competitive advantage, will surely help the aspirants, to seek & succeed at the right job opportunity with huge technical capability, position & ultimately higher monetary benefits.
This course will be extremely helpful for the studentswho are undergoing the mechanical engineering stream, for those who have just completed their mechanical engineering as well as for those who are working in other departments & willing to work in the engineering or Research & Development (R&D) department.
Opportunity is Right Here...!! Right Now...!!