stevehayes01
04-13-2005, 02:03 PM
I found this pretty interesting.
Lutz: U.S. engineers need more hands-on training
GM exec says they lack problem-solving skills of European, Asian counterparts
The Detroit News 04/13/05
author: Ed Garsten
(Copyright 2005)
American automotive engineers lack the problem-solving and fundamental drafting skills of their Asian and European counterparts, and those deficiencies are delaying new vehicle design, Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of global product development, said Tuesday.
U.S. auto engineers are at a distinct disadvantage from Asian engineers because of the way they're trained, Lutz said at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress at Cobo Center. We are actually training our engineers to be managers, while the rest of the world trains them to be doers. We are deliberately avoiding hands-on engineers and ... we need to change that.
He complained that engineers trained in the U.S. are only learning a portion of key skills, such as computer modeling or solving mathematical problems, but not drafting.
The difference, he said, is that Asian and European engineers can quickly sketch out a new design, while too often I see U.S. engineers look at it for awhile and say, 'Gee, are you sure?' They go away, meet in a group, and come back three weeks later.
On the Cobo Center floor, where thousands of automotive engineers from around the world are attending the SAE World Congress, Lutz's comments hit a nerve, especially among Americans such as Mark Hope, an engineer with Southfield-based automotive supplier Eaton Corp.
I don't think it's the engineers' fault, Hope said. It's more a problem with management.
Phil Desmond, an engineer with Motorola Inc. in Farmington Hills, disputes Lutz's assessment.
We've been pushing problem-solving for 15 to 20 years, Desmond said.
Arvon Mitcham, an engineer with the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection, said schools need to do a better job.
In America, we don't do as much applied math and engineering at the university level, Mitcham said. That does put us at a slight disadvantage.
For some Asian engineers, however, the differences in training and mentality between them and Americans are most stark when it comes to problem-solving and teamwork.
Hsin-Hong Huang is a native of Taiwan who works as an engineer with Visteon Corp. and was schooled at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas-Austin.
He believes the American education system is superior, especially in teaching skills that will help engineers climb the corporate ladder, but they are deficient in instilling theories of cooperation.
Asian-trained engineers are more fundamental, but in most big companies, most of the high-tech guys are Oriental guys, but the management is more American, Huang said. (Asian) people are more in harmony, but Americans --everybody tries to be the leader. That's why you have more conflict at meetings.
Tadahiko Yoshioka, an engineer with Japanese auto supplier Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd., says, We make their problems like our own problems. We work with customers day and night. We don't go home at 5 p.m.
David Cole, head of Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, says devotion to problem-solving can cut two ways. One of the strengths of Japanese engineering is problem-solving, but one of the weaknesses is creativity, he said.
Bruce Brownlee, general manager of corporate training at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, says regardless of where they were schooled, engineers receive their real training once they go to work.
Our system and our attention to detail prepare our engineers, whether American, Japanese or Chinese, to execute engineering more precisely, said Brownlee.
Our American engineers are equally competent designing and engineering cars as our Japanese counterparts.
In order to fill the gaps in its engineers' training, GM installed a program three years ago that trains even experienced engineers to do their own drafting, rather than relying only on virtual reality images cast on computer screens.
Virtual tools are virtual; they are not reality, Lutz said.
Detroit News Staff Writer Christine Tierney contributed to this report.
Lutz: U.S. engineers need more hands-on training
GM exec says they lack problem-solving skills of European, Asian counterparts
The Detroit News 04/13/05
author: Ed Garsten
(Copyright 2005)
American automotive engineers lack the problem-solving and fundamental drafting skills of their Asian and European counterparts, and those deficiencies are delaying new vehicle design, Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of global product development, said Tuesday.
U.S. auto engineers are at a distinct disadvantage from Asian engineers because of the way they're trained, Lutz said at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress at Cobo Center. We are actually training our engineers to be managers, while the rest of the world trains them to be doers. We are deliberately avoiding hands-on engineers and ... we need to change that.
He complained that engineers trained in the U.S. are only learning a portion of key skills, such as computer modeling or solving mathematical problems, but not drafting.
The difference, he said, is that Asian and European engineers can quickly sketch out a new design, while too often I see U.S. engineers look at it for awhile and say, 'Gee, are you sure?' They go away, meet in a group, and come back three weeks later.
On the Cobo Center floor, where thousands of automotive engineers from around the world are attending the SAE World Congress, Lutz's comments hit a nerve, especially among Americans such as Mark Hope, an engineer with Southfield-based automotive supplier Eaton Corp.
I don't think it's the engineers' fault, Hope said. It's more a problem with management.
Phil Desmond, an engineer with Motorola Inc. in Farmington Hills, disputes Lutz's assessment.
We've been pushing problem-solving for 15 to 20 years, Desmond said.
Arvon Mitcham, an engineer with the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection, said schools need to do a better job.
In America, we don't do as much applied math and engineering at the university level, Mitcham said. That does put us at a slight disadvantage.
For some Asian engineers, however, the differences in training and mentality between them and Americans are most stark when it comes to problem-solving and teamwork.
Hsin-Hong Huang is a native of Taiwan who works as an engineer with Visteon Corp. and was schooled at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas-Austin.
He believes the American education system is superior, especially in teaching skills that will help engineers climb the corporate ladder, but they are deficient in instilling theories of cooperation.
Asian-trained engineers are more fundamental, but in most big companies, most of the high-tech guys are Oriental guys, but the management is more American, Huang said. (Asian) people are more in harmony, but Americans --everybody tries to be the leader. That's why you have more conflict at meetings.
Tadahiko Yoshioka, an engineer with Japanese auto supplier Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd., says, We make their problems like our own problems. We work with customers day and night. We don't go home at 5 p.m.
David Cole, head of Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, says devotion to problem-solving can cut two ways. One of the strengths of Japanese engineering is problem-solving, but one of the weaknesses is creativity, he said.
Bruce Brownlee, general manager of corporate training at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, says regardless of where they were schooled, engineers receive their real training once they go to work.
Our system and our attention to detail prepare our engineers, whether American, Japanese or Chinese, to execute engineering more precisely, said Brownlee.
Our American engineers are equally competent designing and engineering cars as our Japanese counterparts.
In order to fill the gaps in its engineers' training, GM installed a program three years ago that trains even experienced engineers to do their own drafting, rather than relying only on virtual reality images cast on computer screens.
Virtual tools are virtual; they are not reality, Lutz said.
Detroit News Staff Writer Christine Tierney contributed to this report.