Chris' Engineer Blog

Common interview questions are: “How do you stay organized?”, “Are you experienced with multitasking?”, and “How do you manage your time?”. Within any industry, employers desire highly versatile and efficient workers. An employee who can adapt into any role is valuable, since unexpected issues happen all the time. Managers want to depend on their direct reports to handle these new responsibilities as they occur. Setting an Agenda Students develop multitasking skills during school, since they're usually enrolled in five classes at a time. During middle school, I had a binder for each class but a common agenda notebook. At the end of each class, the teachers would write down on the board the assigned homework for the day. When I got home, I could review the assignments for each class at a single location, rather than having to check every binder. Fast-forward 10 years and I started my first full-time position in my Engineering career. In the beginning, I’d use a notebook to hand-writ...

At about $10,000 tuition per semester, an Engineering degree is worth $80,000. It's a hefty deposit, but it's the mandatory prerequisite for entering the Engineering industry (without prior work experience).  But what happens in the 4-years that transforms a student into an Engineer?  What I learned in Engineering School is... I've leafed through my old notebooks: pages and pages of handwritten notes, equations, and solutions. These notes provide objective evidence I learned this material in my past, even if I can’t recall it at the moment. I remember the late nights of studying, and the emotions (stress, despair, etc.) from completing these arbitrary assignments. Through all my effort, these homework answers wouldn’t achieve anything, since they were just theoretical problems with known solutions. I started my Mechanical Engineering (ME) degree when I was 18 years old. Even then, I wasn’t quite sure what engineers worked on (maybe, engines?). As I went through the undergra...

After we’ve found out that something is wrong and how to measure it, we need to find the root cause of the problem. Analyze  is this deductive part of DMAIC; it’s a deep dive into all the details of the problem. Like a murder mystery, the detective investigates all the clues to determine the real killer. Many analytical templates have been created within the engineering industry to help plot out these details and help form a cohesive story. There’ll be a lot of push-and-pull between engineers and managers about the cost, bandwidth, and lead times required for each proposed root cause. These analytical tools are eye-candy for upper management, because they summarize the rigorous analyze, and justifies why the selected root cause is the best choice for both the business and process. The 5 most common analytical tools: 1. Brainstorming 2. Is-Is Not Analysis 3. The 6Ms (AKA Fishbone or Ishikawa) 4. The 5 Whys 5. Contradiction Matrix 1. Brainstorming Once we recognize a problem, our min...

After we define the problem, we need evidence to support that it wasn’t just a freak accident. If odds are that it’ll never happen again, we won’t need to anything, right? In daily life, we are conditioned by habit; in diet, sleep, work, stress, and so on. When something unusual happens, it raises alarms that something might be wrong. In manufacturing engineering, data can be tracked using Statistical Process Control (SPC). Operators and equipment records process data of test, measurement, and yield. When the process is automated, a large database of “normal” data can be determined. Once a baseline is established, there are still allowable tolerances that are expected from noise and variation. An example SPC chart. When data exceeds the UCL (3 sigma above mean), there needs to be action! As expected from Six Sigma: any data point that crosses beyond the Lower Control Limit (LCL) or Upper Control Limit (UCL) should be measured. With these deviations compared against a long history of da...

The first step of problem solving is figuring out what the problem actually is. Within manufacturing, a problem statement is usually focused on meeting product requirements: An inspection point finds many units failing a critical requirement Many 3rd party materials found to be defective There is no shortage of manufacturing errors; slight variations in human, material, and machine often accumulate to produce massive, wide-scale issues. What is the problem statement? Some other, more relatable examples: Our raid group always wipes at the 2nd phase My aim is bad at FPS games The problem must be quantified between pass and failure states. If we identify a problem state, what is the acceptance criteria that is not being met? An inspection point must pass at least 90% units  (50% are failing!) Our raid group has to kill the boss!  (There are like 5 phases) I have to rank up to GM rating as insta-lock hitscan DPS  (I’m a Plat player…) With the problem statement, an ideal solut...

Before my mom left for work, she assigned various chores to me and my siblings. She wanted a nice clean house to return to after a long day of work. From these childhood chores, I learned good habits for maintaining cleanliness. A clean space not only looks nice, but makes everyday life easier: With the floors clear, you don’t worry about tripping over things With the tables clear, you don’t worry about knocking things over With the valuables in a special area, you don’t worry about losing them We’re all capable of great things, but we let distractions waste our time and focus. I’ve leafed through various self-help books and they all advice contemplating on what is truly important in our lives. After cutting out all the useless noise, we can focus on the important matters The common advice for improving work efficiency is having a clean work station, because a clear environment is a clear mind. If we know exactly where our tools and resources are, it becomes one less factor to consider...