Design engineer
A design engineer is an engineer focused on the
A design engineer usually works with a team of other engineers and other types of designers (e.g.
When an engineering project involves public safety, design engineers involved are often required to be licensed - for example, as a Professional Engineer (in the U.S. and Canada). There is often an "industrial exemption" for engineers working on project only internally to their organization, although the scope and conditions of such exemptions vary widely across jurisdictions.
Design engineer tasks
Design engineers may work in a team along with other designers to create the drawings necessary for
The next responsibility of many design engineers is prototyping. A model of the product is created and reviewed. Prototypes are either functional or non-functional. Functional "alpha" prototypes are used for testing; non-functional prototypes are used for form and fit checking. Virtual prototyping and hence for any such software solutions may also be used. This stage is where design flaws are found and corrected, and tooling, manufacturing fixtures, and packaging are developed.
Once the "alpha" prototype is finalized after many iterations, the next step is the "beta" pre-production prototype. The design engineer, working with an
The design engineer may follow the product and make requested changes and corrections throughout the whole life of the product. This is referred to as "cradle to grave" engineering. The design engineer works closely with the manufacturing engineer throughout the product life cycle, and is often required to investigate and validate design changes which could lead to possible production cost reductions in order to consistently reduce the price as the product becomes mature and thus subject to discounting to defend market volumes against newer competing products. Moreover, design changes may be also made mandatory by updates in laws and regulations.
The design process is an information intensive one, and design engineers have been found to spend 56% of their time engaged in various information behaviours, including 14% actively searching for information.[1] In addition to design engineers' core technical competence, research has demonstrated the critical nature of their personal attributes, project management skills, and cognitive abilities to succeed in the role.[2]
Amongst other more detailed findings, a recent work sampling study[3] found that design engineers spend 62.92% of their time engaged in technical work, 40.37% in social work, and 49.66% in computer-based work. There was considerable overlap between these different types of work, with engineers spending 24.96% of their time engaged in technical and social work, 37.97% in technical and non-social, 15.42% in non-technical and social, and 21.66% in non-technical and non-social.
See also
- Architectural engineering, also known as building engineering
- Chemical engineering
- Civil engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Industrial design engineering
- Industrial engineering
- Manufacturing engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- New product development
- Production engineering
- Test engineer
- Tool engineering