Week 8: Some Unexpected Lessons
Jacob L -
Howdy y’all, and welcome back to week 8 of my blog post. I really couldn’t have asked for more from this week, as I had so many opportunities to work with different people and continue advancing my engineering knowledge. From learning new methods in SolidWorks to a brief, yet insightful discussion of life advice, this week was full of, you guessed it, unexpected lessons.
This week, I got to see firsthand some of the frustrations that engineers face when the criteria for projects are changed. We had a solution to a problem, and were working to implement it. I had already made most of the hardware, and everything was running along smoothly. That was until we got word from higher up that our solution was too complicated, and may be too sensitive to damage. All of a sudden, we’re almost back at square one, having to research different options to work with, and recreate all the hardware associated with it. I took this as an opportunity for additional practice in SolidWorks, since that’s where I was spending most of my day. I’ve noticed myself getting much better at it. Having finished my SolidProfessor course, I thought I knew most of the things I’d need to know. That was, of course, until another engineer stopped by and taught me a mini arsenal of sheet metal tools. Since we’d be working with sheet metal, he figured it would be helpful to show me how to model the sheet metal and even bend it on SolidWorks. Now I am feeling like even more of a pro, but I feel that there are more models to be built and lessons to be learned.
On top of serving my role as an engineer in the company, as part of my senior project, I am working towards a better understanding of the engineering process in hopes of improving it. Part of my role is to go around to all the different departments at Knight Aerospace, and there’s more than 2, in case y’all’re wondering. When there, I’ll observe what their work entails, how it relies on and connects to other departments, specifically engineering, and try to recognize bottlenecks in the process. So far, I have met with the engineering department, as one would expect, the planning department, and project management department, and the cabinet shop as well as some other brief meetings to cover some in-between regarding the transfer of information. This week, I gained valuable insight into all of these departments that allowed me to come up with a list of areas that I see for improvement. By far, my most interesting meeting was with the cabinet shop. It had to be split into 2 days due to my schedule and a meeting, but day 2 we picked up right where we left off. Not only did he thoroughly cover what his job entails, areas he sees for improvement, and the major frustrations from his department as a whole, but he also took some time to share a portion of his life story full of advice for my future career and life while he was showing me his end of the system we use to turn engineering drawings into work orders. At the end of the day, that’s exactly what I’m here for: to gain insight into my future career and take in as much advice, either for my career, or life as possible. I also had the opportunity to share some advice with him. While I am officially an old man (my 18th birthday was a month ago), I didn’t have much life advice for him, but I was able to inform him of the online versions of Microsoft Excel, a new tool that he was very excited to be able to use to hopefully make his job easier.
I was able to learn so much more than I expected this week. I had lots of practice on SolidWorks, and learned ways to make my work on it easier. I got a much better understanding of the process by which a digital model of a part becomes the real thing. I also got to meet even more great people. Overall, week 8 was a blast, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Thanks for reading! Hope to have y’all back for week 9!
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