Symbios Consulting, OPEX society Advisory board, Lean Six Sigma MBB, CPF, Qualified SCOR instructor.
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What I learned in College Vs what I really needed in my Career Life…
I’ve always taken pride in being a Mechanic Engineer and believe that this type of study shapes your personality as studying Engineering requires a great deal of
Commitment, Perseverance, and Hard Work.
Having said that, I personally believe that I was fortunate enough to realize the need to compliment my academic engineering study with Masters in Business Administration which enabled me to consider other elements of the business like economics, leadership, and management.
In Symbios we have always been active in serving our community, so we welcomed the opportunity to work closely with the current leadership of the Egyptian Syndicate of Engineers in signing a protocol where we shall extend our technical trainings to young Engineers in LEAN, 6 Sigma and Supply Chain at discounted rates through our competent professional team of trainers and even provide complementary awareness session to students of Engineering faculties in Egypt.
The Syndicate has recently held a conference under the title of “Made in Egypt” which included a number of interesting presentations on hot topics as Empowering and supporting young engineer entrepreneurs and offered projects of undergraduate engineers in many fields especially recycling and adopting new methods generating fuel and power.
My contribution was a brief presentation on the “Gap between Academic Curriculum in Engineering Faculties and actual business requirements that every young engineer must possess to find a suitable working opportunity”.
Back in the early 90th when I graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, and was hired at General Motors, I was shocked that the General Manager was not an Engineer. Only last year, General Motors Egypt has its first General Manager with Engineering background. The reason I figured was that the Egyptian Engineering curriculum is very much engineering oriented. They qualify you to be a problem-solving person; nowadays with the technological advances, the language and qualifications have changed. Needless to say that the market value of Egyptian Engineers in the gulf area has decreased as a result of slow curriculum improvements in Egyptian Engineering faculties.
“Made in Egypt” should not be a slogan limited to product but should be extended to services and human resources that can find an International or Arab work opportunity. We must understand better the working requirement to qualify our resources.
Back to my General Motors experience our challenge of producing 1st Egyptian Car was not manufacturing related but rather; managing the supplier and improving its capabilities to meet our demand. When we first started Symbios in 1999, started working in Egypt in 2005 along with the Egyptian Unit for Industry Improvement in the automotive section for improving the industry.
In Japan, all factories are equipped with visual aids that reduce ambiguity as all steps are clearly dis-played for workers to follow with the least supervision and with no waste time. It’s not run by robots as people may think. They allocate the adequate resources, eliminate waste in time, material and resources, live what they say.
The Toyota Experience: LEAN and 7 WASTES, following World War II had only 4 hours per day to produce thus had to be very efficient to produce the amount required at the minimum duration possible.
- A competent Mechanical Engineer considers eliminating waste in design, packaging, storage, delivery, etc… LEAN Time considers adding value activities and eliminate non adding value activities (MUDA).
The 3 Ms of Lean
While Muda is the non-value adding actions within your processes; Muri is to overburden or be unreasonable while Mura is unevenness. For example, Muri is the unnecessary storage period of raw material needed for production while Mura is the drop in the production process as downtime after lunch break in the factories.
- Idea Design Test Produce …… Old School
However, in real life, it starts with the Client with a Need for a product design test to ensure compliance and eliminate waste to produce at minimum cost. ….. New School
Production Cost = Market Price — Profit Margin…… Recent Pricing Equation
For example, we’ve been taught that a Mechanic Engineer role is to come up with an idea, set the design, test the process, produce and deliver
In reality, a client has a need for a product, my role is to start with the result or outcome, design the related process the FACTS:
Google it as a verb show learning has become easy, knowledge is everywhere,
- Remove the mindset barrier, learn how to walk the talk to all workers and labors not satisfy yourself with the process parameters and machines. Our biggest challenge in the human factor, the process is not working correctly unless you handle and manage all
- We’ve been taught how to manage controllable factors but real-world requires flexibility dealing with uncontrollable conditions
- Linked In has numerous learning opportunities through ad hoc forums. Industry 4th generation adopts the Internet of Things, most factories nowadays operated by smart gears that give you real data for a real quick decision. Engineering is divided into 70 branches however academically only divided into 4 or 5 branches that don’t meet all the real work environment needs or qualifications.
Our goal is to cooperate with the Syndicate in equipping its members to obtain the necessary training to speak the language of the world in manufacturing.
To Sum it up:
- As a Mechanic Engineer Graduate, It’s not enough to settle with your technical competencies, you need to build other competencies as economics and finance, management and leadership.
- Learning is a continuous process, learning methods are numerous use them.
- Adopt technology in your life to speak the language of the era.
- Consider the Internet of Things in your business.
- Change is not an option though only 10% embrace change to be competent.
