WHAT DOES A MECHANICAL DESIGN ENGINEER DO?

Audio: What does a mechanical design engineer do?

Mechanical design engineering is a complex field; to apply its principles in industry, highly competent people are needed. These people are often referred to as mechanical design engineers. From company to company, they can also be called R&D engineers (R&D stands for research and development), hardware design engineers, design engineers, etc. This article will teach you more about mechanical design engineer responsibilities, required skills, and career prospects.

Introduction

Usually, entering the mechanical engineering world starts with finishing the bachelor’s or master’s studies in mechanical engineering. But, as I said, usually, there are always exemptions. During your studies, you will probably choose a sub-field of mechanical engineering that will put more emphasis on some subjects than others. You could, amongst others, choose a “specialization” in manufacturing, maintenance, simulations, robotics, automatization, aerospace, materials, etc.

Usually, (not always) the mechanical design engineers choose the product design and development specialization, or something along those lines, depending on Uni to Uni. So your studies should prepare you for industry work by learning mechanical engineering theory, principles, and methods. The question is if they do prepare you, but that is a topic for maybe another article that contains actual research and data and not just my opinion.

Once when you get to the point that you land a job in a mechanical design engineer position, what are your responsibilities? How should you approach your job, what skills are required to succeed, and what future awaits you as a mechanical design engineer? Keep reading and find out.

The responsibilities of a mechanical design engineer

Due to the many factors related to the different companies’ sizes and structures, it is hard to define the one-fit-it-all-list of responsibilities for a mechanical design engineer. Some of the responsibilities listed here can be the case for you and your company, while others may not. Some of them will be more or less percentage true for you.

A responsibility of a mechanical design engineer:

Understanding of the company’s product development processes.
Understanding the customer needs à translating the requirement specifications to technical specifications.
Different concepts development.
Industrial design and aesthetic mockups (in some cases),
System-level design (preliminary component design).
Creating a physical, functional, aesthetic, experience, proof of concept, and rapid prototypes.

Detailed design of different components and assemblies in CAD software.
Choosing the suitable standard design elements.
Design progress reports (in some cases)
Material selection à material properties, finishes, heat treatments, etc.
Manufacturing process selection.
Optimizing design for functionality, manufacturing, assembly, quality, testing, cost, serviceability, maintenance, usability, and environment.
The motion analysis of the components.
Stress and strain analysis using CAE software or hand calculations, reports creation.
Engineering drawing creation, tolerance definition, and tolerance analysis (and reports).
Defining the part lists and bill of materials.
Creating assembly instructions or guidelines.
ERP system data creation and maintenance.
Performing product testing.
Product updates (engineering change requests).
Working in a team with other mechanical design, manufacturing electrical and quality engineers, programmers, scientists, etc.
Communication with the procurement, quality, production, sales, marketing, customer service departments, etc.
Communication with the suppliers.
Different types of presentations.
Project management (in some cases) …

As you can see, the list is quite long, and as I said, your responsibilities depend on the company’s size and structure.

The main task of a mechanical design engineer

The main task of a mechanical design engineer is to solve the problem or a need based on the customer’s requirements with clear communication through your design. This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing that you must always keep in your mind. Always keep in mind that you are not designing the products for yourself.

This leads me to my next point:

You are not designing the product to suit your needs – you are designing it to serve your customer’s needs.
You are not optimizing the cost so your company could have a more significant margin – you are optimizing the price so your customer does not overpay it.
You are not designing a product for reliability – you are designing it for the customer’s safety and satisfaction…

I think by now; you get the point. Remember that other human beings will use that product even when your company sells products to other companies.

This approach with your end customers you can apply to all other people you are working with. They are also your customers, but just with a different set of requirements.

For example, if you create an engineering drawing for CNC machining, your customer is a CNC operator. His/her requirements are that the engineering drawings are completely defined without any ambiguities and dimensioned in the way that fits them, not you.

If you are designing an assembly, one of the basic requirements of assembly workers is that the element they assemble will not fall out at high speed and poke their eyes out. Or, if you are creating assembly instructions, the assembly instructions should be defined in a way that assembly workers understand the instructions. The fixtures and jigs you could design for the assembly workers should fit them and their working processes, not yours.

Setting the mechanical design engineering knowledge on the side, this might sound weird to you, but most of the great mechanical design engineers that I met and had the honor to work with are extremely empathetic and grounded. These people realize that we are all humans with our problems and that some of us deal with them better than others.

That is why we are prone to making errors. But these great design engineers are talking with people, asking them for their opinions and inputs, and asking for instruction on how to make something clearer and better that could facilitate the realization of the design intent. They understand the implication of their design in everyday life of hard-working people who are spending or earning money from the devices they are designing.

People like this are easy to work with, and you want to work with them. They are not burdened with their title or position, and they treat everyone with equal respect. Usually, people like this get much further ahead in their careers, and they receive great respect from others.

Required skills for mechanical design engineers

During my career as a mechanical design engineer, through discussions with other professionals and many lessons I learned on my skin, I can share what I see as a required skill for a mechanical design engineer. I will explain these skills through my thoughts and experiences. When I started writing this article, I wanted to include all of the details, but the article just kept getting bigger, so I decided to separate mechanical design engineer skills into two different articles. I will share links to these articles as we cover them in the chapters below.

Mechanical engineering knowledge

Every mechanical design engineer, of course, should be proficient in mechanical engineering principles. This should go without saying, but you would be surprised how many people forget about their importance after they start working.

Industry knowledge

Industry knowledge is directly linked to the industry that you are working in. This knowledge is built with time, industry experience, and, of course, your interest in it.

Technical skills

Technical skills imply your skills in using different software and tools in your day-to-day work. Therefore, the more proficient we are in using them, the faster and more efficient we will be.

Communication skills

As a mechanical design engineer, you will communicate daily with different people in different ways.

There are usually three types of communication that you will use:

Verbal and nonverbal communication
Written communication
Engineering communication

If you want to read in more detail about these four required skills, make sure to read Required skills for Mechanical design engineer – part 1.

Analytical and problem-solving skills

In simple words, analytical skills are the ability to analyze information and draw conclusions from it. Problem-solving skills are abilities to identify and understand a problem and solve it. Analytical and problem-solving skills are highly valuable skills to have. We use them all the time, and we should keep developing them.

Decision-making skills

As a mechanical design engineer, you will have to make different decisions every day. From small to big ones, having a framework for decision-making will give you confidence in your decision.

Organizational skills

Daily input and output of data can sometimes be overwhelming. You will have different meetings, presentations, and tasks to complete and keep track of. You will have to prepare a ton of various documents at different times. You will juggle between priorities, designing and documenting, testing and problem troubleshooting, etc. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop organizational skills to make a plan, reduce stress, and do as much as possible in the most efficient way possible.

Creativity

You will have to create different solutions for different problems that did not exist before. The higher your creative capacity is, the easier it will be for you to explore new ideas and solutions. Luckily for us, like with everything, with practice, we can get our creative juice flowing easier, and as the times pass and we practice more, we can trigger it when necessary.

If you want to read more detail about the last required skills on the list, make sure to read Required skills for Mechanical design engineer – part 2.

Career prospects for mechanical design engineers

While some industries might disappear in the future, I do not see mechanical engineering, in general, going away any time soon. Mechanical engineering has been a stable industry for decades, and I see that continuing in decades to come. So as long as we need humans to design and calculate machines and create them from raw material to finished product, mechanical engineers have nothing to worry about. Mechanical engineers somehow have their fingers in everything that is made in today’s world.

Today, the world is changing at a rapid pace. New technologies are emerging at a frightening pace. Furthermore, the changes in society that we are seeing due to social media and global connectivity, in general, are forcing the innovation cycles to be shorter and shorter. The culture of instant gratification is forcing us to rethink the internal process and our products and services to satisfy these culturological and societal changes. On the other hand, there is a trend concerning the environmental impact of our everyday life. Resource sustainability is becoming one of the most prominent trends in the last 20 years.

For these reasons, I think that mechanical design engineers will be in more and more demand in the future. Therefore, professionals that know how to apply scientific methods to design and manufacture products that will appeal to human emotions and, in the process, will take care of sustainability and cost optimization will definitely be advantageous for companies.

Industries that you can work in:

Automotive industry.
Aerospace industry.
Defense and security industry.
Consumer product industries (lots of possibilities).
Robotics industry.
Marine industry.
Sustainable and renewable energy.
The rail industry, etc.

In addition to the existing industries where mechanical design engineers are already needed, as technology progresses, there will be a need for space exploration and asteroid mining industry, hyperloop, clean energy transportation, humanoid robots application, advanced materials, biomechanics, nanotechnology, and probably some Star Wars technology that we still do not know about.

Closing words

It takes a lot to get to the position where you can become a mechanical engineer, and it takes, even more to get to the top and stay there. So while the responsibilities vary from company to company, there are many things that one must think about. However, as hard as it can get, I found creating new products extraordinarily satisfying and fulfilling. Furthermore, I would say that with my job, I can make more than a decent living, and as far as I know, it is the same for all good mechanical design engineers.

This was my opinion on the topic. What do you think? Did I overlook anything? Share your experience and thoughts in the comments below!

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