Design and Manufacturing Engineer KTP Associate

Daventry Metal Products (DMP) and the College of Engineering at Birmingham City University (BCU) are looking to appoint a high calibre graduate (graduated within the last five years) as a Design and Manufacturing Engineer KTP Associate.

This position forms part of the Knowledge Transfer programme (KTP), co-funded by a grant from Innovate UK and Daventry Metal Products Limited. It is essential you understand the fundamentals of how a KTP works between a business and the University and the vital role you will play if you successfully secure this position.

The Design and Manufacturing Engineer (KTP Associate) will have access to a wider range of benefits including a personal development budget of £4,000 to upskill during the project. For more information, please visit the BCU website.

The successful candidate will be employed by Birmingham City University, working full time delivering a 24-month KTP project in partnership with Daventry Metal Products Limited.

The successful candidate recruited for this position will be employed as a Design and Manufacturing Engineer (KTP Associate). This role presents an exciting opportunity to work in collaboration with leading academics at Birmingham City University (BCU) to apply knowledge and technical innovation, delivered on site at the company. The Design and Manufacturing Engineer (KTP Associate) should have a minimum 2.1 University qualification in a relevant subject area and should be graduated within the last five years.

Location and Reporting:

• This Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate position will be based at Daventry Metal Products Limited in Daventry, Northamptonshire, NN11 4SD
• The successful candidate will have full access to Birmingham City University’s resources such as offices, labs, and library to complete the KTP project (a workplan has been written with KPIs and outcome deliverables)
• The Design and Manufacturing Engineer (KTP Associate) will be supervised and mentored by both a lead academic and academic supervisor from BCU’s College of Engineering within the Faculty of CEBE as well as a company supervisor located at Daventry Metal Products Limited whose aim is to assist the Design and Manufacturing Engineer (KTP Associate) to deliver the knowledge into the company and successfully deliver the 24 month KTP project on behalf of Daventry Metal Products Limited and Birmingham City University
• The candidate will be expected to lead and deliver the KTP project plan managing the expectations of the various stakeholders, under the guidance and support of both academic and a company supervisor throughout the project. A project plan is written for the candidate to follow and/or adapt in line with business requirements

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

The KTP Associate will work on:

• DMP product range and manufacturing techniques
• Topology optimisation and reconfigurable designs for the fixtures
• Designing high strength-to-weight ratio as well as heat-resistant fixtures and determining how to manufacture them
• Mastering SMED principles and applying them to DMP operations.

The role requires the successful candidate to develop:

• Collaborations with the team to ensure timely delivery of the project milestones.
• SMED protocols to reduce changeover times.
• Set of best practice in line with the existing ISO 9000 quality management system.
• New fixture designs and manufacturing strategies

The Associate will be expected to interact with the senior management, design team suppliers and clients of the company as well as BCU academics.

The Associate must also be adept at applying their knowledge to commercial projects, driving value and making an impact where possible, with an ability to solve problems and create innovative solutions.

The Associate must have the following key attributes to ensure the project’s successful completion.

Person Specification:

You will hold a good first degree (equivalent to a First Class or 2:1 Honours) in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Design Engineering or a closely related discipline.

As well as a Master’s degree or PhD awarded in a related subject or relevant experience.

Essential:

• Excellent communication skills to express ideas effectively, orally, graphically and in writing to articulate complicated matters between the academics and the company project team members
• An ability to work to tight deadlines (with attention to detail) and maintain high standards of work
• An ability and aptitude to work effectively as part of an interdisciplinary team; and self-management and planning skills to make optimum use of time
• Project management
• Skilled user of CAD packages, e.g., SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor.
• Practical implementation of sensors/actuators
• Skilled user of engineering support packages e.g., ANSYS, MATLAB,
• Setting up experiments for validation
• Creating training materials and delivering staff training
• Technical writing, e.g., test plans, reports
• Commercial awareness and sensitivity
• You must be UK based and already have the necessary visa to work in the UK.
• You must be available to attend an interview at the planned work site in Daventry

Desirable

• Systems thinking
• Collaborating with external clients
• Experience with ISO 9000
• Strong leadership skills in successfully implementing and embedding new innovations within a company or organisation
• Portfolio of work that demonstrate innovate design solutions for engineering/manufacturing problems
• Experience of designing/developing adaptive fixturing
• Academic acumen to enable successful reporting through research publications in academic journals and marketing/training materials
• A clean driving license (due to insurance purposes) and a willingness to travel to utility contracts throughout the UK
• Practical experience of working in the manufacturing industry.

On a personal note, the Associate should be enthusiastic, motivated, punctual, conscientious, trustworthy and a good team worker.

For further information please contact Javaid Butt: javaid.butt@bcu.ac.uk or Houman Alipooramirabad: houman.alipooramirabad@bcu.ac.uk.

The project is focused on expanding the range of customers and to increase manufacturing efficiencies through novel technologies for optimised machine set up and changeover, modularisation through topology optimisation for fixtures in robotic welding cells, and alternative rapid manufacturing processes/techniques.

These capabilities will ensure that DMP can deliver prototypes, small-batch product, and their necessary fixtures faster. Implementation of reconfigurable fixtures (also known as adaptive tooling) can simplify and minimise storage as well as accelerate changeovers. Furthermore, SMED will be embedded to reduce inefficiencies in setup and changeovers