Toyota Product Development

2017 - today

As an engineer in the Accessory Development team I develop genuine accessory products for Toyota's lineup including Landcruiser, Corolla and Hilux. This role covers the entire development process including benchmarking, customer study, detailed design, test planning, testing and project management throughout.

I have developed three entirely new products in my time in Product Development, across Hilux and Hiace vehicles. The opportunity to research, study and explore new areas has been a fantastic opportunity to develop my skills as a mechanical engineer. Additionally, the development and launch of new products expands sales and revenue for Toyota.

Key skills

Project management: I oversee the development process from specification scoping, through technical study, documentation creation and in-field monitoring managing many stakeholders. I ensure that projects are delivered on time, to spec and to budget.

Technical Study: I am also responsible for ensuring the technical aspects of our designs. I determine the tests required, document their methods, analyse reports, perform modelling and conduct on-vehicle tests to determine suitability of design.

Relationship Management: Mechanical development requires interaction with many stakeholders including business development teams, purchasing, production, suppliers and management. I have demonstrated that I can inform, facilitate and utilise all of these different people to achieve Toyota’s goals.

Toyota Process Improvement

2013 - 2017

I worked with Toyota’s suppliers to help suppliers solve problems and manage the change. This is to help suppliers implement Toyota Production System (TPS, also known as ‘lean’) principles. I worked at the supplier’s site with their staff to identify problems, gather data, jointly develop solutions, and support them to project manage improvements / countermeasures.

Achievements

I oversaw the complex merger of two suppliers to the Altona factory; my role was to ensure continuity of supply otherwise the factory would be forced to stop production in turn affecting 3000 parts and 70 suppliers. I oversaw stock management, production planning and communication to senior Toyota leaders to ensure that there was no impact to the factory.
I lead quality problem solving at a glass supplier to reduce internal rejects. I scoped training needs, facilitated training, assisted the shopfloor team to understand the problem and lead implementation. As a result I reduced reject rate by 50%.
I implemented a process relayout at an exhaust supplier to achieve efficiency improvements. I studied the current condition, identified waste and ran the improvement workshop. To run the workshop I lead training at the supplier and guided their problem solving process to assist them to reduce the waste I identified. As a result of eliminating this waste the saving was $60k/year.

Key skills

Project management: I oversee the development process from specification scoping, through technical study, documentation creation and in-field monitoring managing many stakeholders. I ensure that projects are delivered on time, to spec and to budget.
Problem solving: Whether it is reducing reject rates by 50%, improving a supplier's scheduling or reducing tool changeover times process improvement is fundamentally about problem solving. I solved all of these problems with studious data collection, analysis, visualisation, brainstorming, idea filtering and implementation planning. Toyota’s ”8 steps” problem solving process which I use every day is transferable to any problem.
Relationship Management: Even more so than mechanical development, process improvment requires interaction with many stakeholders including shopfloor member, managers and supplier leaders. The role required approval from CEO's and buy-in from the workers who complete the tasks. I have demonstrated that I can communicate with and persuade as necessary a wide range of stakeholders.

Thermal and Fluid modelling

2011 - 2013

As an intern with Synergetics Consulting Engineers I studied building air flow and thermal performance.

I worked as a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeller using the software package Star-CCM+ analysing air flow patterns for a medical building in Sydney to ensure compliance with Australian Standards.

I was also the specialist in thermal modelling for building energy eﬀiciency. I developed building models using the CAD tool, prepared and ran simulations and interpreted results.