PROOF COPY [MD-06-1364] 013707JMD
PROOF COPY [MD-06-1364] 013707JMD
Saeema Ahmed
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Technical University of Denmark,
DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
e-mail: sah@mek.dtu.dk
An Industrial Case Study:
Identification of Competencies
of Design Engineers
This paper describes the findings from an empirical study carried out with engineers in
senior roles within a large company manufacturing complex products. This research
aimed to identify the types of knowledge that are important for design engineers. Twenty
four knowledge categories were identified and the importance of these for design engi-
neers in industry was investigated. In addition, the number of years of relevant experi-
ence required to become an expert in these types of knowledge was investigated. Knowl-
edge related to the process was perceived as more important to those related to the
product. However, the number of years to become an expert in process knowledge was
found to be lower than for product knowledge, despite process knowledge being per-
ceived as more important. The findings of this research contribute to the education and
training of design engineers. DOI: 10.1115/1.2723807
Keywords: empirical studies, professional design knowledge, experience, competencies
1 Introduction
Knowledge and experience play an important role in engineer-
ing design and managing this knowledge is a concern. Design
engineers utilize many different types of knowledge during their
design activities. Through identifying and describing these types
of knowledge together with those which may be important in the
future, the gaps between the knowledge developed through cur-
rent educational programs and the knowledge developed through
practice can be understood.
The understanding of knowledge and skills for design engineers
is of interest, from a number of perspectives:
Educational—understanding the competencies that are devel-
oped through, education programs.
Research—understanding knowledge that is developed as a re-
sult of experience in engineering practice highlights knowledge
that is learned outside of educational programs.
Industry—internal company reviews to ensure appropriate
training is provided to their employees and appropriate recruit-
ment is identified.
The approach adopted in this paper is to understand the types of
knowledge that are perceived as important for design engineers,
by those in the field, i.e., in industry. An empirical study was
carried out from both a research and industry perspective, the
research findings and their possible implications for education are
discussed here. In contrast, the vast majority of descriptions of
knowledge and skills required in professional practice tend to be
normative in nature 1. Both literature from empirical studies of
professional practice and normative views of knowledge that are
relevant in engineering design in practice and engineering design
education are discussed, with the focus upon knowledge that is
relevant in industrial practice. Knowledge and competences are
discussed in the following sections.
1.1 Competence and Knowledge. In occupational or profes-
sional contexts, competence generally denotes the capacity of an
individual to successfully complete a certain task or job according
to formal or informal criteria. Competence refers both to the re-
quirements of the work situation or task and to a person’s knowl-
edge and skills and abilities, based not only on cognitive factors,
but also on noncognitive factors, e.g., motivation and self-
confidence 2. Therefore, competence is related to the level of
ability to apply knowledge; hence an understanding of different
levels of expertise is required in order to understand competence.
The Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education
UDACE describe competence as concerned with the ability to
do a particular activity to a prescribed standard and state the fol-
lowing implications 3:
1 Competence must have a context.
2 Competence is an outcome and describes what a person
does rather than the learning process.
3 In order to measure ability there must be clearly defined
standards through which performance is measured.
4 Competence is a measure of what someone can do at a
particular point in time.
Design engineers have different combinations of competencies,
and any industry, company, or project requires design engineers
with differing competencies. Changes in the competencies that are
required from design engineers as a profession, result from a num-
ber of reasons. Trends in society, and industry as a whole can
result in changes in the competencies that are required from engi-
neers, these may be limited to a particular sector or geographical
location. Secondly, current trends in industry, and the impact of
these to design engineers may result in the need of educational
programs to react to the demands of competencies required in
industry as a result of such trends. Trends in industry to shift work
from G8 countries to offshore locations, often result in long-term,
if not permanent, commitments. The implications from this in-
clude ensuring that an engineer, working locally, can bring value
to the marketplace, in respect of a higher salary 4. Identification
of the competencies that are important for design engineers as is
the aim of the paper, can lead to understanding how design en-
gineers working locally can create value to the marketplace. Fur-
ther implications that emerged from the study conducted as part of
this paper, is the need for engineers to respond to the shift from
local to international collaborations, with implications of having
cross-cultural communication skills, and an ability to manage
globally-distributed teams.
1.2 Competencies for Professional Practice. A survey con-
ducted with Danish engineering companies by the Danish Acad-
Contributed by the Design Education Committee of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received September 26, 2006; final
manuscript received March 14, 2007. Review conducted by Philip E. Doepker. Paper
presented at the ICED 2005.
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Journal of Mechanical Design JULY 2007, Vol. 129 /1 Copyright © 2007 by ASME
PROOF COPY [MD-06-1364] 013707JMD