Contents
Contents
Details of the occupational standard
Occupation summary
This occupation is found in cross sectors such as aerospace, automotive, motorsport, maritime and other product design engineering or manufacturing sectors. Employers may be directly involved in these activities or as a service provider, original equipment manufacturer or approved solutions provider in large or small to medium organisations providing services such as system design or development, product or component design or development. Products can form part of any mechanical, electrical or electromechanical systems, assemblies, components or complete integrated packages. Design and development of any products, whether they be concepts or approved for manufacture, must conform to appropriate standards and legislation, be environmentally and sustainability informed, and have a design considered approach to the end-to-end life cycle. To design or develop components, products or systems the engineer must be able to understand and apply core fundamentals in mathematics and scientific principles. It is typical for engineers in the industry to understand fundamentals principles such as calculus, equations, integration and differentiation, estimation, data collection and modelling, materials, international system of units, forces, mechanics and electrical and electronic theory. In a number of cases, engineers will have a deep understanding in a number of these areas.
The broad purpose of the occupation is to be able to plan and lead projects or other relevant programmes of work that provides critical analysis, continuous improvement and problem solving to support research, design and development activities. As part of the development of new products and technology, designers and engineers have to analyse requirements and consider any legal implications and limitations to ensure conformity to national or international legislation, standards or directives as well as complying with customer requirements. It is imperative that material properties, capabilities and failures are understood and recognised to allow appropriate material selection. Product design and development engineers use a range of computer packages in order to complete the design or development activity efficiently and effectively including presenting their conceptual ideas. They utilise cutting edge technology to realise a project from initial concept studies to integrated analysis of a complete system. This is made possible with the introduction of advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software packages and the availability of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software packages to support the design and development process. Complex, rigorous and extensive testing is utilised to reach the optimum of design and therefore can speed up the design and testing process through the use of simulation packages such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It is the job of the engineer to design, validate and maintain the mechanical, electrical or integrated system components to ensure they meet the required specification and customer requirements including taking into account how they may interact with other components or systems that could impact on factors such as safety, quality, reliability, performance, power, noise, vibration, harshness, speed, weight, heat generation, ingress of foreign bodies, signal interference and cyber security, are the day to day dealings of an engineer in this field. They must also consider environmental and sustainability when undertaking design and development activities such as material selection, recycling and reusability options The use of physical tools, software and simulation tools and utilising technologies for test, diagnostic and telemetry instruments are fundamental to carrying out tasks associated with designing, developing, testing, building, installing, verification testing and final release of products and any associated equipment or systems.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation will report to a senior manager or director and will normally be part of a multi-disciplinary team for example as a leader or member of a specialist project team that could include personnel from a range of functional areas such as senior design engineers, stress engineers, materials engineers, integration engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, production engineers, cost engineers, procurement managers or test engineers, maintenance engineer or installation and commissioning teams. This occupation can be plant based, office based, working in the field or a mixture of all of these areas. Some sectors may require the research or design engineers to work outside, such as at outdoor test facilities or in harsh environments.
An employee in this occupation will be responsible for ensuring the design, development and optimisation of mechanical or electrical systems, component or product performance, equipment integration or reliability and compliance of systems. Product design and development engineers will also be responsible for identifying and supporting opportunities for cost savings, efficiency and continued improvement in a business environment. They will exercise considerable judgement and autonomy for the work they undertake coupled with a high-level of personal decision making and influence, setting out recommendations and potential options to the employer or customer.
Typical job titles include:
Occupation duties
| Duty | KSBs |
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Duty 1 Lead a safety culture in their defined work area at all times, ensuring their own safety and the safety of others. |
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Duty 2 Ensure that designs, developments or modifications or updates comply with national and/or international legislation, compliance testing or regulatory requirements. |
K1 K2 K3 K7 K10 K12 K15 K16 K19 |
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Duty 3 Take responsibility for developing and maintaining of own technical knowledge. |
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Duty 4 Work independently or as part of a team to provide specialist research, design, development or modifications or updates to products, systems or components. |
K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K13 K14 K15 K18 K19 K21 K23 |
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Duty 5 Determine the type and level of technical data and information required to complete the project or task outcome. |
K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K17 K20 K23 K25 |
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Duty 6 Plan, organise and manage resources such as human, equipment, components, data, to monitor progress, identify risks and any relevant mitigation to meet project or task outcomes. |
K1 K2 K7 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K20 K22 K23 K24 |
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Duty 7 Lead and deliver product, system or component design or development or modification projects or programmes of work to the agreed schedule, quality and budget. |
K1 K2 K3 K6 K7 K10 K11 K12 K14 K15 K16 K17 K20 K21 K22 K23 K24 |
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Duty 8 Develop and maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders. |
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Duty 9 Determine the appropriate problem solving and diagnostic tools and techniques to be used and lead the problem-solving activity to enable development and modifications or updates of products, components or systems. |
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Duty 10 Identify and lead improvement activities. |
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Duty 11 Produce validated designs, developments, modifications or updates of products, components or systems through computer aided design, drawing or modelling, “live” testing or using virtual simulation software to industry standards. |
K1 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K18 K19 K21 K23 K25 |
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Duty 12 Check all project or work programme documentation has been completed correctly and accurately to ensure it meets organisational compliance, industry standards or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and traceability requirements. |
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Duty 13 Produce technical documentation with applicable supporting data or information, as required, to inform project outcomes and decision making. |
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Duty 14 Identify and share good practice and work collaboratively. |
KSBs
Knowledge
K1: Safety, environmental, sustainability and security standards associated with product, component or system design, development or modifications and the environments in which they reside.
Back to Duty
K2: Hazardous environments and safe systems of work including the impact on the design specification, product, component, system development or modification.
Back to Duty
K3: Constraints or limitations when designing, developing, testing or modifying a product, component or system.
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K4: Principles and applications of thermodynamics and fluid dynamics relevant to product design or development.
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K5: Principles and applications of mechanical dynamic systems relevant to product design or development.
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K6: Factors that determine material selection relevant to the appropriate industry sector and product, component or system being designed or developed.
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K7: Product design and development life cycle stages.
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K8: Principles of mathematics and scientific methods including analytical techniques required to perform the product design or development engineer role such as evaluating statistical data, complex numbers and matrices.
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K9: Principles and applications of electrical, electronic systems and components and digital engineering relevant to product design or development such as analogue to digital conversion, semiconductor devices and circuits, sensors and electric motors.
Back to Duty
K10: Formats for collecting, presenting and storing data including how to select the best method for conveying complex information, and how to analyse the benefits and risks of each methodology.
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K11: Commercial nature of projects and how any changes or delays impact on the business.
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K12: Methods or techniques used for improving or enhancing the safety, reliability, quality, performance and sustainability of products, systems or components such as lean or six sigma.
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K13: Data acquisition and troubleshooting techniques for diagnosing problems, faults or establishing performance characteristics, supporting improvement opportunities and potential design modifications to systems, products or components.
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K14: Ways to access personal and professional development and to maintain vocational currency.
Back to Duty
K15: Specific organisational processes used in the research, design and development products, components or systems and how they can be utilised to optimise factors such as safety, efficiency, performance, productivity and sustainability.
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K16: Quality management and assurance processes.
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K17: Management of change (MOC) processes of requesting, determining viability, planning, implementing and evaluating changes to a product, system or component. Understand the importance of strict adherence to MOC, and know the limitations when providing MOC approval.
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K18: Principles of Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) packages.
Back to Duty
K19: Principles of simulation tools such as Augmented Reality (AR), Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or assembly simulation with Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools.
Back to Duty
K20: Project management method(s) and principles of how to record project or programmes of work outcomes and metrics to track progress.
Back to Duty
K21: How advances in technology could impact organisations in the future including factors such as the mechanical and electrical integration, digitalisation, manufacturing systems and in supporting the sustainability agenda such as Industry 4.0.
Back to Duty
K22: Workload or time management techniques used to ensure that personal and team objectives are achieved.
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K23: Different applications and limitations of computer based software system or packages used in the design and development process.
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K24: Benefits of working collaboratively with colleagues and sharing best practice to support business quality and performance measures or issues.
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K25: Manufacturing methods used to support the design or development process from concept to production ready products, components or systems.
Back to Duty
Skills
S1: Translate conceptual ideas or technical requirements into developmental outcomes or operational designs or specifications for products, systems or components to solve engineering challenges such as compliance, technology, technical or physical challenges.
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S2: Select, use and apply approved problem-solving methods to solve complex problems and determine appropriate solutions or actions such as Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control (DMAIC), Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) or Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA).
Back to Duty
S3: Collate and use a range of data sources and supporting documentation to support projects.
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S4: Interpret and produce technical documentation such as schematic and circuit diagrams, engineering drawings or 3D CAD models, simulation models, project plans, engineering reports, test reports, fault reports or data analytics using company documentation systems and guidelines.
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S5: Observe, record and draw accurate and auditable conclusions from data or developmental or test evidence.
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S6: Manage assigned projects or programmes of work to meet the required specification, taking into account factors such as resource requirements, safety, quality, cost and performance or sustainability criteria. Apply processes for project or programme management including outcomes such as escalation, audit or risk management and risk mitigation.
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S7: Comply with statutory and organisational safety standards and requirements, supporting safety risk assessments and mitigate any risks identified within the design, manufacture, development or test activity.
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S8: Identify resources, such as digital tools or technologies, human, equipment, materials or data, to complete design and development projects or programmes of work.
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S9: Create and manage a project or work programme plan and develop activities in a logical process embedding mechanisms for adapting to changing circumstances or requirements.
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S10: Demonstrate leadership when undertaking product design, development, modification or update engineering activities.
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S11: Identify and rectify faults, inaccuracies, discrepancies or unexpected results during the design or development process, which may impact the quality and reliability of the product, system or component.
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S12: Ensure that all systems or equipment has been correctly configured and checked for safe operation before use.
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S13: Evaluate engineering designs, development or modification options.
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S14: Identify areas for improvement and lead continuous improvement activities in the operation and performance of the product, system or component.
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S15: Complete project documentation checks throughout the activity and report non-conformances.
Back to Duty
Behaviours
B1: Champions a healthy and safe working environment.
Back to Duty
B2: Has a quality and compliance mindset.
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B3: Uses independent judgement and takes responsibility for decisions.
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B4: Collaborate and promote teamwork across disciplines.
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B5: Is agile, resilient and motivated when faced with change.
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B6: Builds relationships in a respectful, collaborative and open and honest way.
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B7: Committed to continuous professional development.
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B8: Committed to upholding the organisations values, ethics, goals, codes of practice, statutory requirements and standards.
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B9: Leads by example being an advocate for change and sustainable approaches.
Back to Duty
Qualifications
English and Maths
English and maths qualifications must be completed in line with the apprenticeship funding rules.
Other mandatory qualifications
Professional recognition
This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:
- IMechE for Incorporated Engineer
- IET for Incorporated Engineer
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