Professional Engineer Question List

Please answer all questions below. Questions marked with * are especially important for your Career
Episodes.

1. When you started working on this project and when you have finished (Month needed)

07 Nov 2013-01 Dec 2014

2. Where is your Company located? (City, Country) What was your exact position?*
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

I was the Junior Engineer of Fabrication department on the PRESS METAL BERHAD

3. Give Company background in a paragraph*

Press Metal is the leading aluminium extruder in Malaysia with a 40,000-tonne capacity per
annum, complete with an in-house tool-and-die shop offering quick turnaround services. In
addition, our plant is equipped with modern facilities that provide an extensive range of
surface finishes – anodized, powder coated, and bright dip.

4. Prepare/Explain complete hierarchy of your company clearly indicating your position*

MD
FACTORY MANAGER
DEPARTMENT MANAGER (HOD)
SENIOR ENGINEER
JUNIOR ENGINEER
Supervisors
Line Incharge
Workers
5. Detail your complete responsibilities. At least 5. Explain each responsibility in one paragraph*
Prepare Estimation and costing to Quote for all the customer enquiry products :

I was responsible for all the customer enquiry products to quote appropriate price depending
on the fabrication task required. For this the sample drawing has to be designed in a
company standard drawing and quote according to the fabrication process required. Senior
Engineer would verify the quoted price for the product. Customers are provided with the
proper re-design autocad drawing and quotation for the product.

Designing of the punching dies

Once the drawing and quote is finalized with the customer my responsibility for the project
was to develop a work flow in which the project is divided into different stages and tools and
dies are prepared according to requirements. I was responsible to design a punching dies by
considering a machine available in the floor and project requirement . Ive to design a best
suitable tool for this project.
 Making SOP (STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE )

Before fabrication process is laid down for operation I had to make SOP. A standard SOP
contains all the different step by step process information. I have to present it to floor
supervisor explain them properly to achieve efficiency, quality product and uniformity in the
performance.

Maintaining the quality standard

Once the fabrication process is being started I was responsible for controlling the quality
standard. During the manufacturing If found the product being running out of tolerance or
some surface finishing issues I was responsible to take the corrective action by checking where
the problem is coming from. Maintain quality for all fabrication from conceptualization to
implementation and perform inspection.

Report making :

Assist department manager and prepare reports on regular basis after final inspections

6. Please explain two problematic situations where you played important role to solve the problem
systematically. How you applied your engineering knowledge to solve these issues?*

i) For the SUNIVA solar frame fabrication process which has 4 slots to be cut by progressive
dies and 4 counter sinking hole .The counter sinking operation was decided to be done
manually due to cost and time restraints. However, while production I found out the
counter sinking process need more attention to detail from worker and it was getting
difficult to control the failure rate maybe because lack of skilled worker to perform that
task as well. It was a bulk order and the time was limited to complete this project. So to
avoid the failure rate and in order to finish project within the time limit I had to take some
corrective actions.
How I solve it ?
To fix this issue, Firstly I change the progressive dies design which was previously designed
to cut the 4 slots in 2 shots. I changed the design to make the drilling hole for counter
sinking in the punching process itself . Now for the counter sinking on this hole I design the
special fixture which was fitted in CNC where I use those 2 punched hole as a reference
point and programmed a CNC for the counter sinking process . I was able to do 4 pieces at a
time with the cycle time of 1 min 10 sec (Which includes loading and unloading a 4 pieces in
cnc machine and machining time ). It was quite an achievement for the fabrication process
of mass production cos we were able to save approx 30 sec time on each cycle with the
failure rate less than 1% and we were delivered the required quantity within the project
completion target time.
ii) During my tenure in Press Metal, company decided to add a new project of thermal break
aluminium frames. It was new and challenging at the beginning for fabrication technical
staffs cos no one was familiar with this before. On our first project from solar world US
aluminium windows and doors frame where we had to do thermal break process in two
stages
a) Filling- The gap is filled with the mixture of glues by setting up the nozzle parameters
and position.
b) De-bridge – Cut the aluminium through the length and glue will act as a bridging
material between the two separate body.

Thermal break process is a hot process. In this hot glue is spread in the material and let it
solidify which will act as a bridge later. Due to hot processing the dimension of the body get
change during the process so before the fabrication is done the proper dimension control
should be done in the extrusion and finishing process so it will be within the tolerance after
the thermal break process. But in our project we faced a problem of dimension getting out
of tolerance .

How I solved it ?

I first try the hit and trial method to see the variation in dimension for each pieces. I took
the measurement in every 100 mm difference through out the length of material with
different working parameters. After doing that I found out the dimension variation changes
with the glue mixing and speed of nozzle and most importantly cross section of material
plays a vital role. So to compare my result I did a FEA analysis on ANSYS. By comparing
both simulated result and practical I came with the one average result which came as a
success and we were able to produce a thermal break frames with the close tolerances as
well.

7. Did you design anything? Important to mention. At least two items. Give detail for each in
paragraph*

I have designed many progressive dies and fixtures for fabrication process.

1) Designed a progressive die for the suniva solar frames fabrication process.
 2) Designed a packaging method for the shipping purpose of the different solar and window
frames.

8. What Calculations you performed? Give detail (but not the calculations themselves)
Speeds and Feeds calculation: To find out the right speeds and feeds while programming any
CNC related project I use a speed and feed calculation formals.
Estimation and costing : To quote any customer enquiry products I use a simple estimation and
costing formula to find out the suitable price for each price of the product.
 WIP Calculation: Understanding WIP by creating Value stream mapping and to minimize
wastes.

9. Any training/courses you received during this job?

Industrial safety training

Team building training

10. Did you follow any code/standard during your work?

Yes we follow ISO (International Standards of Organisation ) codes for all fabrication process
and safety purposes.

11. Did you take any knowledge/help from library/internet/colleagues etc. for doing this job?
Yes , I have taken help from my superior Senior engineer C.H Soo , and HOD Rohizal.

12. What software you used to handle this job?*

AutoCAD

MS Office (esp MS Excel, Word and Powerpoint)

MS Projects

SOLIDWORKS

13. How frequently you have meetings with your subordinates and managers? Were you ever
involved in social activities like party arrangements etc.?
I had daily meetings with my subordinates and manger.
Meeting with the senior engineer used to be every evening to review the day’s progress and
micro-plan next day’s work
Meeting with subordinates used to take place each morning before start of work

14. Have you made any economical/finance related decisions (such as how to reduce cost of the
project) during work on this project? *
For one of the project of Celestica, USA which was 991mm long solar frame with 45 degree
angular cut on the each sides of the frame. There were few slots which has to be made by the
progressive dies on the frame. To do angular cutting on the sides we just had one head saw
inhouse so by accessing the Simple Break Even Analysis I concluded that it was better to
outsource to cut the frames which reduces the cost of labour and save time cos it would be
faster by using two head saw by outsourcing.
15. Had you made any presentation to your seniors etc.? *
 As a junior, I had to present monthly progress reports to my Head of the Department and
Senior Engineer, which incorporated the progress percent of each process on the shop and
Quality conformance report of that month.

16. What you gained professionally while working on this project?

As this was my first job professionally after graduation it was excellent platform for me to get
exposed to a unique experience working overseas with technically genius around the world. I
developed the technical skills required to design and fabrication of aluminium products.
Furthermore, I also got a chance to learn about the aluminium extrusion and different finishing
processes , which gave me an opportunity to broaden my skills set.

On the other hand, apart from developing technical skills, I was intensely guided and trained
by my seniors on how to manage labour and sub-contractors effectively. Thus, also enhanced
my management skills through this professional period.

17. Was there any safety/environmental effects or did you use any safety precautions while working
on this project?
As an junior engineer for the fabrication department, I was very strict about the compliance of
the following things on shop:

Safety
 Personal protective equipment’s (Safety Shoes, gloves, masks) should always be worn.
 Make sure machines maintenance procedure is strictly followed
daily/monthly/annually.
 Proper tools management .
 Provide a employee training.
 Tools testing frequently.
 Medical and First -Aid (OSHA Standards)