IAI Trains Automotive Designers to be Piping Designers
IAI is completing it first class for Automotive Designers who wish to become Piping Designers. Funded by the State of Michigan the designers are retraining for other industries, including piping design. The first class is 17 industrial designers as piping designers. All will test for SPED PPD Level I.
“It is a little appreciated fact that the center of the automotive engineering world is Detroit, Michigan. Says Bill Beazley, IAI President and Class Instructor. “ What is also little appreciated is that much of this engineering talent has been laid off, with little hope of working again in the Auto industry.” One expert estimated the there are three to five thousand unemployed engineers and designers in the Detroit area.
“These folks are hungry, eager to change careers and are accustomed to lower wages.
And they can be trained. Adds Beazley, “make no mistake about their level of ability: This group of designers represented the most interesting combination of experience, maturity and capability I have seen yet.”
The experienced designers have easily mastered the typical training applications of fabrication planning, spool takeoff, control valve station layout, and pump suction/discharge piping. Beazley said, “their questions, however, showed an application focus and a disciplined methodology often seen in highly experienced designers. They were hungry to learn, came early and stayed late. They show the intensity typical of someone escaping from a dead end to a promising future.”
What’s more, the designers bring developed skills from automotive design that clearly apply in piping design. They have been working in confined spaces routing tubing and cables, placing components and checking for interference. They have designed jigs and tooling that increases fabrication and assembly efficiency. Some have planned parts flow, staging and movement into place just as pipers have to plan logistics and construction. The frequently have to practice modular design and coordinate their interfaces with others. They understand documentation and paperwork. They are used to tight schedules (18 month programs) and know how to meet deadlines.
Michigan has also funded their PDS training provided directly by Intergraph. They can explain and defend all of their drawings and designs.
These are serious folks who want to work. Today they might work in Houston, California or South Carolina. Tomorrow, when there are hundreds or thousands trained, they might attract EPC companies to Michigan. As one piping manager said about his company, “they like to locate offices where there are lots of low cost resources.” Why go overseas when there are better prepared folks right here at reasonable rates?
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