Engineering & Smart Automation

Requirement Management for Valve-blocks Throughout my career in automotive engineering and consulting, I’ve encountered a fair share of requirement management challenges. One of the most striking cases involved the valve block in car seat massage functions—something that seems trivial at first but quickly reveals itself to be a battlefield of technical, regulatory, and strategic maneuvering. […]

The Reality of Digitalisation and Automation Challenges In my advisory projects, I’ve seen first-hand how organisations struggle with digitalisation and automation. The frustration of dealing with fragmented systems, outdated processes, and internal resistance is all too common. Many businesses embark on automation journeys with the best intentions, only to find themselves stuck in misaligned efforts,

From Posture Recognition to Material Innovation After completing the Seating – Posture Recognition System project, I started exploring ways to reduce the cost and complexity of integrating sensors into car seats. Instead of embedding traditional pressure sensors into foam, I researched the potential of conductive, sewable threads to weave them directly into the seat structure or embed them

From Concept to Prototype: The Birth of an Idea Innovation often starts with a simple problem. In my case, the problem was the lack of real-time, actionable data on a passenger’s seating posture in a vehicle. Poor seating posture is not just a comfort issue; it significantly impacts safety. Imagine a scenario where a passenger

Falsely Thinking It Was Just Another Automation Project When I first took on this project, I expected it to be a straightforward engineering challenge, optimise processes, integrate new machines, automate repetitive tasks, and increase efficiency. The goal seemed clear: take a production plant that relied heavily on manual labor and implement automation step by step.

A Company at a Crossroads In a small but ambitious manufacturing company, quality control had always been a priority. They supplied custom parts to industries where precision was non-negotiable, aerospace, automotive, defence, and beyond. Their products met strict customer standards, but internally, something was missing. While Statistical Process Control (SPC) was in place, it wasn’t fully digitalised.