The Engineering Design Process * The "Engineering Design Process" is a general outline of steps that aid in the development, construction and/or manufacture of a targeted product

University of Alabama at Huntsville – Senior Design, Spring 2003 Jason Bridges Design Engineer

ADTRAN - A Corporate Overview · Founded in 1986 after the divestiture of AT&T · Located in Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, AL. · 1,619 employees of which Engineering makes up 287. · Revenue for the year ended June 30, 2002 = $353 Million Dollars · We have a 17 year history of profitability!

ADTRAN – Management Approach · Select high volume product areas · Employ reduced cost to increase our competitive advantage · Drive for market share · Support our customers beyond their expectations · ADTRAN is the only company in the industry to offer a 5-year guarantee on all of its products, 10 year on many.

So how do we do it?  Very FLLLAAATTT org chart  VPs -> Engineering Mgrs -> Me  Small design groups work on logically grouped products  Each engineer is tasked with getting a product out the door  Dilbert Word: Empowered

The Product Creation Process · Product management determines a market need · Talks to engineering management to find out what we can build · Product management then Ignores engineering management and tells us to build the impossible · Example: A 12 port modem card that can also make toast and play MP3s for $14.99 · Step 1: Engineering Management then tells me to build it. · Step 2: ?????? (gnomes?) · Step 3: We release the product, sell millions, and make tons of money, helping my stock options. (profit)

Your idea of EEing? So what happens in Step 2?

Jason’s Office 8:07 am

Breakfast 8:25 am

This is where my days start to differ 8:34 am What phase of design am I in? Design? Testing? Debugging? Compliance? Software? Documentation Safety?

Designing the Hardware

Working with Mechanical Design

Interacting with Layout

Building your Prototypes

Interacting with Process Engineering

Debugging your Hardware

Working with the Techs to fix your HW

Your HW after you fix all your mistakes

Working with your Software Engineer

Getting Vendors to fix their stuff

3:15 pm - Break Whew… There – I’m done. I have designed the hardware, built the card, had the mechanicals completed, debugged the CPLDs and FPGAs, gotten the software written, and have the cost under $14.99 Wrong….

Convincing Safety your stuff isn’t lethal

Making sure your card is FCC friendly

Verifying real world compatibility

Working with ICT for manufacturing

Working with ATP for product reliability

And more stuff that doesn’t photo well · Getting documentation to write your manuals · Creating part numbers and ordering ROMs/CPLDs/ETC · Putting together spec sheets and working with sales and marketing · Beta Testing with trusted customers · Updating schedules, status reports, ISO documentation · Providing training for tech support · more I can’t think of - - -

So how does knowing this help you? · Participate in Company social events! · Get involved in team efforts · Practice your social interaction skills · Be ready to accept any new challenge · Remember than engineering doesn’t just teach you how to build things, or how to solve problems - - it teaches you how to learn new things and use the tools you have most efficiently

Questions?