What is a production engineer?

March 28, 2007 at 3:36 am | In Architecture, Design, Engineer, Engineering, Production | 5 Comments

Hello again, Mark.

This is what I said earlier:

In answer to your wondering about:

“a general name for the class of people who builds the things that engineers design and mechanics maintain”

… production engineer is the term for the professionals in that “class of people”.

I was specifically referring to the professional engineers in my response to your building question. The topic of the post is related to different perceptions of engineers, so I was trying to stay right on topic.

To address your latest question:

Is production engineering really about building things?

Yes. It covers all aspects of production.

(I am not a production engineer, so I am not qualified to expound on this from personal knowledge. I am a design engineer, and have been a systems engineer, also known variously as pre-sales, sales, and post-sales engineers in some companies.)

Anyway, a production engineer is akin to an architect.

It sounds to me that, to continue a construction industry example, you are asking about job titles for employees at the level of bricklayers, who are as far from architects as assembly-line workers are from production engineers.

By contrast, my focus is on enabling people to understand the role of a professional engineer in society.

I would appreciate some help from any production engineers out there who can enlighten me and others further

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Inel,

I think you’re right. The trouble, of course, is that this leaves my question, from the very start, unanswered. A bricklayer is not an engineer. An engineer might devise a better pattern of bricks, or a different composition of the mortar, but the act of laying the bricks in rows is not engineering, it is masonry. I’ve never had a conversation that went:

“What do you do?”
“I’m a production engineer.”
“Really? What does that entail?”
“Well, first you need to add water to the mortar mix…”

Masons, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, assembly line workers, and any of a whole host of other related professionals are all critically important, but they are not production engineers. The term I was (and still am) looking for is one that encompasses all of those professions into one neat, tidy term.

As for architecture, I think it depends on the type. Some architects are more like artists (how the building should look), some are more like design engineers (how the structure of the building should be designed) and some are more like production engineers (how to assemble the steel and wood and concrete and whatever other materials in order to build the structure). Most architects, I suspect, trade hats between these sub-fields most of the time.

Comment by Mark — March 28, 2007 #
The comment system has cleverly removed all of my line breaks between paragraphs. Sorry that looks so sloppy. Clearly, it needs to be better engineered.

Comment by Mark — March 28, 2007 #
Mark, I agree that this comment system needs to understand basic HTML I went in and added a few paragraph and line breaks and a blockquote, and all that was not discarded by this system was the blockquote (which I am not sure you began with …) Ahhh, well.

You are using profession in a wider sense than I would. Construction workers and manufacturing workers are the general terms that come to mind. Architects and professional engineers are only placed within those groups when you are talking about the industry as a whole (construction or manufacturing in this case).

By contrast, I was trying to stick to the definition of engineer.

Your point about architecture could also apply to engineering: professionals, especially, work across disciplines in a multidisciplinary environment to a greater or lesser extent. In fact, that is one of the hallmarks of a professional versus a skilled craftsman: professionals are meant to have a broader understanding of a subject, and also have an in-depth understanding of at least one particular area, but cannot be in-depth across all areas of expertise. That’s where skilled craftsmen complement the professionals with their abilities to perform a particular task with the highest expertise.

Comment by inel — March 28, 2007 #
I’m not sure if you intended to do so, but you have answered my question. “Craftsperson” (to choose a gender-neutral form of the word) sounds like the term I was looking for.

I hadn’t had a block quote, I’d just seperated the conversation with a blank line before and after, but the quote does the trick. It must be based on the theme you’ve chosen for your blog, because Geek Buffet is still willing to let you have blank lines in your comments. Strange.

Comment by Mark — March 28, 2007 #
Craftsman = jolly good.

Yes, this HTML rejection facility is a feature I tolerate: I am sticking with this theme as I like its 550 pixels width for photos

Comment by inel — March 28, 2007 #