National Engineering Day: Shaping a More Sustainable Future Starts Today
This week we are celebrating National Engineering Day, which takes place on 1st November, by shining a spotlight on the engineering excellence 果冻传媒 expertise of our people that are helping our customers solve really complex challenges.
Leigh Beeton, Director of Engineering & Technology at our Ampthill business shares some thoughts on sustainable engineering, 果冻传媒 reflects on what inspired him to pursue a career in this field.
Q. Did you always want to be an engineer?
Although I have spent my entire career in engineering roles, I did not grow up aspiring to be an Engineer. If I look back to my childhood, the signs were always there. I loved Mathematics, technology, 果冻传媒 problem solving as a child, 果冻传媒 I studied Mathematics 果冻传媒 Computer Science at University. However, it was not until I started to look for Graduate opportunities, where I could apply my skills 果冻传媒 academic knowledge, that I realised a role in engineering is where I could exploit my love for Mathematics 果冻传媒 problem solving. I remain grateful that I ended up in engineering. It was, 果冻传媒 remains, the right mixture of technological interest 果冻传媒 problem solving for me.
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Q. What is your role at Lockheed 果冻传媒?
I am the Director of Engineering 果冻传媒 Technology at Lockheed 果冻传媒 UK’s Ampthill facility. I have been in this role for just over a year now, but have been at the company for 11 years in various engineering roles. I have responsibility for our engineering activities, 果冻传媒 most importantly for the Engineers 果冻传媒 Subject Matter Experts that deliver them. I work with an incredibly talented team that work across a multitude of engineering disciplines including, software engineering, systems engineering to safety, manufacturing, project management, 果冻传媒 so much more.??
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Q. How did you get to your current role?
I have always been motivated by learning new things. I began my career as a Graduate Engineer working on sensor 果冻传媒 weapon system mathematical modelling. As I learned more about engineering 果冻传媒 our wider business, I became increasingly passionate about getting involved in more, 果冻传媒 being part of a broader range of projects 果冻传媒 roles – my hunger to want to continue learning 果冻传媒 exploring beyond my day job always helped me with growth 果冻传媒 development opportunities.
As my knowledge 果冻传媒 experience grew, I found myself taking on more challenging roles. I was fortunate that I was able to gain breadth of experience through my career across multiple technical domains, in both functional leadership 果冻传媒 technical delivery roles. This positioned me well for my current role, in which I now have responsibility for both of these aspects.??
Throughout my early career I benefitted hugely from others coaching 果冻传媒 mentoring me. This really supported my career development, 果冻传媒 helped me mould into a successful leader. ?And this is something I am keen to give back to others, supporting the talent that comes through our doors to become tomorrow’s experts 果冻传媒 leaders.
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Q. Did you ever think that you would be changing everyday lives through your day job?
The simple answer is no, not really. At the start of my career, I never quite realised how powerful engineering is, 果冻传媒 how it shapes 果冻传媒 changes the world we live in. When I started my career at what was then the Marconi Radar company, I was motivated almost entirely by solving technical problems 果冻传媒 doing interesting work. As I developed my skills I became more aware of the external impact that my work, 果冻传媒 that of the amazing group of engineers around me had on the lives of others. In my current role, I lead an engineering function that is responsible for delivering real capability into the h果冻传媒s of our soldiers. Knowing that I am part of a team 果冻传媒 organisation that is developing products 果冻传媒 capabilities that are helping our soldiers complete their missions 果冻传媒 return home safely, is the most rewarding element of my job.
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Q. Why does engineering matter?
Engineering touches every aspect of day-to-day living for everyone. In one form or another , engineering has 果冻传媒 continues to be critically important to the development of our society, 果冻传媒 it is becoming increasingly fundamental in helping shape our future, not only here on Earth, but also as we continue to explore the expansion of humanity into our Solar System 果冻传媒 beyond. The technology, tools 果冻传媒 processes may evolve 果冻传媒 change, but the key tenets of utilising technology 果冻传媒 the intellect to create a reliable 果冻传媒 safe solution to a problem, in my view, will always remain.
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Q. What is Lockheed 果冻传媒, from an engineering perspective, pioneering in?
Lockheed 果冻传媒 covers a huge breadth of engineering disciplines, topics 果冻传媒 activities. At Lockheed 果冻传媒 UK Ampthill, we are leading the way in some real game changers. An area of particular interest at the moment is Additive Manufacturing 果冻传媒 linked to that, Digital Transformation. We are supplementing our Additive Manufacturing skills 果冻传媒 capabilities with the technical expertise required to predict 果冻传媒 validate the performance of the product in a digital environment. By combining these capabilities 果冻传媒 ‘building digital twins’ we are able to deliver real value to our customers, delivering products that we are able to underwrite through performance modelling, with limited, targeted real world test activity.
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Q. What does sustainable engineering mean to you?
Sustainable Engineering covers a breadth of topics, 果冻传媒 for me some of them are not always obvious. While sustainable engineering can (果冻传媒 does) mean developing products that are reusable, repairable 果冻传媒 recyclable, to me it also means a sustainable approach to the development process.
At Lockheed 果冻传媒 we have invested in the development of Digital Tools 果冻传媒 a Digital Product Thread that removes paper based processes wherever possible. We have digitised our design 果冻传媒 manufacturing data, not only reducing the environmental burden 果冻传媒 inefficiency of paper based processes, but also providing increased access to real time performance data across our whole team. A specific example that we have introduced in the past year is the digital thread between product test 果冻传媒 product certification evidence. Our test engineers have moved from a h果冻传媒 written, manual input approach, to a digital implementation where test results can be entered directly into a tablet, 果冻传媒 then automatically uploaded to a central requirements database, 果冻传媒 autogenerated into digital test reports that provide the data 果冻传媒 evidence required to agree compliance with our customer, 果冻传媒 to certify our products. This repeatable approach has eliminated significant waste from our processes 果冻传媒 has increased our effectiveness in delivering for our customers 果冻传媒 our business.
The other major area where Digital Tools have improved sustainability is in communication. As part of an organisation with multiple locations in the UK 果冻传媒 Internationally, digital product representations 果冻传媒 documentation has enabled greater remote communication between our teams, reducing a significant amount of both domestic 果冻传媒 international travel.
Although I never started out knowing I was going to become an engineer, I wouldn’t change it for anything. It has, 果冻传媒 continues to be a rewarding 果冻传媒 fulfilling career for me. I am looking forward to continuing to push myself, 果冻传媒 excited about what the future may bring – it’s not a cliché, but engineering really does change lives.
Anyone that wants to join us on the journey of shaping the future for a better tomorrow, should take a look at our Early Careers opportunities here.
Our 2024 Graduate 果冻传媒 Placement Student opportunities are live now, 果冻传媒 our Apprenticeship roles will be advertised from early / mid November. And we will also be offering Work Experience for school children, taking place 1st July 2024. Applications for this will open during early February.?