top 10 tips for automotive safety engineer to avoid safety issue in field

Top 10 Tips For Automotive Safety Engineer

To Avoid Safety Issue in Field

www.ExploreAutoRecall.com1



1. Keep Learning

Each of the recalls filed by automotive OEM/supplier is example of hard learning.As safety engineer always be curious to know how your system or component canfail in various ways in field. The global recall data mining platform ExploreAutoRecallcan be your great companion to learn about your system field failures so that youdo not end up learning hard way !. As ExploreAutoRecall recall data continuouslygets updated you might keep yourself upto date and learn how your system canfail in field due to design or system interaction or quality issue or customer abuse.




2. Own Safety

Take ownership of system or components safety you are “responsible”. Most of thetime functional safety engineer involved in program do not know more than what’spresented to him/her by project team. Do not be one of safety engineer whobelieves in information presented by peers, rather understand complete life cycle ofgiven system under development. Life cycle means design, testing, supplier weaknessand strength, relevant field issues and manufacturing quality plan. Before every launchof product ask yourself a question will you drive this vehicle along with yourdearest one? If answer is “yes” you have indeed owned safety.




3. Know Law of Land

No matter in which country you are working always be aware where your vehiclewill be sold. At ExploreAutoRecall when we analyzed global recall data foundsurprisingly that nearly 12% of the recalls filed in USA are due to non compliancewith FMVSS regulation. More over nearly 3% of recalls happens on importedvehicles which were complying with origin country local laws but not complying withlaws of country where vehicle was imported. As safety engineer it might be helpfulto keep eye on changing regulations to avoid surprises in field.




4. Be Resilient

An automotive safety engineer needs to be resilient as general perception is itneeds lots of efforts to make it 100% safe. You might have came acrosssituations where your suggestions to improve safety of given system or componentwas resisted by project managers and design team as it would add extra effortand launch timeline may go for toss. The discussions may also turn out such away that you were pushed to corner to prove your concerns. This is the reasonsafety engineer always needs to be resilient and convince the team with patience.




5. Socialize Safety Requirements !

In today’s world of global organization and multiple team owning differentdeliverable to meet tight launch timeline it’s very likely to happen all the safetyrequirements do not ingress in cross functional team project charter. Make sure tosocialize with various teams to ensure safety requirements receive due treatment.




6. Understand your industry

Unlike Aerospace industry where there are very few dedicated suppliers for Airbusand Boeing Automotive industry has variety of suppliers serving various OEMs.The safety engineer needs to understand this complex web of alternativesuppliers to uncover unexpected issues in system interaction. As perExploreAutoRecall analysis nearly 20% of the recalls occur due to systeminteraction where in automotive supplier supplying the same sub system to morethan three OEMs failed to understand system interaction issue in one specificOEM and field failure led to recall. Safety engineer can keep eye on suchpotential issues by using online data mining tools like ExploreAutoRecall.




7. Safety is all about collaboration

As safety engineer one need to collaborate with multiple team to drive safety inright way. Remember to have coffee with design team, reliability, warranty team,plant quality and supplier quality at least once in month !




8. Learn from Field complaints

It seems quote above is very relevant for automotive safety engineers. Almost every14 months a big automotive OEM end up declaring big recall which impact more than100,000 units. Safety engineers should keep track of consumer complaints as wellas field failures to keep tab on potential hazards. ExploreAutoRecall can be your google tolearn from global recalls as one can also access relevant consumer complaints for givensystem or components. Each recall incident has it’s own story which can be easily learnedat ExploreAutoRecall to avoid your system becoming character in such story in future.Remember every year nearly 30% of automotive recalls repeat same failure mode of previousyear. Interestingly OEM and supplier who pay the recall bill for similar failure keep changingbut we are sure as safety engineer you do not want your organization to pay bill for similarfailures. Make use of ExploreAutoRecall global recall data mining to learn from recalls.




9. Don’t confine your assessment only to Embedded Controller

In Automotive industry functional safety practice is more dominated by engineers fromembedded development background. One of the prominent reason behind this is functionalsafety became practice after ISO 26262 introduction and ISO 26262 focuses on embeddedcontroller. If you are one of the functional safety engineer with embedded controllerbackground then please be aware of the fact that around 90% of the safety related recallsin field are from purely mechanical components failure. So when you consider safety alsoconsider other systems around and consider car as system for hazard assessment ratherthan “embedded car” as system! The ExploreAutoRecall’s data mining interface “HazardView” and “Assembly View” can be your great aid if you would like to understandpotential issues related to embedded and non-embedded components in one shot.




10. Learn how to make Convincing Argument

As automotive safety engineer numerous times youmight have encountered a situation where yourconcerns regarding unsafe design or systemrequirements are not heard by TOP management.

In such scenario as normal human being you may feel like left withtwo options :Option 1 : Satisfied with feeling that you have done your job to inform the team and

now it’s upto team to address concerns.Option 2 : Make a convincing argument with strong data and make sure that safety

related recommendations are actually implemented.To follow option 2 one need strong data for financial and legal implications resultingfrom unsafe system such that TOP management get big picture. The ExploreAutoRecallcan be of great aid to make such convincing argument with real recall and consumercomplaint data. For example one can retrieve real consumer complaints and show itto management that simple component like engine crank shaft failure had resulted indeath/injury on road. At the end it’s not only about smart argument but it’s alsoabout fact based argument which is vital to drive safety on roads.




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