S1E45 How To Succeed at The Technical & Business Aspects of Engineering | Les Voss

Being an Engineer · 17 Oct 2020 · 55m · Episode 45

What this episode covers

Les Voss, a mechanical engineer at Johnson & Johnson's Vision Care division, discusses the intersection of technical engineering and business success, emphasizing that a working product is not a success if it lacks a viable business case. He advocates for continuous learning in tools like ANSYS and SolidWorks, and stresses the importance of exact constraint design and clear communication through J&J's Flawless Project Execution (FPX) system. Voss shares a major failure where a technically perfect interferometry system was cancelled because the business case for parametric release was flawed, highlighting the need for engineers to understand financial implications. He concludes by advising engineers to leverage their technical strengths while relying on complementary skills for project management and stakeholder communication.

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