Your partner for
Dedicated to innovative brands, start-ups and companies
in the mobility and special machines industry
striving to make better products and reduce complexity...
... and I love solving problems. I bring 14 years of experience in various Engineering and Project Management roles. Since 5 years I support projects in global engineering environments as a self-employed "Freiberufler". With this experience, as well as my theoretical background as mechanical engineer and MBA degree holder I have the optimal foundation to adapt quickly, solve problems across departments or with external stakeholders. I produce outcomes, that are reliable, precise and efficient.
If you are looking for someone that helps you to get things done, let's talk and find out if I can support you.
I enable global teams to engineer products that are reliable, innovative and efficient. By bridging pragmatic Project Management with rigorous Systems Engineering. I drive your product from Concept, Design to Validation and into seamless production.
While established organizations value my structured approach, Start-Ups and Scale-Ups bring me in to establish their engineering backbone from scratch. I focus on getting things done without loosing speed.
Instead of creating paper planes to hide responsibilities, my approach is built on three core principles:
I split the portfolio into product development and manufacturing/production, although various items interfere. This carefully picked arrangement of projects I did, will give an overview over my skills and experiences and still ensure the non-disclosure with my former and current clients.
To enable the vision of my client to transform the ghanian mobility market into a green future oriented one, I supported the investor team to set-up the development for an electric Last-Mile-Deliver vehicle. That covered all the tasks from leading the technical interviews for the necessary positions, including the one for the CTO, to the system design and hands-on sourcing of components that fitted the design for an initial POC/Prototype which was able to drive at the end of the project.
What shall the system be able to do, what is its environment and how is it supposed to fail. As systems engineer for Body, Chassis and Safety systems at Streetscooter I was deeply involved in and in charge of defining the requirements, the test methods and in implementing the defined requirements into the system and component designs.
In buck planning, the planning of prototypes for body system testing at Ford over 5 years, I planned hundreds of prototypes, supported the built onside in Germany, Belgium and the USA, and tracked the test progression till completion, to ensure that the results get documented and support the overall vehicle development.
A fresh startup asked me for help to break down the System Design for a self-driving soil cutting rig. As the investment for the development of such a complex machine is extremely high, I also supported them to adopt their strategy, to solve their customers needs with a different approach, that helped to reduce development cost to a 10th and reduced the time to market by more than 50%.
For the overall system package of a vehicle it is mandatory to check the first design drafts against legal requirements, such as seatbelt-anchorage positioning, field of view or the reach of the drivers arm. I designed a lightweight dummy with the necessary volumes and areas to define the crucial positions for a vehicle in relation to the H-point. I collected the right dimensions from various medical studies as well as SAE and other legal documents.
Small rice mills in rural areas have a too small output to justify the investment into an optical sorter. One mill asked me to support them with an idea to improve the sorting process from batch wise hand-sorting to a standardized process. I designed a shaker that sits at the end of a conveyor belt and ensures that the bags of unsorted rice gets distributed slow and steady on the belt so the hand sorting is in a linear step. That achieved the output to nearly double with the same workforce.
The biggest challenge for me was to select and position the imbalance motors in combination with the springs, as both components had to come off-the-shelf, to keep the cost down.
I designed a freewheel for an innovative eBike drivetrain concept. The main challenge was the bike typical compact package, combined with the torque requirement, that was nearly double than other bike freewheels on the market. Further was the challenge to design it as a "silent" freewheel which required me to do an intensive patent research until I could come up with a legal, not-yet-patented design.
I designed a mobile smoke generator, that identifies issues in the weldment process and design, by sealing and applying negative pressure in the inside of the body. I used it on various projects for my customers and helped to optimize the body designs and manufacturing strategies
For a customer in Sub-Sahara Africa I set-up the chassis geometry for the initial prototype. The main challenge was to find the balance, between the assumptions about the final vehicle, the usage of available components and an optimal driving safety and performance
The newly acquired "BaoLong Feeding Equipment" Company had to be included in the global Bühler Production network. Although the different machines were already in produced, the famous Bühler Total Synchro Production System was not yet fully implemented. During my 6 month internship with Bühler on side in Liyang, I learned Lean Manufacturing from the ground up and achieved to improve the machine output, the overall transparency and quality in various own optimization project.
For a new eBike Plant I supported the management to scout and select a location, and I designed the plant layout for an efficient flow-production. I designed it the way, that a continuous material flow to the delivery area (from the goods receiving) was ensured. I also considered already planned, but at that time not yet necessary automation steps to keep in line with the strongly growing demand. for eBikes and delivery services in the Accra region.
As Systems Engineer for Body, Chassis and Safety Systems at STS I led projects to improve the BIW manufacturing. These included the logistics for the various sheetmetal components, the integration and reorganization of welding robot cells and quality check equipment to improve the overall production quality. These projects took place at the two Streetscooter manufacturing plants as well as the supplier side. Therefore these projects involved various stakeholders at STS, the supplier and third parties, such as authorities and equipment manufacturers.
Business never has to stays still. Therefore I led various projects caused by change requests from various stakeholders or alerts, to improve production. These involved Projects in the field of TVM - Total Value Management, general quality improvements and changes in the design due to necessary modifications and the design-for-manufacturing.
To change the manufacturing concept from 4 separate Assembly lines to a more flexible 3-Line System, I developed a migration concept during my final thesis. The main challenge was to ensure that the different variants and assembly steps get aligned on the separate lines before migration. Which I achieved by applying a pull-strategy and close cooperation with the shopfloor.
Engineering is a team game. I love to focus on a topic, dive deep into the specifics and find the optimal solution.
The more complex the product and the bigger the team, a freelance position would just not be the right type of contract, Especially when the role is required for an extended period and is deeply integrated. And although I love the variety of projects in freelancing, a longterm in-house role also has its benefits.
If I can support you with my experiences on a long term basis, I am happily open to sign an in-house contract with you.
We agree on a NDA that supports your privacy requirements. That is the basis and will be ensured. To mention it upfront: I do NOT sign any non-compete clauses.
Contact me, I am curious about your project and how I can support you.
| Write me a Mail: | Kontakt@berger-automotive.com |
| Contact me on LinkedIn: | linkedin.com/in/ferdinand-berger/ |
