Job opening

[booster]

Any takers?

CanadasCareer.com - Erwin Hymer Group North America Inc is a growing company in Kitchener, ON. To accelerate the development of the continuing business and professional area, in October 2017 Erwin Hymer Group North America Inc is likely to improve the number of employees and improve existing human resources. Erwin Hymer Group North America Inc opens job opportunity for Senior Project Engineer located in Kitchener, ON. This option has been opened at the beginning of October 2017 and you will be closed on the finish of the month. If you're considering Senior Project Engineer, please read about the conditions and terms below.
Senior Project Engineer October 2017

Erwin Hymer Group North America Inc Kitchener, ON
This position will handle launching new projects involving technology and research as well as following up on results in the field. The position requires permanent relocation in Kitchener, Ontario, but travel and hands on work in the US is required as well to be able to work on consumer products and actual research in camping environments.
The type and breadth of the scope of these unique projects requires someone with a deep background in large civil projects in project management, as well as the knowledge of recreational vehicles, small motorhomes and mechanical abilities.
Job duties include:

• Liaising with US based suppliers to strategize and develop new product lines and make product and design improvements to existing vehicles;
• Meeting with customers and investigating product issues to develop solutions and databanks for further use;
• Developing and designing new products using 3D CAD software and establishing manufacturing methods
• Managing large scale RV product roll outs from visual idea conception to executed product launch;
• Developing, writing and maintaining owner manuals for RV products;
• Reviewing, analyzing and approving documentation and build procedures;
• Conducting client site visits to provide field support to clients and promote new products;
• Ensuring products meet guidelines and specifications of RV industry and its regulations including CSA, UL, and CE approvals, principles of ADA as well as accessible design;
• Ensuring thorough understanding of the specific safety features of all currently used manufacturers for compliance and adherence purposes;
• Ensuring that the safety protocols, standards and features are in line with standardized Health and Safety regulations, specifically with respect to emissions systems, structural components, and life-safety features such as seat belts, air bags, etc.;
• Establishing and monitoring work and construction schedules;
• Offering professional engineering services and abilities to the Director of Engineering and Operations;
• Developing and reviewing engineering changes, affected scheduling and approving work on the production line to components including 12VDC systems, 120VAC systems, On board refrigeration, hydronic heating, battery and solar systems, etc.;
• Preparing contract documents, reviewing and evaluating tenders for Canadian and US suppliers and partner subcontractors;

The successful candidate will possess:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Civil or Mechanical Engineering or related Engineering discipline is required;
• Minimum of 5-7 years of experience in civil engineering for small-large scale products and projects is required;
• 3-5 years of experience with 3D CAD suite technologies including Solid Edge, Solid Works and similar is required;
• Proven experience in working with all aspects of RV design and construction, including 120VAC and 12/24VDC systems, propane, potable, gray, and black water systems, as well as cabinet construction using a variety of materials, and assembly using a variety of adhesives and mechanical fasteners.
• Understanding and knowledge of the regulatory environment, CSA, UL, and CE approvals, principles of ADA and accessible design.
• Knowledge of automotive manufacturers, specific safety features of each of the manufacturers we use, and knowledge of the emissions systems, structural components, and life-safety features such as seat belts, air bags, etc.
• Demonstrated experience in complex problem solving skills across a range of technical RV fields
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate information in a technical and non-technical manner for owners and sales professionals.
• Industry specific training including Factory Floor Safety and certification in Health and Safety Regulations
• Broad experience with office suite of programs and familiarity with social media applications.

[Bruceper]

So basically, they want 3 staff in one employee

A project manager
A civil or mechanical engineer
A CAD specialist

I'm not saying it can't happen, but they better be paying a ton of money.

[booster]

IIRC it was listed at $96K Canadian.

I think the mechanical or civil engineer kind of go together with the CAD proficiency, but not so much with the project manager.

They also want a front end designer who can also do transition to manufacturing and post release to the field product evaluation and improvement.

Front end designers often aren't very good at the other two, based on my experiences, so that could be a tough one to find, along with all the rest.

30-40 years ago, this kind of generalist was much more common in engineering, but now they are getting very rare IMO.

I suppose you would also want to add that the person had to be a psychologist and have the patience of the Pope. Getting caught between bosses (especially sales guys) that think they are highly technically competent, when the aren't, and attempting to be delivering good solutions, is about the worst place an engineer can be in most cases.

[rjf7g]

I was thinking I could split the job with someone...but I wouldn't want to split the salary.

[booster]

Originally Posted by rjf7g

I was thinking I could split the job with someone...but I wouldn't want to split the salary.

Funny, I had thought the same thing, especially since they may want to cover multiple shifts when things get busy plus the very large skillset.

All you need to do is find someone who wants to work 1/2 time just for fun.

[mumkin]

That first paragraph reads as a poor translation. It is almost completely incomprehensible. Don't they have any native speakers of English at Roadtrek who can proofread and correct? Or perhaps the person who wrote it is someone who things he is completely bilingual... and he isn't. (based on my 10+ years of teaching academic writing to non-native speakers of English)

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by mumkin

That first paragraph reads as a poor translation. It is almost completely incomprehensible. Don't they have any native speakers of English at Roadtrek who can proofread and correct? Or perhaps the person who wrote it is someone who things he is completely bilingual... and he isn't. (based on my 10+ years of teaching academic writing to non-native speakers of English)

[booster]

Originally Posted by mumkin

That first paragraph reads as a poor translation. It is almost completely incomprehensible. Don't they have any native speakers of English at Roadtrek who can proofread and correct? Or perhaps the person who wrote it is someone who things he is completely bilingual... and he isn't. (based on my 10+ years of teaching academic writing to non-native speakers of English)

I think some of it may be the extreme focus on making sure all the requisite buzz words are in place. Ads for technical help, in particular, seem to read like this a lot, I think. I know when I used to write first drafts of ads for tech help, and then send them off to HR to get listed, they would often add a whole bunch of currently trending catch phrases the really didn't fit what was being said.

If they can get a person with all the qualifications and experience listed, he should be the head of Engineering, Quality, and Manufacturing, so they could get some coordination and understanding of how to design and build good products at reasonable costs

[GeorgeRa]

Ouch, this position plan gives Roadtrek's ineptness away, it is sad that they are showing this lack of ability. Any experienced engineer manager will stay away. As already mentioned it is department plan not a single person job description for 100K.

To responsible folks in Hymer Germany,
Are you watching? or sleeping at the wheel in NA.

[Phoebe3]

The ad reads like they have someone specific in mind. I would bet it is a pre-select, but they have to advertise for some reason. Bet the ad doesn't stay up very long.

[GeorgeRa]

This job description is a mixed bag of stuff impossible to do by one civil, mechanical, or gladly not aeronautical engineer, or a manager. I would guess that the Hymer Germany sent folks for NA progress review which resulted with a list of required improvements, Mr. Hamill turned it into the job description. Perhaps MR Hamill is beginning to recognize that moving from CAD1 to CAD2, Cardboard aided design to Computer aided design is necessary.

[wincrasher]

LOL! No wonder they’re having such troubles - they hire civil engineers to design Motorhomes!

I guess I could apply, but the pay would have to be$96k per month in their worthless currency to stoke my interest. Afraid I’d probably not last very long - either the cold weather or when I’d file a hostile work environment lawsuit would end my tenure on JH’s Titanic.

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by booster

I think some of it may be the extreme focus on making sure all the requisite buzz words are in place. Ads for technical help, in particular, seem to read like this a lot, I think. I know when I used to write first drafts of ads for tech help, and then send them off to HR to get listed, they would often add a whole bunch of currently trending catch phrases the really didn't fit what was being said.

So you are saying the engineers don't speak or write in complete sentences and mess up their verb tenses.

I've actually taught writing to engineering students a few times. By the time they left my class they could all do much better than this.

(I am just referring to the first paragraph)

[booster]

Originally Posted by mumkin

So you are saying the engineers don't speak or write in complete sentences and mess up their verb tenses.

I've actually taught writing to engineering students a few times. By the time they left my class they could all do much better than this.

(I am just referring to the first paragraph)

Of course they mess up the structure and tenses, their engineers

Technical writing is a very weird subject from what I have seen of it. (50 years of either being an, or dealing with, engineers). The structure of what is wanted can vary from "forget sentences, just bullet points" to nearly prose.

My point was only that the first paragraph looked a lot like what I have seen when a manager or HR person "improves" a job posting to include all the current buzz words that were in the latest magazine they read or seminar they went to. As weird as it may sound, and be, I used to write ads and the job descriptions in various styles depending on the type of person I was trying to attract to apply. An ad for a very technical research person would be totally different than an ad for a manufacturing engineering floor support person, even though them might be the same pay grade.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Bruceper

So basically, they want 3 staff in one employee

A project manager
A civil or mechanical engineer
A CAD specialist

I'm not saying it can't happen, but they better be paying a ton of money.

That's called a purple squirrel. In the U.S., that would be describing at least a $150K position for someone who could actually pull it off. My husband could get very close to that target, actually. Dealing with Hymer can't be that much more difficult than navigating a NASA expectational and management framework. He has the mechanical engineering background, the project management background, and he's been working on cars since he was 3 years old. He redesigned both our Class B's plumbing and electrical systems, with the electrical being one of the best jobs we've ever seen anywhere. But we're not looking to move to Canada.

[InterBlog]

BTW, does anyone have a URL for this posting? I couldn't find it. I was wondering if it might be geofenced (which would make no sense) but perhaps it was simply taken down.

[booster]

I stumbled across it while I was looking for something else as it was referenced in an article about manufacturing in the area, and that referenced another article, etc etc. I finally got it, but didn't think to copy the link as it was in middle of huge list of things.

[InterBlog]

Related:

https://www.therecord.com/news-story...-in-cambridge/

[booster]

Interesting from the pic of Hammill in the new facility that the assembly line looks to be linear and not bays.

When we took a tour in 2009 they had just gone away from the linear assembly line and switched to bays because the line was getting stalled all the time because of problems and any given station. With the bays, they constantly are backing the vans out of one bay to move to another bay, which was a real cluster of a way to do things, from what we saw. They claimed it was much more efficient, which would really being saying how bad their quality and workflow when they were doing inline.

I think the most interesting thing in that article was the workforce numbers, at least to me. At 750 people total, in a primarily manufacturing company, they do not really want to hire the person they described in the job description unless they would be running the engineering, quality, facility, departments. At 750 employees, they are well into the area of having specialized engineers and quality people to handle the various departments and tasks. A high end generalist, like the ad asked fo,r would be way out of place and probably would be very frustrated at only having a small slice of control of what was getting done.

Good manufacturing (process and tooling) engineers are quite hard to find these days for the relatively old school production that RV building is. Not only do they have to be familiar with what new methods and tools that are around, they also have to know about all the other "tricks of the trade" that can give a leg up over competition, and come from years of solving and seeing others solve, the odd and unusual issues. Put on top of that, the engineers need to be able to work closely with not only the designers (design for manufacturing) but also with the shop personnel, which is a pretty rare, but valuable skillset. PO the shop folks and you are guaranteed to have poor results, no matter what else you do.

[BBQ]

.

That's the NEW factory in Cambridge Ontario,
which is one town over from the old facility in Kitchener/Waterloo.

The Hymer Aktiv is in the background,
this new factory must be designed and built by the Germans.

Quote from the article:
"We're changing our manufacturing process to be more efficient here," says marketing manager Lisa Phillips.


ps. Kitchener/Waterloo is a German enclave.