The Human Side of Engineering & Product Developement

Saratech

Hear insights, stories, and best practices from leaders and experts in the world of engineering & product development. Understand the human element and the people behind the technology.

  1. 5D AGO

    Highly Systematic: Learning Model-Based Systems Engineering With Michael Ali

    SYSTEMS HELP US BUILD THE NEW WORLD, BUT HOW ARE SYSTEMS BUILT? Andy will be tinkering this out as he welcomes Michael Ali, Vice President for Engineering Operations at Saratech. Mike will be sharing his journey into systems engineering and will help us understand what it is and how it benefits everyone. Tune in and learn more here in the latest episode of The Human Side of Engineering and Product Development.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: Mike’s background in engineeringAn early fascination with ScienceGetting into efficiency and optimizationAdvancement of technology in the engineering fieldWhat’s changed in the spaceflight industryUnderstanding model-based systems engineeringHUMANIZING MESSAGES: Mike: Defining Model-Based Systems Engineering “So if you take a car, a wheel can't get you from point A to point B by itself, the engine can. It's all those pieces working together to create the car is a system to get you there, and systems engineering is the structured approach to build those kinds of systems.” Mike: Change vs resistance “People don't resist change unless they’re being changed. So as they're going to resist being changed unless they actually have a pain that they're going to get resolved in this thing.” Mike: Process first, not tools “What we've learned over the years is that the path to get there isn't, what tool you're using. It's what are the processes that you're changing? Right? What is it that you're trying to achieve as a business and specifically your business processes that you're going to do differently?”   Get to know our guest, Michael, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ali/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    31 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Processes, Engineered, Perfected: Understanding Product Development Processes

    NOTHING BREEDS SUCCESS LIKE SUCCESS These are powerful words from our special guest today, Ken Blakely, a Senior Business Management Consultant. Join Andy and Ken as they talk about the definition and key components of the Product Development process. The benefits and challenges of streamlining this process, as well as some tips for organizations looking to improve their product development.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: The human side of Ken BlakelyThe parallels between art and engineeringDefining the product development processEngineering challenges of the remote setup of workThe human aspect of communicationImportant implementations when starting up or solvingSuccess begets successStart small and celebrate successesHUMANIZING MESSAGES: Ken: Defining product development “I would say, product development, to me encompasses everything from cradle to grave about a product from the time it's conceived until the time that's thrown away if you will.” Ken: The extra mile to communicate “I think with COVID and the challenges that are brought Andy I think people have got to take the extra step to communicate with their, with their colleagues and their peers and whatnot.” Ken: The pain and change to achieve success “Nothing breeds success, like success. So you want to show people the pain of doing it well and people don't like change. So they'll consider it a pain doesn't matter what the change is, by the way, they'll consider it a pain. So you want to show them that there's a benefit to be gained by this.”   Get to know our guest, Ken, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-blakely-3279b85/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    30 min

  3. 5D AGO

    Work as One? Dealing With Engineering Resource Issues & Challenges in a Distributed Work Environment

    It’s another episode of The Human Side Of Engineering And Product Development, and today we have Ken Scherwinski, Senior Vice President of Engineering Services of Saratech. Ken will be sharing his story and will talk about how to deal with engineering resource issues and challenges in a distributed work environment.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: Introducing Ken ScherwinskiThe need for engineers who work in the field todayThe importance of human-to-human connectionThe most important thing you can do for your teamWhat can a company do when short on resourcesGetting your people into a new processHow to build a cohesive team with objectives and pivotal rolesHUMANIZING MESSAGES: Andy: The importance of human-to-human interaction “The technology is there, you have video conferencing, you have real-time chat, you have your cellphone, I mean, there are so many ways to connect with people, but sometimes, that is definitely not enough. You need that human-to-human connection.” Ken: Human connection is critical “Now we’re talking about delivering product designing stuff, collaborative efforts, how do you not do that with all of these tools and engagement? That's an extremely important critical item, but more importantly, is the human connection. You can go on a whiteboard, sketch up something, and instantly your ideas are conveyed very easily.”   Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    21 min

  4. 5D AGO

    A Daughter’s Plea: Getting to Know the Life of Dr. Saeed Paydarfar, Father of Saratech

    “I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHEN YOU LIVE HERE ANYMORE” These are the words of Dr. Saeed Paydarfar’s daughter, Sara, that pushed him to the edge and decided to leave his job, and start a company of his own so he can spend more time with his family. Saeed is the CEO and Founder of Saratech. He will be sharing his engineering journey and how his human side gave life to Saratech, only here, in The Human Side of Engineering and Product Development podcast.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: How Saeed became an engineerDoing surprising things for people and being creativeSolving problems from angles that no one sawA data manager’s life in the 90s and early 2000sDelivering positivity to find the positivityLeaving his job to be with his family, and bringing Saratech to lifeHUMANIZING MESSAGES: Saeed: Data management, then and now “We’re more about those process management, and being able to move information from team to team and making sure the information moves fast, accurately, the right, the right data, the right formats, all those things, that now becomes a much bigger challenge.” Saeed: Find positivity in everything you do “I think part of the reason people can be successful is if you really find a way to enjoy what you're doing both what you're doing, and with the people you're doing it, your career is going to be much better than if you're constantly complaining about things and complaining about people. So I find delivering that positivity is also an important way of finding the positivity and sticking with the positive stories.   Get to know our guest, Dr. Saeed, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeed-paydarfar-739a396/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    28 min

  5. 5D AGO

    3D-fy: Utilizing 3D Printing Tech in Medicine With Justin Ryan, PhD

    Welcome to another episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development. In this episode, we welcome a guest who brings the best of both worlds, 3D printing technology, and medicine, Dr. Justin Ryan, Director of the 3D Lab at Rady Children’s Hospital.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: Meet Justin Ryan, PhD, Director of the 3D Innovations Lab3D technology really helped out during the pandemicCreating surgical models for doctors and surgeons before surgeryUsing 3D printing to create models of patients’ anatomyDaily challenges of the 3D LabHow far 3D technology can goCollaborations with the 3D manufacturers to give insightsHUMANIZING MESSAGES: JUSTIN: Presenting 3D Tech as a viable tool in the hospital “My previous experience is very much that where you were kind of fighting to prove this emergent technology as a viable tool. By the time I presented a plan here at Rady Children's, we had quite a few clinical champions who also wanted the technology. So they're very strong. Supporting agents for proposals and leadership quickly signed on.” JUSTIN: The community working as one amidst the pandemic “It was incredible seeing the community come together, we were all really, really focused on a lot of similar challenges. So we had these distributed communities where we're sharing CAD models, designs, and methods. So it was yeah, it was quite incredibly in one facet to see the greater scientific community come together to share information to overcome these common challenges.”   Get to know our guest, Justin, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinryan3d/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/radychildrens/ https://www.rchsd.org/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    27 min

  6. 5D AGO

    What Makes Great Customer Support With Chad Evans

    From developments in  CAD and Siemens NX software to communicating between teams, there's a lot that goes through the Saratech Customer Support Team's day-to-day. In this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, we are joined by Chad Evans, Technical Manager for the Customer Care Team at Saratech to talk about the increasing complexity of the software being used and how the team approaches customer support.   HUMANIZING MOMENTS: Chad's interest in engineering and how he went from the Air Force to SaratechStaying up-to-date with CAD and Siemens softwareThe support team's approach to customer casesChad's recommendations to avoid common issues in handling serversWhat administrators should pay attention to before implementing changesHUMANIZING MESSAGES: CHAD: Educating the team and learning at the same time “I've been on the sales end of it, I've been on the user side of it, I've been on the design side which is good because I can interact with a lot of our salespeople too. And a lot of our salespeople will come to me directly and say 'I'm giving a proposal on this license, am I correct?' and that's where I can validate our sales teams.” CHAD: Making the customers happy is the top priority “We always wanna contact that customer within minutes, figure out the issue, and then move on. And then when we're done, we always send out a survey too because we want to make sure that we did the issue properly, our communication was fast, and that the customer's happy with our results.”   Get to know our guest, Chad, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadrep/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    23 min

  7. 5D AGO

    A Whole New World: The Evolving World of Additive Manufacturing and Its Impact

    THE EXCITING FUTURE OF 3D PRINTING In this episode of The Human Side of Engineering and Product Development, Andy welcome another 3D expert, Isabel Sanz-Ananos. Isabel is a 3D Category Business Manager at HP and will be talking to Andy about additive manufacturing technology, education, STEM, exciting projects, and the future of 3D printing. HUMANIZING MOMENTS: Introducing Isabel Sanz-Ananos What drove her interest in technologyThe gender gap in the industryMisconceptions about 3D printing todayThe innovation process of 3DHow does 3D printing fit into the digital transformation processWhat’s coming down the pipeline in 3D printingHUMANIZING MESSAGES: ISABEL: Advice to companies without 3D processes yet “I think the first thing is about education and getting exposure to what is available out there. Definitely go to events, for example, that are related to additive manufacturing, to see what are the use cases and how other companies are using that today…” ISABEL: The importance of education “If you really want to push the boundaries, like the example of things that we were mentioning before, you can like totally redesign and reconsider your concept to create something that can probably add some additional benefits that you didn't think about because you didn't know that it was possible. So that's why education is so important because it really opens and changes the mindset of what is possible to be done.”   Get to know our guest, Isabel, and what she’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-sanz-730b6341/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/hp/ https://www.hp.com/us-en/home.html Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    31 min

  8. 5D AGO

    Let Robots Do the Job: How AI Frees Up Humans for High-Value Work

    Smart robots bridge the gap in the manufacturing workforce   In this episode of The Human Side of Engineering and Product Development, Andy welcomes Dr. Ariyan Kabir, Co-Founder, and CEO of GrayMatter Robotics. Ariyan combines available robot sensors and tools with their proprietary AI technologies to turn them into smart robotic assistants, a critical role given the increasing lack of skilled labor in manufacturing. Ariyan discusses the concept of robots as a service, which is essentially hiring robots to do the work instead of people, primarily due to the lack of skilled workers available. He digs into how COVID created general awareness of the need for automation and how he and his company help create a better quality of life for people.  HUMANIZING MESSAGES ARIYAN: Robots let humans focus on higher-value work "With the new technologies coming in and creating solutions to allow, let's say robots, to take care of the tedious... tasks, what's that doing is creating the new opportunity for humans to focus on high-level, higher evaluated task, and creative decision-making." ARIYAN: People have a better quality of life by letting robots do the work "What has COVID done is really helped everyone understand and embrace the concept of automation and the need to realize the need for automation. And what has it done also is helped people to think about what am I doing with my life and how should I be contributing and how can I have a better quality of life and contribute in a meaningful way."    Get to know our guest, Ariyan, and what he’s up to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariyankabir/ https://graymatter-robotics.com/ Learn more about our host and his Human Side: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andydeo/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/155047/admin/dashboard/ https://saratech.com/ If you enjoyed this episode of The Human Side Of Engineering & Product Development, share this or leave a comment!

    27 min
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Hear insights, stories, and best practices from leaders and experts in the world of engineering & product development. Understand the human element and the people behind the technology.

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