Laura Grubb

Experience

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  Innovative Physics

  Jun 2011 - Aug 2013

  Work Experience Student

  Work experience over three summers, my responsibilities included design, report writing and testing.

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  The Beach Hut Cafe

  May 2012 - Sept 2013

  Front of House, Waitress and Kitchen Porter
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  Visteon Corporation

  Jul 2014 - Jul 2015

  Mechanical Engineer (student)

  A placement year in the Mechanical Engineering department of Visteon Electronics. Responsibilities included: • Design• MCAD Support• Release Support• Research and Investigation• Design Validation Testing • Liason with Suppliers• Process Improvement• Working in Global Teams

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  Team Bath Racing

  Feb 2016 - Aug 2017

  Chassis/Powertrain Engineer

  • TBR 17 competed in FS UK, FS Czech and FS Germany, reaching the engineering design final at every competition and winning the skidpad event at FS UK.• I was responsible for the driver environment design and ergonomic positioning of all driver controls (inc. firewall, seat, harness & mounting, steering wheel, upper steering column, headrest). This improved my design for manufacture and assembly, design for ergonomics, packaging and CAD skills. • My university final year project was the optimisation of the silencer, which allowed me to expand upon the powertrain knowledge that I learned whilst on placement at Ricardo. This resulted in a lighter silencer and quieter powertrain than on previous TBR cars, which passed the noise test first time at all three competitions.• Involvement in build, testing, machining and composites manufacture gave me a lot of practical experience and a better understanding of the whole car. • Analysed and reacted to damage in regular testing of the previous competition car and the car that we built. The team overcame multiple reliability issues throughout the season.• Attended events, such as the Prescott Hill Speed Climb, where the car was demonstrated or displayed, to interface with the public and potential sponsors. I organised the logistics of the trip to Formula Student UK 2016 - ensuring that over 50 people had transport, camping facilities and meals throughout the weekend, to allow the class 1 team (TBR 16) to focus on the competition.• Organised an event in Bath city centre, where we displayed the car to engage with the public, educate children about motorsport/engineering opportunities and promote the team’s crowdfunding campaign.• Participating in TBR was challenging and required excellent time management and dedication, the ability to apply myself to any task that presented itself and willingness to learn from mistakes. Working under pressure within a team of 21 peers was a test of teamwork and communication skills. Show less

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  Ricardo

  Jul 2016 - Sept 2016

  Manufacturing Engineering Placement Student in Performance Products

  Ricardo is a global engineering consultancy. This was a diverse 11 week summer placement in the Performance Products division, working on the McLaren Automotive project within New Product Introduction and Operations. Experience included:• Engine and component investigations • Warranty and quarantine parts testing • Production line engine assembly • Assisting engine build technician on customer visit • Facilitating summer shut down actions • Quality assurance • Process Improvement• Warranty claims administration • Marketing support • Introductions to other departments (Chemistry, Airflow and a week in the Design Office) Show less

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  Quick Release

  Oct 2017 - Sept 2021

  • Project and Line Manager

    Jan 2021 - Sept 2021

  • Ford Transit Weight Lead

    Mar 2020 - Jun 2021

  • Assistant Project Manager - Body Interior Integration, Ford Transit

    Oct 2020 - Jan 2021

  • Senior Project Analyst

    Oct 2019 - Jan 2021

  • Project Analyst

    Oct 2017 - Oct 2019
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  Ford Motor Company

  Apr 2018 - now

  Bill of Materials Author for the instrument panel & cockpit team, working closely with the engineering team to maintain the BoM, ensuring that it accurately reflects complexity, variant feature coding, cost, weight and other attributes. - Support weight and cost target cascades, and complete BoM validations at publish point reviews on behalf of the team. - Raise and drive engineering changes through the process to completion, representing the IP team in departmental and program change forums in order to gain approvals. - This role requires a good knowledge of the product, excellent working relationships with the engineers, and an understanding of the processes and stakeholders involved in Ford processes. Show less The aim of the project is to provide data management (including change management and reporting) of cost, weight & BoM data for the Transit Body Interior department for one 'bundle' of a commercial vehicle program in its product development phase. The project delivery team comprises of six Quick Release_ analysts who work as part of the Ford integration and engineering teams. As the Assistant Project Manager, I am responsible for the day to day project delivery:- Delegated PM authority & ownership of sections of the Project Management Pack- Lead daily start up meetings - Identify, escalate and mitigate project risks- Ensure project maintains high level of quality- Key interactions with critical and high importance stakeholders- Active participant in QR_ Project Pillar - knowledge sharing/improvements- Acting PM whilst PM is absent- Participate in project planning Show less - Gather, analyse and track weight data throughout the product development phase of a commercial vehicle. - Maintain an understanding of the engineering decisions driving the weight across the body interior engineering functions. This requires effective communication and good working relationships with engineers and management. - Represent Body Interior engineering functions in program meetings, presenting and justifying the status, opportunities and risks to senior management. - Single point of contact for body interior weight related queries, guiding the department through the weight deliverables for the program.- I organised a weight audit to gather accurate data from two variants of the current production vehicle. This took place in the plant and at various suppliers within the supplier park. This required meticulous planning beforehand and good organisation during the event. Show less I co-ordinated engineering change management for a global commercial vehicle program on behalf of Ford Motor Company, as part of the Ford commercial vehicle program management team. I have experience in this role on three commercial vehicle programs in launch phase, each with unique challenges. The role requires in depth knowledge of the Ford change management process, releasing process and systems.Responsibilities and skills include:• Leading change management meetings with attendees across various departments within Ford and full service suppliers to identify and resolve issues with engineering changes. This requires strong communication skills and the flexibility to adapt to situations involving different stakeholders, ability to interpret detailed information from particular departments and deduce from it the impact on the progress of the change.• Tracking change approval progress.• Informing relevant approvers when they must review a change in order to progress it. Building strong relationships with people across departments has been valuable, especially when persuading people of the urgency of certain actions.• Assisting in minimising engineering change ageing.• Facilitating communication between people in different departments, for example engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, STA, finance, ECC.• Providing process/WERS system support to engineers and stakeholders where necessary.• Delivering global procedures and distributing program information to the team.• Ensuring serious issues are appropriately escalated to senior management.• Analysing data to identify opportunities for improvement and to present metrics and key performance indicators to senior management. This requires logic and analytical skills.• Checking engineering change quality to identify trends in common administrative/WERS errors in order to reduce the chance of repeated mistakes causing hold-ups.• Developing processes and tools to improve efficiency. Show less Alongside coordinating change management, in the Ford commercial vehicle program management team I coordinated a workstream eliminating bill of materials issues for a global commercial vehicle program in launch phase. This required a good understanding of part structuring within the BoM and knowledge of the process from part releasing through to part ordering. Keeping track of individual parts with corresponding issues, tasks for Engineering/BoM Ops teams and updating metrics to track progress requires detailed organisation. Running a daily meeting, keeping all stakeholders in the loop, facilitating intra-departmental discussions and escalation of issues to management. Show less

  • Design & Release Engineer - Instrument Panel Applied Parts

    Feb 2024 - now

  • Body Interior Senior Integration Engineer (PMST)

    Sept 2021 - Jan 2024

  • Project Manager - Body Interior Integration Quick Release team (Cost/Weight/BoM/Change Management)

    Jan 2021 - Sept 2021

  • Instrument Panel & Cockpit Bill Of Materials Author (Quick Release on behalf of FMC)

    Dec 2018 - Sept 2021

  • Transit VCSE Weight Lead (Quick Release on behalf of FMC)

    Mar 2020 - Jun 2021

  • Assistant Project Manager - Quick Release Body Interior Integration team (Cost/Weight/BoM/Change)

    Oct 2020 - Jan 2021

  • Body Interior Weights Engineer (Quick Release on behalf of FMC)

    Dec 2018 - Dec 2020

  • Program Management - Engineering Change Management (Quick Release on behalf of FMC)

    Oct 2017 - Dec 2018

  • Program Management BoM Health Analyst (Quick Release on behalf of FMC)

    Apr 2018 - Sept 2018