Influence of science and technology (2).doc

Influence of science and technology on the occupation of mechanical engineer1 IntroductionMechanical engineers service a wild area and enjoy wild work scope and vast job position including mechanical product design, technology, materials, testing, research, development, management, service, etc., the development of science and technology drastically changes the professional nature of mechanical engineer and also brings higher requirements for engineers to meet and professional quality to equip with. In this paper the history, present and future situation of mechanical engineers influenced by science and technology is presented as automotive mechanical engineer is took as example.2 Research, findings and discussion2.1 Historical background of technology in the mechanical engineersRetrospecting the development of working content of professional engineer, we are easy to find that variation of nature of mechanical engineers seems to reflect the development history of science and technology. Taking automotive mechanical engineer as an example, the whole development process of occupation is presented. At the end of 19th century when the car had just been invented and kept in its early stage, automotive mechanical engineers manufactured all automotive covers like car door, hub with a hammer because of the constraints of the science and technology in that era, it has to say that the job of mechanical engineer in that time was totally a manual labor job. Whats more interesting was that when people bought a car, they needed to buy all the automotive parts like chassis, radiator, engine, wheeled chassis at first and then they had to find a workshop to assemble them, telling designers their favorite car style for them to regulate as shown in Fig1.Fig1In 1913, Henry Ford created a revolutionary production technology, production line which made it happen that each worker worked in a position and did one job fixedly and the car was moved automatically from one process to another. Work standardization, efficiency and uniformity of product specifications quickly scaled up production and reduced costs. Automotive mechanical engineers in this time no longer did tiring labor work any more but to take charge of the job like planning the production line scheme and studying the technological process. The mental work started to occupy a certain proportion for engineers.Mass production of production line allowed a certain amount of defects appeared in the process of automobile assembly. However, it wasnt accepted until the lean manufacturing mode of Toyota was established, which wanted to make the product perfect in the first time. So when the workers on the assembly line found a problem, defects and waste were eliminated in every position. The mechanical engineers were no longer a mechanical operation machine. Instead, they were technical elites who discovered the problem and dealt with the fault in time. 2.2 Current impact of technology on the mechanical engineersIn the last 10 years, with the development of information technology, miniaturization technology and intelligent technology, the professional nature of mechanical engineers further inclined to the working direction of mental workers and in a sense, they represented the leadership of the technicians.The technology of computer and information penetrated into all fields of engineering including automotive mechanical engineering (Vladislav, Veronika & Elena, 2015). As information technology developed rapidly and production updating appeared fast, old knowledge and skills would be quickly out of date. So all mechanical engineers must understand and apply the information technology. Compared to the former physical modeling, mechanical engineers embrace more scope of innovation and flexibility than ever before after mastering the computer design and analysis. The vast scope of information collection, storage, analysis and application necessitate engineers to learn the use of remote communication, remote conference, language processing, artificial intelligence, simulation and so on. Multi-National Corporation choose the best production and design sites in the world through the Internet and information technology, so engineers grasping the Internet technology enjoys more job opportunities in the more and more intense competition as shown in Fig2.Fig2Technology development and social progress accelerate and popularize the restructuring of enterprises and flow of personnel. The phenomenon of a mechanical Engineers staying in an organization to work for a lifetime is rare, work has more liquidity and employment competition becomes more fierce. Small scientific and technological enterprises turn to be more attractive, so in this situation more and more outstanding engineers move to consultation work or self-management enterprises to give full play to their talents and reflect self values. Evaluation factors of engineers pays more attention to the practical ability and achievement rather than academic degree and title. Global transfer of Manufacturing industry requires engineers to equip with the ability to work with the local labor or foreign engineers, so cultural communication using languages and cooperate capacity become very important (Marina, Ekaterina & Anastasia, 2015).3 Future PredictionIn the future, miniaturized technology will rise in all kinds of industries especially information electronics manufacturing, nanometer machinery, medical equipment and aerospace equipment (Vikingsson, Claessens, Gomez & Gallego, 2015). Mechanical engineers also have to grasp this miniaturized technology. Micro technology will penetrate into all applications field, micro motor, micro pump, micro sensor and micro drive. It is amazing that our mechanical engineers will design and manufacture more small but substantial apparatus to serve our life.The development of modern science and technology has greatly expanded the boundaries of mechanical engineers. Mechanical engineers will be more employed in the new technology industry, their work will be far beyond the machine itself and expand to all human activities. In the field of professional and mechanical engineering, more interdisciplinary cooperation is needed, including cooperation between engineering disciplines and social disciplines, economic, law and human subjects as shown in Fig3.Fig3In the work style, more and more professional teams will appear, interpersonal and communication skills will be becoming increasingly important, engineers have to transcend national and cultural boundaries, through the Internet to carry out the work of global cooperation skills.4 ConclusionFrom the beginning of automobiles invention, the auto industry was then called handicraft industry, it needed a vehicle mechanical engineer to design different automobiles for different people one by one. In 1913, after Henry Ford created production line, the revolutionary production technology in that time, Automotive mechanical engineers no longer did tiring labor work any more but to take charge of the job like planning the production line scheme and studying the technological process. And then the lean manufacturing mode of Toyota made them as technical elites who discovered the problem and dealt with the fault in time. Now the professional mechanical engineers must master information technology, miniaturization technology and intelligent technology and so on. The development of science and technology drastically changes the professional nature of mechanical engineer.Reference1 L. Vikingss