Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2020 - 2

EDITORIAL
Bill Visnic
Editorial Director
Bill.Visnic@sae.org

EDITORIAL
Competencies shift as technology changes
Fuel cells. Electrification. Electrohydraulics.
UI/UX design. Autonomy. All these topics are covered in this issue of Truck &
Off-Highway Engineering. And all are
dynamic areas ripe with challenges and
opportunities in research, development
and deployment in commercial vehicles
and off-highway machines. Experts
agree that new skillsets and a shift away
from "how things have always been
done" are necessary to realize the full
potential of these technologies.
Chris Brockbank, VP of technology
and strategy at Ricardo North America,
noted a culture shift is needed in engineering design. "We were trained in
engineering to be ingrained in traditional thinking - 'I need this design to
last 20 years; it must not break; the
world can end and this will still be
there,'" he told SAE COMVEC attendees.
Rather, what the industry needs are
"engineering chefs," with a mindset and
process more akin to a top chef that
changes his or her menu regularly.
"Design it, develop it, produce it, let people enjoy it, let them appreciate it and
then move on," Brockbank said of the
new-look product lifecycle. "It must be
consumable, it must be adaptable, and it
must be upgradeable." (See page 3.)
Electrohydraulic system development, with its increasing emphasis on
software and programming tools, is a
good example of an evolving technology area that calls for unique skills.
"The combination of several factors
- using object-oriented design (OOD)
in the design and implementation process, moving towards multithreaded
applications via multi-core CPUs and
embedded operating systems and a
transition to agile project management
models and tool chains - makes this
sector a very palatable field also for
many software engineers and computer
scientists," said Janosch Fauster, director, Application Development Center at
TTControl. (See page 8.)
Technology impact on the development process and workforce skills was
2 October 2020

the focus of another COMVEC session.
For companies seeking to grow a particular area of competence, they have
options: hire new talent, reskill existing
workers, or look externally - for example, through acquisitions.
"We've come to the realization that we
really can't do this all on our own," said
Jeff Pincock, director of business development at Ford Motor Co., providing an
automaker's perspective. "These new
technologies, this new talent that we're
looking at, it is very expensive. And it
takes a significant amount of time to go
through and assess your internal capabilities vs. some of the external options available. It can be faster to actually acquire a
company, and it can be less costly."
Ford has pursued equity investments as
an R&D strategy. "We've found that there
are great startups out there," Pincock said,
"and if we engage directly with them -
not only on a commercial basis but also
on an investment basis - that we've been
able to leverage those skills, those capabilities and that technology, and then
bring it back into the company and educate the broader workforce."
Over the past four to five years, Ford
has completed between 40 and 50
transactions, ranging from full acquisitions to minority investments - "All with
the idea of accelerating our strategy."
One notable success story, he said, has
been working with VW and new-technology startup Argo AI in the autonomous-vehicle space. (See page 23.)
Whether hiring, reskilling or acquiring, one thing is clear: Companies must
evaluate and adapt skillsets and development processes to stay relevant in a
shifting technology landscape.
Ryan Gehm, Editor-in-Chief
Editor's Note: Check out TOHE's 2020
Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines e-chart sponsored by Mahle, which offers a comprehensive list of specifications for power
units available in North America. The
e-chart is now available for download at
techbriefs.com/2020_TOHEchart.

Ryan Gehm
Editor-in-Chief
Ryan.Gehm@sae.org
Lindsay Brooke
Senior Editor
Lindsay.Brooke@sae.org
Paul Seredynski
Senior Editor
Paul.Seredynski@sae.org
Jennifer Shuttleworth
Associate Editor
Jennifer.Shuttleworth@sae.org
Lisa Arrigo
Custom Electronic
Products Editor
Lisa.Arrigo@sae.org

Contributors
Stuart Birch
European Editor
Steven Ashley, Sebastian Blanco,
Kami Buchholz, Terry Costlow,
Dan Gilkes, Paul Weissler

DESIGN
Lois Erlacher
Creative Director
Ray Carlson
Associate Art Director

SALES &
MARKETING
Joe Pramberger
Publisher
joe@techbriefs.com
Kaitlyn Sommer
Marketing Director
ksommer@techbriefs.com
Martha Tress
Recruitment Sales Manager
+1.724.772.7155
Martha.Tress@sae.org

REGIONAL
SALES
North America
New England/Eastern Canada:
ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, QC
Ed Marecki
+1.401.351.0274
emarecki@techbriefs.com
CT:
Stan Greenfield
+1.203.938.2418
greenco@optonline.net

Midwest/Great Lakes:
IN, MI, WI, IA, IL, MN
Chris Kennedy
+1.847.498.4520, x3008
ckennedy@techbriefs.com
Midwest/Central Canada:
KS, KY, MO, NE, ND, SD, ON, MB
Bob Casey
+1.847.223.5225
bobc@techbriefs.com
Southern CA, AZ, NM,
Rocky Mountain States:
Tim Powers
+1.424.247.9207
tpowers@techbriefs.com
Northern CA, WA, OR,
Western Canada:
Twyla Sulesky
+1.408.779.0005
tsulesky@techbriefs.com

International
Europe - Central & Eastern:
Sven Anacker
Britta Steinberg
+49.202.27169.11
sa@intermediapartners.de
steinberg@intermediapartners.de
Europe - Western:
Chris Shaw
+44.1270.522130
chris.shaw@chrisshawmedia.co.uk
China:
Alan Ao
+86.21.6140.8920
alan.ao@sae.org
Japan:
Shigenori Nagatomo
+81.3.3661.6138
Nagatomo-pbi@gol.com
South Korea:
Eun-Tae Kim
+82-2-564-3971/2
ksae1@ksae.org

Integrated Media
Consultants
Christian DeLalla
+1.973.841.6035
christiand@techbriefs.com
Casey Hanson
+1.973.841.6040
chanson@techbriefs.com
Patrick Harvey
+1.973.409.4686
pharvey@techbriefs.com
Todd Holtz
+1.973.545.2566
tholtz@techbriefs.com
Rick Rosenberg
+1.973.545.2565
rrosenberg@techbriefs.com
Scott Williams
+1.973.545.2464
swilliams@techbriefs.com

Mid-Atlantic/Southeast/TX:
DC, VA, WV, TN, NC, SC, GA, FL,
AL, MS, LA, AR, OK, TX
Ray Tompkins
+1.281.313.1004
rtompkins@techbriefs.com
NY, NJ, OH:
Ryan Beckman
+1.973.409.4687
rbeckman@techbriefs.com
PA/DE:
Desiree Stygar
+1.908.300.2539
dstygar@techbriefs.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS
+1.866.354.1125
TOH@OMEDA.COM

REPRINTS

Jill Kaletha
+1.574.347.4211
jkaletha@mossbergco.com

TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
http://assets.techbriefs.com/OHE/chart/2020_mahlechart.pdf
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2020
