Simon Shepherd Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom

Lead Engineer for all CVJ applications for JLR, AML and other European Emerging OEM's. Responsible for all platforms for which GKN Driveline supply CVJ products. I have direct responsibility for engineering deliverables to support new business wins. Managing teams of Platform Managers, Application Engineers and Design Engineers to deliver on time on budget engineering solutions. Developing personnel to deliver results to exceed expectations.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Platform Engineering Manager for Jaguar Land Rover Account Team. Managing and leading all engineering activities for Land Rover & Jaguar programs. Leading all engineering activities for multiple business wins on D7u & D7a platforms. Through effective management of my team of Application and Design Engineers and management of resource and structure to meet timings and budgets, all engineering requirements have been successfully met. I have worked closely with the customer to understand their exact requirements and lead a team to meet the system design specification. Work also concentrated upon weight saving and I have successfully proposed to the customer products that meet or exceed their weight targets. Failure Mode Effects Analysis and risk assessments performed encompassing lessons learnt. I led problem solving activities undertaken during development phase for design related issues and also formed cross functional teams during manufacturing trials to solve manufacturing related issues.* Successful introduction of various Value Analysis / Value Engineering (VA / VE) activities* Leadership of Application team responsible for the winning of all D7u business. * Definition and obtaining agreements for the programme plan (target, timings, resource requirements and structure)* Managing and achieving successful delivery of data, designs and prototypes, requiring management of manufacturing support in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.* Performing Performance Development reviews with personnel I am responsible for.* Undertook redundancy assessments.

Customer Quality Champion responsible for Ford Account. A global role that involved extensive travel to GKN operations in all regions and meeting with senior representatives from Ford. During my time in this role I successfully presented problem solving root causes to senior customer Engineers and Quality representatives from all regions. This required the leading and managing of GKN problem solving teams that crossed functional boundaries such as Account Engineering Teams, Commercial Managers, Vehicle Engineering and Plant Management. I have been extensively involved in the preparations required by GKN operations to meet demanding customer quality requirements for launch of new vehicles including Ford’s global EUCD platform of vehicles. In this role I have been required to perform detailed analysis of Quality and engineering data to formulate risk assessments. Through this role my knowledge of Ford Engineering systems and quality systems has developed to an advanced level.* Successful containment and root cause analysis in many problem-solving activities including Investigations required leadership of problem solving team in Europe and Malaysia and reporting directly to senior Ford Engineers and regional STA managers.*Brought together two culturally diverse sets of Engineers to resolve a quality problem in USA with products manufactured in China. Root cause was identified and measures taken to eliminate reoccurrence. Reporting directly to Ford Global Director Supplier Technical Assistance. * Preparation and analysis of GKN quality performance data used for the construction of GKN Executive Team reports.* Detailed reviews of Engineering drawings, DFMEA, PFMEA, control plans, and processes.* Creation and maintenance of Mizen Boushi database of Ford quality concerns* Co-ordinated extensive knowledge sharing and continuous improvement activities across operations including development of Best In Class database.

Leading Application Engineering deliverables for Freelander 2 program. Management of FMEA creation team, including creation of Engineering Robustness studies. Leading design reviews both internally with manufacturing and also with customer. Representing GKN at customer build events to provide onsite support during prototype vehicle build phases. Responsible for the managing of testing to customer standards and reporting of test results directly to customer from both local test department and sister companies. During my time on the team I was also involved in face-to-face meetings with the customer due to quality concerns on current production vehicles. .* Successful containment and root cause analysis for current production shafts with potentially incorrect number of balls fitted. Working closely with quality and assembly department to ensure delivery of parts to customer production line ensuring continuation of supply.* Team working within the Local Change Management System to drive through changes for the advantage of production and also customer requested changes.* Management of test program. Producing a successful development phase sign off at GKN Customer Application Program Management (CAPM) * Assisting with the development and training of Engineer on secondment from German Graduate Development Program. Helping with their team working skills and communication to deliver testing and reports on time.

Leading and managing all application engineering functions within the team working within the CAPM framework. Creating and managing test plans with close supervision of test engineers to ensure testing completed on time using the correct methods as stipulated by the customer. Managing and supporting the creation of DFMEA & PFMEA. Leading internal and supplier design reviews. Close working with both global product launch manager and local product launch leaders to ensure the smooth running and control of project deliverables. Support of financial assessments and cost analysis. At all times working on the Honda account a close working relationship was established with the account team in Japan and America enabling clear understanding of business needs. * Support and core development of Design Engineer on the Honda Account aiding their successful advancement to customer Application Liaison Engineer.* Virtual team working with account teams in America and Japan to prepare deliverables for the 06 Civic project.* Communication at all levels allowing successful movement of information between Engineering / Account team members.* Management of prototype phases meeting all customer delivery deadlines allowing for successful launch of new vehicles.* Technical presentations to customer and account team members on a variety of technical issues.* Liaison with product launch leaders/managers at all stages of projects allowing for successful launch of CRV and Civic Diesel programs.

Part of the development team responsible for the initial design and development of the Double Offset Joint (DOJ) Improved product into production. Using advanced CAD modelling techniques and programming to develop a fully automated design model capable of reading technical data from a spreadsheet to create all finished part drawings and manufacturing drawings. During my time on the development project I was seconded to the Nissan Account to implement and control several VA-VE projects. These changes to the products were delivered on time and ultimately benefited both the customer and the local manufacturing area.* Successful Data management allowing ease of hand over to new development site.* Relationship management of technology centre and manufacturing company facilitated successful implementation of design changes* Key contributor to the successful sign off at GKN CAPM stage B4 for DOJi product* Received GKN Technical award for work on this project

As Design Engineer I had responsibility for coordinating and producing drawings for the introduction of new products within the company, implementing design changes, close liaison with internal and external customers, resource management and aiding the introduction of prototypes into the production areas using Advanced Quality Planning. * Establishment of initial Bill of Materials, updating and maintenance of the Business System.* Detailed interface with application engineer, platform engineer and manufacturing engineers to support product launch activities allowing for the successful launch of several vehicle models including the Avensis and Corolla