Job Title: Systems Development Engineer
Company: Balmoral Tanks
What is your background and how did you come to be in your present role?
I started with Balmoral Tanks at the age of 14, and I’m now in my 10th year with them. I did two weeks work experience during high school, and I did that with Balmoral as a junior CAD technician.
I kind of fell in love with 3d modelling. I did my A-Levels, and then decided engineering was the route for me. I eventually pursued an apprenticeship with Balmoral.
And then around 2020 I got recognised for my programming skills within Autodesk Inventor. When the business started focusing on design automation, I got the opportunity to transition to a systems development engineer.
I started out creating very repetitive standard fabrication drawings. Now I’m responsible for a system that the entire design team uses every day, in what is now about a quarter of a million lines of code.
What has been your greatest challenge so far in your career?
I can pinpoint quite a recent one. As my programming skills have developed, I’ve gone from using them to automate 3D into automating 2D, so drawing automation. That has been quite challenging because drawings are very subjective. You’ve got different client needs and designer styles.
However, I’ve managed to establish styles and standards that work for most applications to automate our fabrication CNC drawings and our general arrangement tank drawings. This has streamlined about 80% of the process.
There’s still availability to do those more client specific bespoke items. But naturally, it’s all increased the accuracy and reduced the lead time. But it’s been challenging getting those agreed rules in place. You’ve got to have the rules first before you can automate.
What has been your greatest achievement so far in your career?
As part of my apprenticeship coursework, I was tasked with redesigning our access arrangements, which is our ladders and platforms. This was to reduce the number of weldments and replace with a bolted system.
I dedicated about nine months to do this, and utilised the Inventor Autodesk 3D modelling techniques and some of the iLogic code knowledge I had at the time to completely redesign to about 77 standard parts.
Previous to that, every access arrangement would have at least one bespoke component. I managed to make an automatic configurator. This got the lead time down from about five business days to five minutes.
This has allowed the designers to get an accurate standard part arrangement within five minutes. This has also allowed the business to implement a kanban system in manufacturing, and the general reduction in weldments has meant we can flat pack more of it, which has reduced shipping costs.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
If you can picture 14 year old me, feeling like they’re sacrificing their summer holidays! But it’s been 100 per cent worth it. I’ve not been stuck creating simple, standard drawings forever. The business has certainly allowed me to grow.
Using and embracing iLogic at such a young age, using every opportunity to learn, not being afraid to just Google things, and just having that drive and dedication has led me to achieve some really incredible things that have had tidal waves throughout the business.
As a young person, it’s really important to take challenges on with both hands, you only get out of it what you put in. You really need to be dedicated into taking it as far as you want, and not just skimming the surface.
If you want more out of it, you’ve got to be dedicated into finding that minor detail and understanding.
How do you think we can raise the profile of careers in STEM?
My own path is quite unique, but it definitely stemmed from having early opportunities within school, going to some stem related conferences, and getting hands on with different businesses.
Then the opportunity to do two weeks experience with Balmoral really showed me some real world applications, and it gave me that excitement. As much as it was just basic 3D modelling, it was something new, something different. And it almost seemed endless.
You’re not modelling the same thing every day. Every day is a school day. It’s about giving young people that opportunity to just explore. Recently, we’ve had a lot of internships, and they bring in some really new, unique ideas that I think only young people can have.
They might come with a lack of understanding, but sometimes solving a problem means taking it all the way back to its basics, you sometimes get those unique ideas by doing that.
