Graduating to work – Why Kevin crossed the road

PACCAR Engineering New Talent

Unlikely as it seems, working for Woolies led Kevin Kearney to find his ideal job in engineering

Kevin worked at Woolworths supermarket across the road from PACCAR on Canterbury Road in Bayswater, Victoria while he studied for his engineering degree and, as he said, he would often look across at the development and expansion of the company. “I was at uni, and probably like a lot of students I had a part time job. At the time I was working at Woolies, the supermarket across from PACCAR,” Kevin explained. “I was doing an engineering degree and with companies leaving Australia, I was a little bit worried about what manufacturing and the automotive industry would look like in the future. “Because I worked across the road, I could see PACCAR continued to expand and was clearly thriving in the industry. I figured that meant a sustainable workplace. And I knew it would be a good place to work.” Kevin had ample time to study PACCAR’s progress as he chose to complete a three-year science degree before a two-year Master’s in Engineering at Melbourne University. The Master’s degree was a practical based degree according to Kevin, and not your typical theoretical degree. One day as Kevin says, he worked up the courage to walk across the road and knock on the door, and was directed to HR. “That’s where I found out about the PACCAR graduate program. I was told the program was four years, where graduates do four 12-month rotations in different parts of the business. It sounded like a long time, but I was also excited by this, because it would give me the chance to learn different things, especially just coming out of uni. “And I think being able to rotate through different positions and really get a broad overview of how the business works and how everything links together, was exciting. “After that, I buckled down and I made sure I worked hard in my remaining two years and then applied to PACCAR.” Near the end of his final year, Kevin was offered a position in the PACCAR graduate program, which he grabbed with both hands as it meant he was able to use his degree in the area of work he hoped to be working in. “It’s definitely an exciting area, which I was hoping to get into. I’d seen a lot of mechanical based applications in Australia receding. But heavy-duty truck manufacturing is thriving, so I was excited to get to be a part of it, to be a part of the automotive aspects of engineering,” he said. Coming straight out of university into an engineering environment can be confronting if you don’t have the right leadership and guidance, which is why the PACCAR program is so important. While university teaches you how to tackle engineering challenges and to use analytical thinking, the real-world environment can test a young engineer. “I think coming into the graduate program, where the company puts you in proper roles, not just roles to keep grads busy is a great introduction. “For me, at least, coming into my first position, I got to experience a lot of different options, understanding how build materials work for the product, and things like all the different combinations and options on a truck and how they are configured together. “It’s really exciting to see the actual product, to see manufacturing of a truck happening right outside the window. It’s not something everyone gets to see, you know, the fruits of your work, that product that you’re working on, seeing it actually roll out the door.” Kevin’s first role was as a product release writer, which meant when a truck order came though he was to validate the different options in the correct order because every truck is custom built. A product release writer validates the options with the engineering bill of materials and confirms the order has what it requires and what it needs to be built. “You are tasked with making sure the manufacturing line gets the products on time, gets all the correct materials and the truck is buildable. You also work with the engineers if there’s any options that conflict with each other, for example, and smooth those out,” Kevin said. Throughout the four-year graduate journey Kevin said he had managers and engineers always ready to help and mentor where he needed, and he continues that himself now he has a graduate working under his guidance.

“I’m actually a supervisor myself now, and I have a graduate in my area, and having come through the program, I definitely try and offer advice,” he said. “My last rotation was in the first area that I worked in as a graduate. So, I was really able to bring my experience from that first year, and then also experience from the other departments that I gained over the years to become a supervisor in that area: I’m an engineering operations supervisor.” Earlier work that really stood out for Kevin was in the aftersales area as he said that the people there had so much knowledge and experience in trucks, they were brilliant at troubleshooting any issues or problems. “I got to go out with one of the managers there for a week to visit some of the customers and really get to see how the products are used and how much the customers love the product and to get their feedback and experience with our trucks. “That was really interesting to see, I really enjoyed that aspect for sure.” Kevin has been mainly working with the Kenworth product but says that now with the introduction of the building of DAF product at the Bayswater plant he expects to be moving into that area. DAF trucks are being built as SKD kits at PACCAR but that may change in the future. DAF and Kenworth complement each other as one has applications in short haul city or regional work with medium to heavy duty trucks while the other is a longer haul heavy duty truck. In these changing times hydrogen and electric trucks are already being introduced into the Australian trucking scene and that’s something that needs to be addressed with engineers. At the moment, that technology is coming out of the US, but Kevin expects that in Australia PACCAR will build on that technology and develop it, or engineer it to suit our environment. “I’m definitely intrigued to see what’s coming. And I think environmental considerations, technology or technological changes are going to push the boundaries of what’s possible. And in terms of big data and better performance, better customer offerings to the market, I think that’s going to be something that will be an exciting change. For myself I’m interested in how data can shape the philosophy. “I’m studying a graduate certificate in data science, so I’m looking into this and telematics. “We have multiple training courses, multiple development courses available to us as well. I mean, it’s not just an engineering, for example there’s communication, leadership and then there’s also support for future study as well, such as postgraduate study,” he said. For Kevin working in Woolies led him to find his niche in engineering and that niche was made even more inviting with PACCAR’s graduate program.