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Projects

For 20 years partners value my useful solutions and results.

Listed below you can find my jungle projects with applied transformational leadership. Some text symbols can help you navigate quicker.

the complex program – „system of systems“

description >> category: Automotive OEM urged to implement an action plan to rapidly provide extended OBD documentation of whole vehicle series to US legislator CARB. >> category: R&D, vehicle and ECU level, program and process development, IT tools, model year OBD certification

challenge >> goal: start with neither budget, a team, experts in the field nor an implementation strategy but with a small pre-existing tool and some good advice. >> goal: Make CARB happy efficiently, „starting from now“.

time frame >> frequency: continous process and tool setup ~4years >> frequency starting year 1: annual agile delivery of model year documentation.

assignment – my role in success

job description >> mode: Program Management – Refine requirements scope. Find and plan subtasks. Find and harmonize experts with a common goal. Find money sources and streamline them into most promising efforts. Set a re-occuring time frame for reasonable deliverable scopes on the levels of vehicles, ECUs and SW parts. Ramp in deliveries and operate sub-processes corporate wide. Define and monitor intermediate results with matching processes and tools. Consolidate a corporate view of new OBD data sets and harmonize necessary follow up action. >> mode: 98% remote work with TelCos.

responsibility for budget, FTEs, reports: up to 5M€ p.a. over 4 yrs, 30+ FTEs p.a., 5 direct reports, a dozen 2nd level reports, corporate multi year/project strategy planning, implementation and operation

biggest success: improved interdisciplinary expert culture by better understanding each other’s language, motives and contribution to the common goal. Was able to convey massive efforts undertaken to legislator CARB within a streamlined and honest communication process – thereby achieved outcome wishes for OEM.

the high potential project – health management

description >> category: Automotive OEM needed right scale proof of concept for digitalization and big data use case. >> category: Aftersales and R&D, E/E vehicle level, process development, ECU OTA functions

challenge >> goal: start with junior expert team. >> goal: Implement a vehicle show case of remote data Prognostics and Integrated Vehicle Health Management.

time frame >> frequency: proof of concept and serial roll out within 2 years. >> frequency: qualified field data continously growing and in use.

assignment – my role in success

job description >> mode: Senior Project Management – Find and plan sub tasks. Find and harmonize strategy for OTA vehicle data storage, transfer and use. Develop and deploy vehicle ECU health functions. Steer activity to aggregate data. Analyze data sets and leverage corporate use case. >> mode: 90% steering, 5% in-vehicle work, 5% travel.

responsibility for budget, FTEs, reports: more than 1M€ p.a.,10+ FTEs p.a., 2 direct reports

biggest success: could create a work environment in which individual talents integrated well into valuable use case. Made corporate realize how a real case PHM strategy looks like.

the planning task – balance & communicate

description >> category: Automotive OEM plans 5-10yrs of corporate R&D and SOP acitivity concerning mild hybridization. >> category: R&D Chassis strategy, stakeholder communication, data-based decision making, OBD

challenge >> goal: highly interrelated E/E setting, loads of stakeholder with conflicting goals. Every decision affects work packages of 50-500 people for years to come and will shape future business cases and corporates. Iterative cost estimates have to be run based on quickly updated premisses to support data driven decisions. All hierarchy levels involved. >> goal: Provide stable planning premisses that can be kept later on and support the hybridization business case.

time frame: 1+ year to collectively provide a stable multi-year ramp in scenario.

assignment – my role in success

job description >> mode: R&D Lead representative for Chassis branch – this is a spiral of iterative bottom-up to top-down to bottom-up cycles. Go align requirements. Discuss and evaluate premisses on SOP timing and scoping with experts. Provide planning to corporate hierarchy and re-align. Estimate costs and get heart attack. Repeat. In the end a balance between requirements for the corporate business case and the capability of implementing experts has to be achieved. >> mode: 98% meetings and communications.

responsibility for budget, FTEs, reports: no budget and FTEs in this communication based task. Myself, I was reportee to 4 levels of corporate hierarchy.

biggest success: when I saw the first 48V cars driving on the road. On time. With correct configuration. As planned years before.

the hands-on project – Aftersales perspectives

description >> category:

Engine Quick Test = Automotive OEM implements automated aftersales workshop diagnostics for reliable repairs. >> category: Aftersales, powertrain level, IT routines, corporate quality costs &

Flying Doctors = Automotive OEM needs asap international clarification for diagnostic field uncertainties. >> category: travel, Aftersales, powertrain level, dealerships, customer cars, corporate quality costs

challenge >> goal: start with disruptive ideas in a well established and long-running process flow. No previous commitments were achieved before project start. Stakeholder involvement was vague, budget planning insufficient, time to react scarce (in case of Flying Doctors missions). >> goal: Pioneer and scale use of promising new methods.

time frame >> frequency: method setup phase ~8 months >> frequency: delivery of automated diagnostic functions to aftersales scaled 5-10x p.a., 4 weeks request to answer (Flying Doctors missions)

assignment – my role in success

job description >> mode: Junior Project Management and Lead Engineer for the Engine Quick Test process – this was to me like being Alice In Diagnostic Wonderland. Find work companions, discover great potentials together and leverage them. I created and lead a resource-efficient expert group ranging from 2-5 seniors and 2-3 graduating engineers that rotated. The group produced 20+ automated diagnostic implementations, one dozen vehicle tools for measurements and interpretation, 20+ patents, 100+ low cost vehicle loggers for international data transfer and also some hands-on education. >> mode: 80% lead, 20% in-vehicle work.

As a Flying Doctor I regularily gathered 1-2 further experts to fly to customer vehicles in USA, CAN, ZA or DE that resisted usual diagnostic methods. Therefore workshop routines were improved as well as corporate understanding of system related HW and SW trouble in customer hands. >> mode: 100% travel & remote desk.

responsibility for budget, FTEs, reports: <1M€ p.a., 5+ FTEs p.a., 2 direct reports.

biggest success: the greatest impact was achieved when a single automated diagnostic function was able to steer quality costs resulting in an ROI (return of invest) of several 1000% which saved some necks.

the simulation project – leverage engineering arts

description >> category: Automotive OEM wants to decrease manual R&D efforts of complex SW calibrations. >> category: R&D powertrain, SI engine, complex task automization, model building, 0D/ 1D/ 3D/ QD, simulation, prognostics

challenge >> goal: understand what links a model to a profitable use case. >> goal: Implement and operate a method that allows a robust way to ease manual efforts of engineers on test benches.

time frame >> frequency: continous setup phase ~2,5years >> frequency: then 3 use cases reached within 6 months

assignment – my role in success

job description >> mode: Senior Engineer – research of common methods and cost benefit analysis of re-modelling. Assigning and driving steps for re-models. Integration of model suite into calibration environment. Quality follow ups and hands-on system modelling tasks. >> mode: 80% desk, 10% test bench, 10% in-vehicle

responsibility for budget, FTEs, reports: up to 100k€ p.a., 2+ FTEs p.a., 1 direct reports.

biggest success: persuading measurement driven experts of system simulation approaches and periodically see them use that knowledge. Condensed insights in my publications and PhD thesis.

Here you find some of my earlier works ranging from 6 months and up.

Laser optical measurements on a one-cylinder glass engine. Partner: Automotive OEM and FA University Erlangen, DE. (calibration, measurement, interpretation, illustration, communication). Condensed insights in my publications and graduate thesis.

Simulation of fuel efficiency mapping. Partner: Automotive OEM. (tooling, interpretation)

Mass flow optimization for distribution valve of gaseous hydrogen flows. Partner: Thermotec Garching, DE (testing optimization, measurement, interpretation)

Operation of a disc dynamo to model the earth’s magnetic field. Partner: University TU Ilmenau, DE. (design, simulation, manufacturing, measurements, re-design)

Design of an controllable heavy duty damper system for industry engine test beds. Partner: Energy Systems OEM and University TKK Helsinki, Finland (design, numerical validation)

Contact

Choose to get in touch

Dr.-Ing. Seb. Grasreiner

1738 ,A1

About

The man within the Gorilla

Hi, my name is Seb Grasreiner and I am a child of 80s Germany, having lived both sides of the wall. By nature I am a seeker, researcher, optimizer and tend to combine parts of Gallups Activator, MBTI INTJ and Sigma male.
I might add futher labels along the way while evolving myself.

My nature was what got me into (mechanical) engineering at an early point in life, so the direction was pretty clear. But curiosity didn’t kill the Gorilla, so I enjoy researching sports performance and medicine, while listening to my wife’s wisdom.

In my journey I will continue taking all necessary steps to answer relevant questions about complex systems – no matter what they might be made of…

I was a fortunate kid to understand one simple truth: If you want change, you have to initiate change yourself. Change is also needed for an abstract idea to become concrete reality. With this concept filling my head I gradually and progressively started evolving my way from simple design+build projects to higher solutions.

Life can be understood as a conglomerate of coupled mechanisms we all interact with. These mechanisms can be called institutions (schools, universities, authorities, corporate) or markets (for money and shares, work, housing, partners, goods, social interaction, attention) or sometimes even right out systems (IT, financial, vehicle bus, mechanical, diagnosing, warranty costs, model). No matter the label, each mechanism or system is unique in its own way, while still obeying general laws of system interaction with its environment, which is us.

Once you understand the general laws of interaction and the corresponding inner system processes – then you can figuratively conquer and steer every system there is. It has always been my desire to be capable of mastering any system challenge or task with reliable, reusable and successful methods. No matter the size or complexity ahead.

Observing the process of change, monitoring its temporal stability and tracking the vector inbetween, identifying „what went into“ a process and how it affects the required output is exciting to me. I clearly see critical patterns underlying the specific system which helps grow a detailed understanding of questionable performances in projects and programs. Knowing thy jungle and thy troop can only always improve your understanding of necessary steps to take towards your goal.

It doesn’t really matter where, how or when you wish to apply my system knowledge to gain insights and power over your small issues, complex jungle projects or even unexpected life challenges.
Throw it at me, I can handle it. The last time I had to grasp a completely new system – was the CMS of wordpress hrmpf.

that’s me after I finished the CMS thingy..

Over decades I molded myself into a Gorilla Leader without aiming for it. Back when I was a juvenile systemic thinker, I liked coming up with new ideas and projects to challenge myself. Turns out I was a beacon for troops that wanted to join the mission and create with me.

These troop members were seeking caring guidance without oppression and a safe place to express themselves. They were proud of their own achievements and growth resulting from our collaboration. I was quickly accepted for my leadership contributions to our common mission and enjoyed filling that role.

System Gorilla Leadership cares for the project and the troop! The Gorilla word for Manager might even translate to „caring, but really very strong patriarch“ 🙂 At least in modern business psychology the term „Transformational Leadership“ is used to denote a beneficial style of caring for both a project and the people behind it. If you don’t know this management style, then please read about it an spread the word! Many people like to work in a transformational environment.

To work remotely (not physically available in a collaborating team) shares countless similarities with Transformational Leadership style.
Especially offering and building a high level of trust between the interacting troop members.

I look back on years of highly satisfactional experiences with Remote Leadership strategies in project settings which

  • have open boundaries (across time zones, countries, corporations, fields of expertise)
  • span interests (stakeholders, ways of communication, distributed goal achievement)
  • have variable dynamics and need scalable leadership.

Trust is a base component in every and any high performance jungle project. The focus of my leadership is to provide a reliable role model in order to achieve excellent performance via trust! It doesn’t matter, if this is done in person or remote, as long as the channels for genuine communication are receptive on all sides.

Resources

Content needs to be provided still for this section.

  • Whitepaper „CARB mandated OBD Bus I/O listing – what I would do better next time“ is in writing, Link to follow
  • Diagnosetagung 2014 Dresden, Link to follow
  • Neue Überlegungen, Skizzen, News to follow
  • Links: physicist engineering cartoons xkcd.com
  • W124 Bezug zu Qualität und LongLastingness
  • PL Bezug zu Valuegenerierung durch probaten Input (Selbststeuerungsmöglichkeiten)

Deutsch

System Gorilla bereinigt Ihren komplexen F&E Dschungel.

Wer nutzt meine Fähigkeiten? F&E Entscheider, F&E Experten, Automotive OEMs, KMUs, B2B, Diagnoseanwender, Health Anwender.

Einnehmbare Rollen
Manager, Berater, Ingenieur, Wissenschaftler, Entwickler, Mediziner.

Bewährter Modus Operandi
Strukturieren, analysieren, abstrahieren, konzipieren, projektieren, delegieren, steuern, finalisieren, führen, verantworten, leiten, orchestrieren. Themen Eignung.

Hochklassige Ergebnisse
Funktionierende Methoden und Prozesse für F&E Vorhaben, verlässliche und planbare Resultate, ein hoch motiviertes Team.

Gemeinsam verwandeln wir Ihren F&E Dschungel in einen Garten Eden.

Man kennt diese F&E Projekte, die weder richtig anlaufen, noch irgendwann enden wollen. Es wird blind auf bewegliche Ziele geschossen und niemand hat mehr einen Überblick. Solche „Dschungel Projekte“ haben eine hohe individuelle Komplexität und informierte Entscheidungen können kaum getroffen werden.
Leben Sie gerade im F&E Dschungel? Lassen Sie System Gorilla mit innovativen Augen drauf schauen.

Willkommen zu Ihrer F&E Antwort!

Impressum

Impressum / Disclaimer / DSGVO