Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/969348
APRIL 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 27 ences to, more fabricators and expectations and what you would look for, why don't you just share some of your thoughts about that? Wischnack: That's a very interesting thing. Many of the things that developers do, they are required by these fabricators because they have done it the last 20 years, and there are only a few fabricators that really moved forward and accepted to get new technologies and get rid of old stuff they have done all along. You carefully must choose. So if you have a fabricator who says, "No, you can't do this because I cannot do it. I cannot fabricate it," you need a different fabricator. This morning we had a good ses - sion by Lee Ritchey and there was this question about the 15%. His answer was, "You need a different supplier. It's the wrong supplier for you." And that's true. Give up your old sup - pliers if they don't follow. If you're faster than your supplier, you need a different supplier. Matties: The other issue that we see in the design community is an aging population, and there aren't a lot of young people moving into the design community. How does Porsche address that issue and attract young people to the industry? Wischnack: We have a lot of trainees and a lot of students. We have a good relationship with many universities to get the students into our company. We try to get them very early so that they get familiar with the way we are working, so we can do some basic education. Not just teaching all the formulas and all this stuff at university, but also getting to, "What is real life? What can I do with all the stuff they teach me at the university?" And after they have been a trainee in our company, very often they get their final grade with some things they do in our company, and at the end they get employed. So many of my colleagues have been trainees around my laboratory, and meanwhile I know six or eight people just come from my depart- ment, who are now employees in the com- pany. And there are many others who started as trainees. Getting young people in the com- pany is the most beneficial thing you can do. Matties: Is it that there are just not a lot of young people interested in this field, because there are so many other glamorous fields out there? Wischnack: You're right. Most of the young people do become hardware developers, or they want to do software, or maybe the busi- ness stuff. But we have some students that agree to do the hardware because they want to have a job at Porsche, and at the end they are good hardware developers because suddenly they got to know all about doing hardware. So it can be nice—you get a product at the end, and if you really understand what you're doing, you're successful, you get a successful product, and you're doing something no one else can understand. Suddenly, they are hard- ware developers for the rest of their lives. Matties: There's probably a real advantage to taking that hardware development and bring- ing the circuit design together. Wischnack: For sure, but we have to make clear that the hardware design we do is mainly not for our own cars, so this is always done by suppliers for many, many reasons. Our main job is to do the troubleshooting, not just for our cars, but for our external customers. We are close to production and if a product is not working, then we are asked to do it. One of our special duties is to be very fast, to do it in one shot, and not to have three, four, five, or six samples until it's finished. So normally we get one or two samples that need to be fin - ished. We don't need two years for the devel- opment. It's three months maybe. That's our benefit, but I don't think we can compete with Asian companies. They work for 10% of the money that we can, so we must be special, and I think this is the best way we can give. So, we are fast, we are precise, and in the end the product is working. Matties: In your presentation, you talked about some of the physics and laws that exist. When you're bringing somebody in for design, what sort of educational standard do you look for?