In honor of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), we sat down with Paulene Ollis, Process Quality Engineer, and Duree Smallwood, Senior Design Engineer, to find out how they entered the engineering field, their area of work at KION North America, and what inspires them about their professions.
What is your area of work in Engineering at KION North America?
Process Quality Engineer. Program Qualifications. I am currently working on the home turf project, laboratory, and system development for weld process control.
Why did you choose engineering as a career path/area of study?
I love developing processes and creating systems with my team that will ensure design intent and customer satisfaction.
Did you have exposure to it or STEM in high school?
Some, but mainly at College and University. There was a 12-month graduate in training requirement before qualifying.
What inspires you about Engineering?
Being an Engineer means you are always learning something new and figuring out what can be done to make something better!
What challenges do you think women face in Engineering professions/academia &/or what opportunities have you found in your role?
One needs support. For me, that is my husband, who is also an Engineer. As for opportunities, this new home turf project is an excellent opportunity for us at KNA to show others that we have what it takes to be an ISO3834 certified weld manufacturing facility within KION Group.
Remember, “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude.” Eleanor Roosevelt.
What is your area of work in Engineering at KION North America?
I work in the Research and Development (R&D) Custom Options group as a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer. I am the go-to person for all things related to truck capacity. When customers order trucks and plan to install attachments on the trucks at the factory, dealership, or customer facility, the truck requires a capacity calculation for the configured truck and a data plate to reflect that calculation. And when trucks in the field have changes to mast, drive tires, carriage, fork lengths, or attachments, the truck needs a new capacity calculation and subsequent data plate.
Why did you choose engineering as a career path/area of study? Did you have exposure to it or STEM in high school?
My favorite and best subjects were the STEM classes before STEM was a buzzword in high school: Chemistry, Physics, Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus. So, when I started considering college majors, my guidance counselor suggested Engineering, and I found my niche.
What inspires you about Engineering?
My first engineering job was designing front and rear bumper systems for Honda Motors. The first project was a car designed for the Canadian and Singapore markets. It was built in the Honda factory in Canada. A year after the car was in production, my parents and I traveled on vacation around a few of the Great Lakes and went to Canada. It was amazing to see the car I participated in designing on the road. I love to design products to help people.
What challenges do you think women face in Engineering professions/academia &/or what opportunities have you found in your role?
Most companies I have worked for have very few female engineers. So, we have to remind our male counterparts that they do not need to “dumb” down technical discussions for us to understand.
