The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Maintenance offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at Brink Towing Systems.

The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Brink Towing Systems you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.

Brink’s MXe fully electric retractable towbar was released in 2012 and is currently in series production for Jaguar, Land Rover and Renault platforms. Based on experiences with the current design, Brink wishes to create a next generation of this product, which will have the same basic functionality but shall incorporate improvements on different aspects:

• Functional: elimination of failure modes, improved robustness, smaller packaging and weight reduction.
• The current design has a number of limitations and weak spots that should be overcome in a next generation. These include, but are not limited to, variance of the S-Load measurements, locking of the clamping blocks over life, and damage to gear teeth. Smaller packaging is desired and the current weight of the MXe system (approx. 12kg) should be reduced.  
• Manufacturability: quality control for the current design has proven to be difficult. This is due to the fact the a number of parts are hard to manufacture within tolerance, and the influence of variation in tolerance between different parts is not well understood. It is essential to have a firm grip on critical characteristics of the redesigned product and make sure they are controlled adequately by design, by suppliers, or in the manufacturing and assembly processes.
• Cost: significant reduction of cost price (30%). Based on an analysis of cost drivers for the current systems, there is a lot of potential to reduce material cost by eliminating, combining, or redesigning parts, making use of different materials and/or different manufacturing processes.
  Result of the project:
• A validated prototype of the next gen MXe system.  Methods and tools are open for discussion and may include requirements analysis, TRIZ, set based design and modelling techniques.
• Methodology
• Validation shall be performed with respect to defined required and an agreed customer application.

• You hold a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering
• You have demonstrated affinity with design and multidisciplinary assignments;
• You have a passion for finding solutions for complex technological issues;
• You have excellent collaboration and communication skills;
• You are self-starting and self-motivating, willing to take initiatives and feel the responsibility for your own project;Candidates with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score of at least 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).

Please send the following documents before 28-11-2017 through the link beow

• Letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• List with grades of courses attended
• References 

If you have any further questions about this vacancy of the PDEng programme in Maintenance, please contact Prof.dr.ir. D.J. Schipper:

• Email: d.j.schipper@utwente.nl

We offer a very challenging position for two years in an inspiring multidisciplinary and international environment. In this time we will provide you with a tailor made post-master design programme that has an educational component (~50%) as well as a design project (~50%).

• A salary of € 1.828 gross per month;
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• A solid pension scheme;
• Minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment.
• On successfully completing the programme, you will receive a certified degree. You will be entitled to use the academic degree PDEng and will be registered as a Technological Designer in the Dutch register kept by the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI).

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. ET combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: MIRA, CTIT, SBE and IGS.