David Naparty

David Naparty
In 2008 I decided to study at the University of Northampton BSc (Hons) Engineering. I was attracted by this course due to an excellent opportunity to do a work placement at one of the engineering companies.
NETP Award: 
Winner of Best Academic Achiever Award 2010
My placement experiences: 
My first work placement was at company Primarius UK. I was involved in doing a project on lightweight train seats. This significantly improved my team-working skills, CAD and research skills which are essential for professional engineers. The second work placement was at Cosworth during which I was employed as a production engineer placement student. This enabled me to understand operations required to manufacture the highest quality pistons. As a part of my work placement I did a project on automatic lubrication system for the forge tool, 2D drawings of cutting tools and I improved the process using 5S methodology. The placements not only gave me the necessary skills to do projects and design technology but also provided me with a superb motivation which was critical to my future career.
As soon as I finished doing my BSc I decided to further improve my knowledge and I embarked on doing an MSc course in engineering. After obtaining all the qualifications I decided to work for the company in Derbyshire, R A Labone as a project engineer.
How did the NETP help me?: 
Initially the plan was designed so that I can understand the company and the business in 6 months. I received a training which was aimed at making myself familiar with production, stores, tool room, QA admin / metrology, and engineering departments. After just second month I was able to take on projects and contribute significantly to the success of the company. I started from developing a fixture for highly precise automotive part. I had to cooperate with people from QA admin / metrology, engineering, production departments to come up with a fixture which can let to fix the part in a consistent location and measure the dimensions of the part.
After doing this project successfully I received bigger, more difficult projects to do. I was responsible for new product introduction. In addition I developed test fixture for our medical product which was based on implementation of pneumatics. I had to develop a CAD model of the fixture, optimize the design using modern engineering tools, draw 2D drawings, buy the necessary parts from the external companies, manufacture the parts at the factory, and employ the subcontractor to program the machinery. Recently I was involved in manufacturing new parts for one of our customers. This involved determining the capabilities of the current manufacturing processes and finding suitable subcontractors who can carry out the manufacturing processes which are not possible in-house. I had to maintain a communication with the customer and visit the subcontractor to make sure that all customer requirements are met.
Since graduating: 
I am delighted with the qualifications obtained at the University of Northampton which allowed me to become immediately effective in industry and significantly contribute to the success of the current engineering company. My skills were developed thanks to an excellent support provided by NETP which helped me with promotion among engineering companies and mentoring. As a University of Northampton student I am well aware of a need to continually improve processes at a company. I have already identified a real opportunity for my company to save a significant amount of money and increase a number of jobs which have to be carried out. It will require a “few” extra miles from my side but I think that it is worth it.