Presidential Address of the Society of Automotive Engineers of North America Trends Affecting SAE and Automotive Engineering

This paper addresses the state of the automotive engineering profession in North America by focusing on three trends occurring in the automotive industry today that affect all automotive engineers and engineering societies. The first of these trends is simultaneous engineering-the integration of the roles of design engineer, manufacturing engineer, supplier, marketer, and planner. The second trend addressed is the increased reliance of auto manufacturers on suppliers and design houses to support the design and manufacturing functions. A third factor crucial to an internationalized auto industry is standards-as communication, as a basis for regulation, and as an aid to interchangeability. Global standards have become a necessity, and the responsibility for developing them falls on internationally recognized standards-writing groups and, ultimately, on the individual engineers who participate in standards work.