Kiran Nikam

Hello, 
I have total 11.5 Years of experience in Interior Seat Design & Developement. Currently working at Vinfast emerging EV brand in Vietnam. With strict weight target to provide effective range need to come with non conventional innovative solutions. Also as car of luxary segment cannot compromise of performance and safety.
Previously I worked with Volksawagen India for Interior seats development.My experience also include 7 Years association at Adient a major seating tier1. My assignments in Adient includes designing seats with FMVSS, ECE regulations. I was onsite for VW wolfsburg germany projects for 2.3 Years.

Vinfast LLC Haiphong , Vietnam (Onsite Expat from Magna Steyr)        (Dec 2021-Till date)

• Working as Lead for Interior Complete Seats Design & Development of VinFast EV vehicles VF 35/36 Project at VinFast.
• Onsite Engineering Plant Support at VinFast for Magna Steyr China and India for seats and interior.
• Set technical requirement for development of part, prepare SOR, Prepare BOM.
• Check design & part development issues in at various builds (PT, PP, LS, SOP), Analyze and investigate issues for root cause.
• Prepare temporary containment and guide design team for making proposal to solve issues. Benchmark various products for solution.
• Guide various shops (Metal, Interior, Plastics Injection, JIT) to make proposals from CAD in quick time for trials with technologies like 3D printing, cut and weld, silicon mold, cut and sew, Foam milling etc.
• Present design issues in all working & management level meetings reports status of development.
• Have discussions with supplier, plant counterparts like Process, Quality, Logistics for ECR development cost, Implementation timing.
• Prepare and Discuss DVP with Testing agency, optimize sample requirement, identify risk for part availability.
• Prepare Launch Matrix with various part level maturity and propose deviations for Non availability.
• Co-ordinate & have discussion with various cross functional teams, suppliers for day to day design and development activities.
• Witness various seat level regulatory and homologation due care testing, analyze failures, propose changes to meet target.

Tata Technologies Ltd.Pune                                               (Oct 2021-Dec 2021)

• Worked as Team Lead Engineering for Complete Seats Design & Development of Vinfast Vfe34 Project.

SKODA Auto Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. Pune (Technical Center)         (Jan 2018-Oct 2021)

• Worked as Manager for Front, Rear Complete Seats Design & Development.

Responsibilities: -

• Interpreting and defining responsibilities of VW/SK216IN, VW/SK271IN LAH (Specifications Requirement) for localization of seats.
• Have discussion with supplier for technical understanding of development scope, prototype, testing in RFQ.
• As technical front present status of development, problems sheets at various level management level meeting.
• Prepare Engineering Bill of material according to market complexity matrix, PR Conditions and release in system for complete seat.
• Discuss issues, solutions & technical proposals with Skoda/Volkswagen Headquarter in Europe and get agreements with suppliers in India.
• Prepare DVP and get alignment of all parties. Co-ordinate, control DVP testing activities along with suppliers and testing agencies like ARAI and suppliers testing facilities.
• Make decisions on the proposals from suppliers, failures for overcoming the problems in correlation with other CFT members (Project Management, Quality etc.).
• Take approval for the P, B and BMG release of complete seat and its components from Skoda/Volkswagen Headquarter.
• Provide technical feasibility of various cost saving ideas in current development projects.
• Guide suppliers and engineering partner (Tech M) for VW development methodology.
• Check and approve the 3D CAD & 2D drawings, PDM, TLD of complete seat and its components as per Volkswagen Methodologies.
• Understand FEA/CAE simulations, analyzing results, co-relate with physical tests.
• Support plant internal departments like purchase, quality, logistics, SRM for technical development content.
• Support plant for issues at various level vehicle builds like VFF, PVS, 0-Series and Series.
• Support various releases in connect (Team Centre 11) & co-ordinate with DMU team to solve problems.
• Knowledge of RPS Tools, VT part creator, CATIA VW methodologies

Volkswagen India Private Limited, Pune (Hindujatech Payroll) (Dec 2017 to Dec 2018)

• Worked as Lead Engineer for Seats Development at Volkswagen India. 

Responsibilities: -

• Support localization of seat and its components for current series programs Polo, Vento, Rapid.
• Addressing technical queries raised by supplier during development.
• Tracking of timeline from development and P, B Release & BMG testing point of view.
• Solving technical queries regarding P, B Release & BMG testing and standards and methodology.
• Explaining technical changes as per Model Year Point / AEKO.
• Maintaining technical and development change history.
• Witness BMG/DV testing within India which is approved testing facility by VW group.
• Open Issue tracking list weekly along with development team.
• Known Systems: AVON (anderungensmanagement), BEON, HyperKVS, ESON, MBT, MBV, VW tools.

Adient India Private Limited, Pune (India) (Formerly Johnson Controls Automotive Ltd)                                                                                    (Nov 2016 to Nov 2017)

• Worked as Product engineer at Adient India 

Johnson Controls GMBH, Germany                                     (Jul 2014 to Oct 2016)

• Worked as CAD Designer at JCI Weyhausen, Germany. 

Johnson Controls Automotive Ltd, Pune (India)                (Feb 2011 to Jun 2014)

• Worked as Design engineer at JCI India.

Responsibilities: -

• Preparing Engineering Bill of material with reference to OEM complexity matrix.
• Preparing seat assemblies Simulating kinematics in CATIA V5.
• Checking seat data for various regulatory norms like ECE, FMVSS, OEM norms.
• Preparing complete seat drawings for safety, packaging, comfort, environment, exploded view.
• Having knowledge of OEM seat development standards like EP standards (VW), Prüfvorschriften RD/KIS (Daimler).
• Designing Sheet metal, as per standards with CATIA V5.
• Co-ordination with offshore CAD designers to get deliverables completed.
• Attend various DV PV testing seat builds event at adient plant in Zwickau Germany.
• Analyzing physical test results and co relate to CAE/FEA simulations.
• Evaluating product for safety critical parameters like backset, NCAP, H point and compare with physical sample test.
• Ability to work in German language, can interpreting results in German.
• Maintaining open issue list for various issue at plant and providing engg. solution.
• Support of Prototype builds with the Prototype shop and attend design reviews.
• Prepare DFMEA for potential failure modes to derive SC/CC based on.
• Preparing and maintaining engineering release and change documents.
• Having experience of working with VW norms, standards and tools.
• Preparing Technical drawings with GD&T for seat components and assemblies.
•   Having a sound knowledge of PLM for Cad Data release.