VIJAY KANDALAM

734-218-3420

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS / QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Nine years of experience as a business/technical analyst leading requirements analysis, application development, integration and deployment teams.
  • Experience in all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) from project conception through post-delivery maintenance (including project planning, resource management and budgeting).
  • Track record of handling increasing responsibility and leading cross-functional activities like development, QA, packaging and release in a global environment.
  • Proven ability to work with local and offshore teams for application development and maintenance
  • Experience in developing and configuring XML, Java applications and UNIX Shell Scripting.
  • Experience in capturing enterprise-wide engineering knowledge using rule-based KBE systems.

Languages:VBScript, UNIX scripting, XML, Java, Servlets, C/C++, ObjectARX, Open I-DEAS, SQL

Applications:MS Visio, MS Project, Clearcase, CATIA V4 & V5, I-DEAS, Teamcenter, Vismockup, Pro/E, MatLab, Maple, Rational Rose

Processes:SDLC, JAD, 6-Sigma for Quality Assurance

Visa Status:Permanent resident (Green card – no sponsorship required)

Certifications:Pursuing PMP certification

Networking technologies: Firewall configuration, Router configuration/setup

OS:Windows, UNIX (HP-UX/Sun/Linux) – installation and configuration

EXPERIENCE:

PLM Consultant, INCATJul 2008 – Jan 2009

Business Process Analyst for Aerospace industry methods (for Bell/BHTI)

Delivery of best-in-class methods for implementing various design and data management methodologies in CATIA V5R17/ ENOVIA VPLM. The appropriate best practices - process or coding (VB, CAA and Scripting) were targeted to satisfy requirements within each value stream.

Responsibilities:

  • Analyzed scope documents and interviewed lead designers to create requirements for the various value streams (as-is & to-be process flows and gaps, if any)
  • Planned and coordinated the efforts of a 8-man team to meet the deadlines. (MS Visio/Project)
  • Developed detailed solution elements documents and work instructions to implement the best practices
  • Identified common infrastructure elements and customizations to the Dassault OOTB application suite
  • Developed VBScripts for automation

Project Lead/Sr. Business analyst, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MIFeb 2003 – Jul 2008

Main responsibilities at Ford:

  1. Planned and coordinated the efforts of a cross-functional team in matrixed organization spread across 10 global locations (typical project duration: 4-9 months, upto $6million)
  2. Evaluated and deployed new design tools/applications/plug-ins; worked with vendors and designers to establish and document methods and best practices; integrated into mainstream.
  3. Represented CAD systems group in the global Geometric Authoring methods team meeting - to discuss methods/issues/enhancements related to CATIA, CAD standards, ancillary/KBE applications.
  4. Coordinated the development of scenarios for user acceptance testing (UAT) of new releases, hotfixes etc., as well as CAD Data Integrity testing.
  5. Worked with the vendor support teams to document, reproduce and fix issues reported by Ford designers.
  6. Represented Ford Data Integrity Team at global methods meetings to discuss and address related issues,

CAD/PLM software upgrades at all Ford sites globally(2005-2008)

Annual upgrade of the application servers so that the users benefit from the latest functionality, bug fixes etc available in the latest release of CATIA V5 / Teamcenter. This upgrade involved ensuring minimum downtime, data compatibility, upgrading ancillary applications, ensuring OS compatibility, settings and environment management, performance and scalability (PSL) testing, QA and packaging (to ensure consistency of binaries/settings across all sites globally).

Role: Project Lead/Subject Matter Expert (SME)

Key Contributions:

  • Planned, scheduled and coordinated activities of a cross-functional team to accomplish the above activities following SDM (Ford's version of SDLC).
  • Worked with the release planning team to create and maintain detailed project schedules, plan timelines, negotiate resources and resolve conflicts related to the project plan
  • Reviewed and implemented security controls, coordinated automation of performance and scalability testing, integration with Teamcenter Engineering (PDM system), user acceptance testing and issue triage.
  • Worked with the Ford Engineering/CAD Standards (FECDS) committee to implement, upgrade and maintain the standards in CATIA (XML format)
  • Worked with QA team and (multiple) vendor teams to coordinate testing efforts and deployment of the fixes in production following the corporate change control processes.
  • Ensured pro-active IT involvement at all stages to ensure a smooth upgrade that is virtually transparent to the end-user community.

Development environment: HP-UX 11i, Solaris 8/10

Deployment of CATIA V5 configuration manager (myV5) at all Ford sites globally (May-Aug 2007)

"myV5" is an XML-based user and environment management application for CATIA V5.

Role: Project Lead

Key Contributions:

  • Defined a hierarchical business unit-functional group-role structure using xml to enable decentralized control of CATIA environments,
  • Led discussions to obtain global agreement regarding roles and responsibilities across the matrixed Ford IT organization; prepared Statement of Work (SoW) and project charter
  • Coordinated the discussions to define globally accepted processes for implementing and tracking changes to existing environments, balancing risk and turnaround time,
  • Coordinated the implementation of global CATIA reference settings to mandate the use of Ford CAD standards and best practices at all sites,
  • Championed the use of secure document management solutions (eRooms/Sharepoint) to manage and distribute configuration files across various sites
  • Performed process FMEA to create training material for triage of problem tickets and troubleshooting

Other Projects at Ford:

  1. SME for the project to define the CATIA license requirements for the new Global License Agreement (GLA) with DS, validate that it aligns with the Ford Global methods, and deploy to over 3000 users at 13+ sites.
  2. Project Lead for the CAD drafting project: Development and global deployment of drafting ancillary applications that comply with Ford Engineering/CAD Standards (FECDS). (Mar 2005)
  3. C3P/NG deployment support: Working with designers, vendors and global methods teams to resolve I-DEAS, CATIA issues and related data management issues in Teamcenter Engineering.
  4. 6-Sigma Greenbelt project to analyze reasons for and reduce current/forward compatibility issues with I-DEAS data. Successful in reducing issues to < 2% of the data (2003-04)
  5. Engg. Workstation Pilot: Analysis and resolution of I-DEAS Data Compatibility issues between Unix/WinXP

Programmer Analyst, EASi (IT Applications/Services), Madison Heights, MI May 2000 - Jan 2003

Project:Automated Driveshaft Assembly Tool (ADAT)

A modular object-oriented application for executing automatic builds of CAD assemblies based on a predefined Bill of Materials (BOM). Involves extensive analysis of CAD data to understand and automate the process of building assembly hierarchy, applying/validating constraints and creating drawings in the I-DEAS environment.

Role: Technical Lead

Contributions: Worked with the user group to gather and understand requirements; involved in the design of the application, project planning/coordination, resource planning, development and support.

Development environment: Java, Java Servlets, Open I-DEAS, XML

Implementation Environment: I-DEAS

Project:EASi-SEAL

An application for seal simulation based on 2D cross-sections to model, analyze, design and view the results of seal sections for various loading conditions. Custom Java3D API allowed picking behavior, FE mesh generation and translation/rotation/zoom/pan of entities.

Role: developer

Contributions: Development, testing, integration, bug fixing, user interaction and enhancements.

Development environment: JAVA-Swing, JAVA 3D, JNI and C

Implementation Environment: Windows NT

Project:EASi-HIT

A KBE application to determine Head Impact Target (HIT) locations in the CAD model of a passenger vehicle, following NHTSA specifications encoded as knowledge-base rules. The geometric operations on the CAD model are carried out by manipulating the IDEAS API (via C++ methods), while the knowledge base is developed using the Java Expert System Shell (JESS). The application brings in immense savings by reducing human errors and time taken by 90%.

Role: Project coordinator, developer

Contributions: Involved in development and project coordination.

Development environment: C++, Open I-DEAS, Java, Java Expert System Shell (JESS), JNI

Implementation Environment: I-DEAS, Irix 6.5 (SGI)/Windows NT

Project: API for Parametric Model Access

An application to obtain the image of an updated parametric template by supplying formatted user input of parameters to Mechanical Desktop. The (previously created) parametric templates are automatically updated by manipulating the Open Architecture of Mechanical Desktop via C++ API (ObjectARX).

Role: Project coordinator, developer

Contributions: Involved in architecture design, development and project coordination; Interaction with user group to integrate application in existing environment

Development environment: C++, Java, Java RMI, ObjectARX

Implementation Environment: Windows NT

Intern, Ford Motor Company May-Aug 1999

Project:Movable Glass Modeler System

I-DEAS based application to implement a rule-based (KBE) system for validating the design of the automobile window system.

Contributions: Evaluating the application for the validity of various design steps, using U152 data from older models to correlate the results and documentation of the application online.

Environment: I-DEAS, HTML, and MS-Excel.

Teaching Assistant, Texas A&M University Aug 1998-May 2000

Manufacturing Processes laboratory

Responsible for the management of the laboratory; Duties included designing lab/workshop activities, explaining concepts, demonstrating the proper and safe use of machinery, supervising the students and grading lab reports.

Environment: Classroom, Mechanical Engineering workshop

EDUCATION:

MS, Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, Aug 2000; GPA: 4.0

BE, Mechanical Engineering, Osmania University, India, May 1998