Richard Schurmann Electronics Engineer Curriculum Vitae
Employment History – Reverse Chronological Order

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SNMP


P.A.S. Consultants
Panton Hill Vic. 3759
Mid 2017 – present

Manufacture research buoys for deployment on antarctic ice flows.
Electronic design consulting/production engineering/short-run manufacturing.
This work is not full time. I am available for other projects.

Zodiac Australia http://www.zodiac.com.au/public/home
Melbourne Office
23 Southfork Drive
Kilsyth VIC 3137
September 2012 – April 2017

During this time, Zodiac used to manufacture swimming pool chlorinators and other swimming pool related equipment, using imported electronic sub-assemblies that are designed in-house. I was engaged to take design responsibility for a revision of one of their popular chlorinator designs andto contribute to the delevopment of a new model.
Zodiac no longer manufacture nor conduct development work in Australia.

Aerosonde Pty. Ltd http://www.aerosonde.com/
Manufacturers of pilotless aircraft.
August and September 2012
(Short – term contract)

I was employed in the electronics production area. The work included electronic assembly work, testing, development of testing methods, design of test jigs. The work was only short term as it related to the completion of a particular contract.


Hydrix (http://www.hydrix.com/)
April 2010 – July 2012

Full time employment under the title “Senior Engineer”

Principal Engineer in several projects developing swimming pool chlorinators, and smaller contribution to other projects.
Detailed design of switch mode power supplies
Supervision of others (engineers, technicians, pcb layout CAD operator)
Mentorship of younger engineers
Project documentation (Requirements, Design Notes, Design Test Plan, Test Reports, manufacturing Test procedure)
Writing ISO 9001 procedures
First Aid Officer

Australian Model Engineering Magazine
2009 (continuing)

In my own column named “Sparks 'n' Arcs” I am writing a series of articles for Australian Model Engineering Magazine to explain electronics to a readership with a strong mechanical background. A sample of these are to be found at http://home.exetel.com.au/rwombat/Sparks_n_Arcs/


Omnitron Technologies http://www.omnitron.com.au/
February 2009 – November 2009
Electronic Design Engineer (contractor)

Design and development for manufacturing of a heavy current transmitter for geophysical research.
Designed the control and alarm/safety circuits.
Neither Omnitron nor I had a chance to utilize established project management processes, as the requirements of the client determined these details.


Air-Met Scientific Pty. Ltd. http://www.airmet.com.au/
December 2004 – September 2006
(Manufacturer and import agent for toxic gas sensing instruments)

Technical Services Manager

Airmet was a small company situated in Blackburn which was a gas contaminant monitoring equipment merchant, and a developer of air contaminant monitoring equipment.

I wrote quality manual procedures for design and design project management.
(ISO9001/and for the laboratory IEC17025)

I developed an engineering documentation and release system. This provides all information required by the purchasing officer to initiate orders on contractors to bring about a production run, and all technical information required by in-house staff performing final assembly and calibration/config and service. The work instructions and other documents in this system form part of Air-Met's ISO9000 Management System. I was responsible for the management of all production issues and engineering aspects of outsourcing of pcb assemblies. However this system was set up so that repeat ordering will take place without engineer input.
I was responsible for the mentorship and supervision of younger Engineers
I was responsible for technical and engineering support to the service team. I conducted training and acted as consultant to assist with odd-ball or particularly difficult service tasks.
I was manager of all Technical aspects (except gas chemistry matters) of the "Fixed Systems" part of the Air Met business. With this role, I designed and brought into manufacture the "Monotox 5000" toxic gas sensing instrument.


Nilsen Industrial Electronics (This company no longer exists. No web site)
Heidelberg West
(Manufactured electronic domestic kilowatt-hour meters)

1993 – 2004

When I joined Nilsen, the electronic kilowatt hour meter had been in production for some years. The new task was to develop an enhanced model.
Enhancements introduced by me included:

Matching the phase response of the voltage and current inputs.
Software based phase error correction
This scheme, which was all my own work, was implemented in the meter.

Introduction of pseudo random sequence generated dither signal
Interference cancelling and copper-drop nulled shunt circuit geometry.
Wide dynamic range optical port.

Other projects that I was responsible for included:

"Smart Probe" optical reading head with built-in protocol conversion. Hardware design (including die-cast case) and software - 6805 assembler code.
Development of a system and associated hardware called "Meternet" which allows meters to be networked for remote reading (large residential complexes) (Software by others)
Development of a provision for registering a count of pulses from sources such as water or gas meters (to incorporate "dumb" devices in remote reading systems) Utilized PIC 12CXXX processors.
Concept development for new meter model (NEC `UPD780308 based) a cost reduction exercise. (This was later in production for three years at about 40 000 units per year.)
Continuing cost reduction minor design modifications. About $10.00 per unit or $400,000 pa resulting from my innovations.

I was responsible for mentorship of younger engineers. Developed working protocols for maximum synergy for groups with diverse skills.

Variant management system

I developed the architecture and the code for a computer program which ran the process from the Sales specification to the Engineeering parts List and the pcb loading drawing for the particular build. The system was implemented and provided a huge reduction in cost in the introduction of each new variant.

Nilsen Industrial Electronics had inherited a highly developed development and manufacturing documentation system, which predated ISO 9001. This was adapted to ISO 9001 with minimal change during my tenure. I contributed to this. Interestingly, there was one area that remained untouched by these formalities. This was the design process. A result was the evolution of a splitting of project management into two parts. One role was the documentation of a plan for a development and the generation of commentary for senior management on how the actual development process (in progress) compared with the plan. The role for this was formally defined, and I played no part in it. A second and completely separate task was the actual conduct of the development so that a design resulted that met the documented requirements. I was responsible for this for many projects. Tasks included:
Allocation of tasks to exploit individual's special skills
Arranging team meetings so that each participant understood his part in the plan.
(particularly meetings between the software and hardware teams)
Adjustment to the project methods as required to ensure that each individual's morale and motivation was high.
Organizing and conducting tutorial meetings when one individual had skills or knowledge that was to be shared with a co-worker.
During my ten tear tenure these tasks fell increasingly to me, and I fine tuned my skills in this area.


Ausmode Power Systems/Exicom Australia http://www.exicom.com.au/
1988 - 1992

Ringwood Ausmode Power Systems was a small company set up to design and manufacture power equipment for the telecommunications industry.

Project Leader - Uninterruptible power supply (600 VA - for use with a pc.) True sine wave inverter and provision for synchronizing to mains on power restoration for seamless switch back.

Project Leader - Supervisory board for 50 amp rectifier. Analogue and digital controller design. Control of heavy current circuits via fibre-optic link.

Project Leader - Light-current parts of 450 amp and 1000 amp Distribution Module
Managed a team of up to four Engineers, technicians, software writers and CAD designer.
Ausmode did not have formal processes for team management, and I developed these to maximize individual productivity and team accountability.
Heavy Current (shunts on bus bars), and electronics design of a system that monitored energy use in the telecommunications fifty volt dc environment. The equipment had provision for monitoring various alarms and for communications for remote control/monitoring.
Managed the software development, and wrote most of the code which was in Motorola 68HC11 assembler.


Futuretech Pty. Ltd. Oakleigh
1985 - 1988

I was employed to manage the development of a frequency division multiplex equipment test system. This gave me the opportunity to delve much more deeply into the design of phase locked loops for demanding applications. This in turn led to the development of an agile multi frequency tone generator for L. M. Ericsson. For some time, I was the Project Leader for a hydrographer's telemetry system for the Dandenong Valley Authority. The constraints of the established project management methods were tight, but within these, I took responsibility for maximizing the productivity of the team by careful allocation of tasks and mentorship of team members.


Schurmann Design Pty. Ltd. , Warrandyte
1983 - 1985

This was my own company. I worked from a “home office” with one technician. Several design projects were carried out. These were the early days of applying microprocessors to small products.

I had contact with the people at the Ford Motor company warehouse, and they engaged me to take an investigatory trip to Detroit and Atlanta USA to evaluate radio link data terminal system. On my return, I installed and commissioned the system. This involved the manufacture of a special interface between the Ford Burroughs computer system and the radio terminal system.


Nielsen Development Laboratory , Fitzroy and Heidelberg
1982 - 1983

The plan was to develop a single electronic meter that would perform all of these functions. I was employed as project leader. for the development of an electronic kilowatt hour meter.


I took this project to a stage where working prototypes had been demonstrated.


Hyteco Pty. Ltd. , Clayton
1977 - 1982

Trained in the USA on the “Pathfinder” wire guidance system for warehouse trucks that work in very narrow aisles. I was responsible for managing a team of up to five employees and several outside contractors.

Each tractor, and the master controller were microprocessor controlled. 6800 microprocessors were used.

I conducted training of the electric fork truck mechanics.


Prior to 1977
Various positions in which I moved through the ranks as a junior electronics engineer, and in the field of acoustics where I worked in a development laboratory and in manufacturing where I worked in production management including computer programming.


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