First time in India!
Internship at Bharat Earth Movers Limited - Innovation Centre: Industrial Design Centre, Bengaluru Complex – A Public Sector Undertaking, Ministry of Defense

The fourth-semester students pursuing the Product Design program at D School had an extraordinary learning journey at the Industrial Design Centre unit of BEML. The strenuous eight-week internship period in tricky times has allowed the students to imbibe the facets of manufacturing methods, design processes, research methods, and conceptualization methods in high manufacturing, defense application-driven industry under the guidance of capable design engineers in the R&D unit. They had exposure to the latest trends and practices of BEML in the following aspects:

• Global benchmarking study methods
• Operators ease of work and comfort, ergonomics factors as per global standards
• Standardization and modularity principles in Defence manufacturing and designing
• Cabin Interior designing under zero-tolerance hardpoints and constraints
• Concept development, refinement, and selection, validation methods

The experience of working on the design of massive dump trucks and bulletproof (MBPV) vehicles aimed at aesthetic visual identity and operational ease is a plus. They have had the opportunity to see, learn and experience the manufacturing methods during their visits to R&D units- Mysore and KGF Complex – BEML. The students as part of their learning process, interacted with the test drivers to understand aspects of comfort and usability when the vehicle is operational. Vehicle features and functionalities were studied comprehensively, and had the opportunity to later study materials and then redesign components viz. the HVAC units, instrument clusters, grab handles, dashboard, infotainment system, lighting clusters. The steps involved redesigning with scale and manufacturability in mind.

Congratulations to the students and mentors who participated in this incredible internship opportunity!