About me

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

I am Andy Beaumont and I an engineer with over 40 years experience in the automotive industry. In 1983, I graduated from New College, University of Oxford, with a BA in Engineering Science. After graduation, I joined Ricardo Consulting Engineers based in their headquarters in Shoreham-by-Sea as a controls and electronics engineer. In 2000, I was sent on an international secondment to the Detroit Technical Centre to create a new Controls and Electronics Department and in 2005 moved to Prague to do a similar job there, ending up as an executive director (Jednatel). In 2024, I was recalled as a Jednatel and am now an independent engineering consultant with a goal to pass on my experience on to the next generation of engineers.

My Career

During my time at Ricardo, I have delivered many projects ranging from research and development, advanced engineering and creating new technologies through to production vehicle programmes. During that time, I have gained insights into how different companies work and what is effective (and also ineffective) in the delivery of quality engineering projects.

My main skills are in

Technical leadership, managing and recruiting engineering teams
Simulation and modelling of automotive systems
Engineering of complex electronic control systems
Managing the development of electronic control units
Production software development following ASPICE (and other) processes
Functional safety following ISO26262 and similar standards

Since leaving Ricardo, I have set myself up as an independent consultant who helps clients streamline their engineering processes.

I am a firm believer in the KISS principle (Keep it Simple Stupid!) and think that this applies to both the design itself and the processes used. I also subscribe to the DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself), particularly with respect to documentation. I have seen instances where the system description is repeated in many documents such as functional & technical safety concepts, system architectural design, and so on. This creates a maintenance nightmare as one change in the system description should be replicated in multiple places for consistency. It would be much better to have the specific item in one place that can be either referenced or "included" in of the relevant documents.