You can make it! Building Bridges Between Engineering and Manufacturing
Uyen Tran
In a dynamic environment where product designs become tangible reality, Uyen Tran occupies the crucial space between engineering and manufacturing. Her work bridges the conceptual world of design with the practical realities of production, ensuring that innovative ideas can be efficiently and effectively manufactured.
“So basically I probably explain that I work with different teams in business and outside the business as well, like flight providers or different companies or groups to make the products that you basically use every day,” Uyen explains. Her role involves coordinating across disciplines to bring designs from concept to manufactured reality.
Engineering Foundations
Uyen’s background in engineering provides the technical foundation for her manufacturing work. This education equipped her with both theoretical knowledge and problem-solving skills that prove invaluable when addressing manufacturing challenges.
“My background is engineering. I’ve been working for about 20 years now—first in engineering, and then 15 years in manufacturing,” she explains, highlighting the progression of her career from technical design to implementation.
The Manufacturing Mindset
For Uyen, manufacturing represents the practical application of engineering principles to create products that serve real human needs. Her perspective emphasizes both the technical precision required and the human-centered purpose behind it.
“Manufacturing is more to make life easier, to bring values to life,” she states. “For kids, I explain it by saying, how do you play Nintendo Switch? Where does that come from? Why do they make different colours for this remote? It’s about defining what you want, your demand, your preference, and then manufacturing makes it happen.”
Navigating Cultural and Technical Challenges
As someone who brings an international perspective to her work, Uyen has navigated both technical and cultural challenges in manufacturing. Her experiences reflect the increasingly global nature of manufacturing supply chains and the importance of cross-cultural communication in modern production environments.
“You can’t really walk into the job and know I have to do this,” she observes about manufacturing’s constant learning curve. “Every product is unique. You can’t walk into a new job and know everything—you have to keep learning.”
Simplifying Complexity
One of Uyen’s key contributions is her ability to simplify complex manufacturing challenges into manageable processes. This skill is particularly valuable in modern manufacturing, where products combine multiple technologies and materials in increasingly sophisticated ways.
“In the manufacturing environment, what we were trying to do is we try to turn the engineering design into something that easy to assemble, easy to make. And then also it create it’s also take into account the user interface, the user experience and feedback to an engineer,” she explains, highlighting her role in making designs manufacturable.
The Future of Manufacturing Technology
Looking ahead, Uyen is particularly interested in how artificial intelligence will transform manufacturing processes. She sees AI as a tool that can enhance human capabilities rather than replace them.
“I’m interested in AI in manufacturing—how it can improve processes but not replace human problem-solving. Machines alone don’t drive improvement, but people do,” she notes, emphasizing that technology should serve human creativity rather than supplant it.
Advice for the Next Generation
Drawing from her two decades of experience, Uyen encourages those interested in manufacturing to embrace its diversity and continuous learning opportunities. She emphasises that manufacturing today requires both technical knowledge and soft skills like communication and collaboration.
“Every product is unique. You can’t walk into a new job and know everything—you have to keep learning. Manufacturing also relies on many teams working together,” she advises, highlighting the collaborative nature of modern production.
For women specifically, she notes that confidence often comes with experience: “When it comes to woman, some women do have confidence, but I don’t know whether their confidence always or they confidence after they gain some experience.”
Through her work bridging engineering and manufacturing, Uyen demonstrates how technical expertise, practical problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration come together to create products that enhance everyday life.