Mind the Gap - The Relevance of Systems Engineering
Mind the Gap – The Relevance of Systems Engineering.
Systems have always been complex and subject to transformation. It is our understanding and approach to systems thinking that has enabled a more comprehensive insight to complexity. In many cases company success is mandating to adopt systems engineering broadly. The challenge is to explain the relevance of systems engineering in a complex world that wants easy answers. The role of the systems engineering community is to bridge the perceived gap between the complexity of systems engineering and relevant business needs.
Udo Scheff (PhD) has been the Vice President Engineering for the Small and Mid Tractor series at John Deere since 2023. In this function, he has global overall responsibility for the vehicle engineering and program management of the tractor product families with development locations in India, China, USA, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany.
Udo was born in Holstein, Northern Germany. After completing an apprenticeship and graduating from high school, he studied mechanical engineering with a focus on engineering design and machine dynamics at Leibnitz University in Hanover and Michigan Technological University. He received his doctorate degree in 2010 from the Technical University of Braunschweig.
In 1999, Udo began his professional career at the John Deere works in Mannheim as a development engineer in the field of chassis engineering. After various positions in product development, he was entrusted with overall technical responsibility for the new 6R series in 2006. From 2012 he held various management positions at John Deere in Waterloo (USA) before taking on the role of Engineering Manager for the Global Mid Tractor series at John Deere in Mannheim, Germany, in 2018.
Due to his many years of professional experience in the field of agricultural machinery, he has in-depth engineering experience at the component, module, system, vehicle and architecture level.