Sandy Munro

Sandy Munro is an automotive engineer who specialises in machine tools and manufacturing.

He started as a toolmaker at the Valiant Machine & Tool company – a General Motors supplier in Windsor. In 1978, he joined the Ford Motor Company where he improved methods of engine assembly.

In 1988, he started his own consultancy, Munro & Associates, in Troy, Michigan. This specialises in lean design, tearing down automotive products to study and suggest improvements and innovations.[1][2]

Early life

Munro was born and grew up in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He started his engineering career as a toolmaker at the Valiant Machine & Tool company which mainly supplied General Motors. He then joined Ford in 1978 where he became a manufacturing engineer and coordinator, improving methods of engine assembly. He then started his own consultancy in Troy, Michigan in 1988 and now has dual Canadian-US citizenship.[3][4][5]

Teardown reports

Munro's consultancy specialises in deconstructing automobiles to analyse their construction and has analysed hundreds of vehicles. The detailed analyses are sold to manufacturers and suppliers who use the information to help plan, price and improve their products. For example, they studied the BMW i3 in 2015 – an innovative electric car which made extensive use of plastics reinforced with carbon fiber and hemp. Their detailed cost analysis cost $2.1 million to produce and originally sold for $89,000.[6] The report was 23,793 pages long, divided into the following sections:[7]

  1. Body
  2. Exterior
  3. Rolling chassis
  4. Battery system
  5. Electronics
  6. Cooling
  7. Drive and motor
  8. Range extender (ReX)
  9. Impact protection and interior trim
  10. Seats

In 2020, the report was made available to the public as a sample of their work. Sandy Munro also hoped that this might inspire a future engineer, as he had been impressed when he was an apprentice and a retiring engineer had made the bargain offer of his expensive toolkit for just a "buck a drawer".[6]

Other electric cars analysed include the Chevrolet Bolt, Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model 3. They found that the Tesla cars had innovative and unusual electronics and power engineering but poor bodywork and production design.[8]

Methodologies

Munro advises and consults on the implementation and use of manufacturing methodologies including Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and lean design. He introduced DFMA to Ingersoll Rand in 1989.[9] Munro's main design principles are:[10]

  1. Teamwork
  2. Reducing the number of parts
  3. Layered assembly from above, using gravity
  4. Easy alignment and insertion
  5. Avoid expensive fastening
  6. Bulk storage to reduce handling problems
  7. Poka-yoke – making operations foolproof to avoid errors
  8. Self assembly so that parts naturally engage
  9. Simplify packaging and servicing
  10. Avoid adjustment and repositioning of the assembly

References
  1. Bradley Berman (8 May 2020), Teardown guru Sandy Munro sells Tesla reports mostly to Asian automakers, electrek
  2. James M. Morgan; Jeffrey K. Liker (2018), Designing the Future, McGraw Hill Professional, p. 276, ISBN 9781260128796
  3. Dave Hall (24 October 2007), "Aerospace industry offers local challenge", The Windsor Star
  4. Biography (PDF), Munro & Associates, 2013
  5. Sandy Munro
  6. Tom Moloughney (15 July 2020), "Munro and Associates is offering its $2 Million BMW i3 Teardown Report for $10!", Inside EVs
  7. BMC i3 Reports, Munro & Associates
  8. Laura Putre (7 May 2019), "Tesla Motor Mouths", Industry Week
  9. D. J. Gerhardt; W. R. Hutchinson; D. K. Mistry (May 1991), "Design for manufacture and assembly: Case studies in its implementation", The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 6: 131–140
  10. Steven Ashley (March 1995), "Cutting costs and time with DFMA" (PDF), Mechanical Engineering: 76
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