We’ve always believed that good engineering is a team effort. The best outcomes come from strong fundamentals, practical experience, and learning from each other.

Both networks give us a clear view the latest developments in our core markets, and a straightforward way to share insight with and stay connected to the people leading this development.

Randle Engineering was established in 1994 with deep roots in automotive engineering. We still bring a first‑principles approach to complex problems particularly in vehicle dynamics, suspension, structures, and mechanical systems and that experience continues to inform our work across multiple sectors today.

SMMT brings together manufacturers, engineering specialists, and technology companies from across the global automotive supply chain. For us, membership is a practical way to stay close to the topics our customers care about, from emerging technologies to standards and policy that affect day‑to‑day engineering decisions.

Our SMMT membership strengthens our ability to:

• Keep up with changes in the automotive landscape and the issues influencing vehicle programmes
• Connect with other engineering teams across OEMs, suppliers, and specialist consultancies
• Contribute to discussions around engineering standards, guidance, and best practice
• Build our presence in the market though involvement with a range of working groups in technical areas aligned with our capabilities

Alongside automotive, we’re also supporting a growing range of defence clients bringing the same engineering discipline to safety critical, high‑performance applications.

Make UK Defence is the UK’s defence trade association, providing a link between engineering SMEs, prime contractors, and government stakeholders, and championing a strong, resilient supply chain.

Being part of Make UK Defence supports the way we work; collaborating early, communicating clearly, and delivering robust engineering in regulated environments. It also reflects our focus on building long‑term relationships across the defence supply chain showcasing our experience working within demanding, regulated programmes and a commitment to building trusted partnerships over the long term.

Whether we’re supporting early concepts, detailed design and analysis, or troubleshooting complex issues, staying engaged with the wider industry helps us challenge assumptions and keep our work relevant. We’re proud to be part of both communities, and look forward to continuing to contribute, listen, share what we’ve learned, and collaborating where we can.

If you would like to learn more about our work or discuss how Randle Engineering can support your next project, please get in touch: info@randle.co.uk | 01926 623 200

The post Randle Engineering – SMMT and Make UK Defence  appeared first on Randle Engineering.

We are a specialist UK mechanical engineering consultancy, based in Warwick, with a reputation built on first‑principles thinking, rigorous engineering, and long-term customer trust. Our size is intentional, our standards are uncompromising, and our people are central to everything we do.

A consultancy where engineering still means engineering.

Founded in 1990, Randle Engineering brings over three decades of innovation and delivery across multiple sectors, from passenger vehicles and commercial platforms to off‑highway machinery, aerospace, robotics, and medical applications.

Our engineers work on projects that span:

• Component and system development
• Full vehicle and concept programmes
• Powertrain and suspension integration
• Engineering problem solving from first principles, not templates.

This is a consultancy where hand calculations, free‑body diagrams and fundamental understanding really matter and where junior engineers are encouraged to build these skills with real world experience and mentorship from engineers with decades of industry experience and recognised for their technical excellence. Our engineers break down the barriers between designers and analysts. We do it all and apply the right tool at the right time…

What makes Randle different for early career engineers?

You will own real engineering work in your early weeks, months and beyond. Projects at Randle range from short, focused investigations to multi month programmes, sometimes led by a single engineer, sometimes delivered by small team. From early on, you are trusted to own your tasks, make decisions, manage stakeholders, and present your work clearly.

You will learn to solve problems, how to apply and develop your ideas? Not just what to do. We expect high technical standards, but we support you in getting there with structured development pathways aligned to UK‑SPEC / IMechE competencies. Technical mentoring from experienced engineers and regular one‑to‑one support and feedback. Time and space to properly analyse problems in a small, supportive, high trust team.

We are a small consultancy by design, this creates a flat structure with no heirs and graces with high staff retention. A calm, quiet office environment with room for deep work with open opportunity for discussion, debate, and continuous improvement initiatives. We value opinions, discussion is encouraged, questioning is welcomed, and learning is continuous.

Our Approach: “Randleness”

Internally, we talk about “Randleness” our shorthand for customer added value through engineering excellence. It means, getting to the heart of a problem, removing unnecessary complexity. Applying rigour from first sketches and calculations through to delivery and presenting work clearly and confidently.

As our Founders favourite quote reminds us,

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Location, flexibility, and benefits

We work primarily from the office, with face‑to‑face collaboration at the heart of how we operate, alongside flexible home working (up to two days per week). Competitive salary and benefits including, private healthcare (inc optical & dental), pension contributions, salary sacrifice car scheme, cycle‑to‑work scheme and DIS and IPP.

Who thrives at Randle Engineering?

You will enjoy Randle if you:

• Want to understand systems deeply, not just re-use what was done before.
• Enjoy solving problems from first principles.
• Are comfortable owning work and learning through responsibility?
• Value quality, clarity, and technical integrity
• Want exposure to diverse engineering challenges early in your career.

Ready to start building real engineering experience?

We regularly welcome graduate and junior mechanical engineers who want to develop into technically confident, respected engineering professionals.

Interested? Get in touch via our careers page or LinkedIn.

The post Engineering careers built on first principles. Freedom to engineer. A career with Randle Engineering. appeared first on Randle Engineering.

Benchmarking is NOT planning to ‘copy’ a competitor product, but a scientific process to characterise essential attributes of vehicle performance and feed them into the programme requirements. A way to ensure the vehicle is competitive in its market sector and to guide engineers in the development process.

Every vehicle programme starts with a high level ‘target’ defined by the brand’s corporate identity and class of vehicle being developed. The use of benchmark data provides ‘context’ for this high-level target, providing guidance on market expectations and highlighting areas of differentiation.

Benchmarking is a science

Benchmarking is a science, a planned and measured part of the development process that makes use of subjective and objective metrics to analyse vehicle performance; completing tests and recording information in a way directly repeatable as part of the later vehicle validation process, ensuring a true ‘like for like’ comparison is made. It is not a process based on personal preferences or opinion, but one that follows defined and repeatable test procedures aligned with industry requirements for performance and safety.

It is essential that a repeatable procedure is used; for subjective reviews this requires a well-defined set of test parameters and scoring metrics. For objective tests the data must be collected by calibrated instrumentation to record vehicle performance, ensuring repeatability of the tests and extracting maximum value from the benchmarking programme.

Engineers experienced in running benchmark programmes provide significant added value on top of the recorded data, providing valuable insight into the individual performance metrics; insight that is born from a fundamental understanding of the physics behind vehicle behaviour and the way vehicles react to certain inputs.

Why structured benchmarking is critical for developing performance targets

Setting targets without consideration of market requirements and insight into competitor performance is likely to lead to unrealistic, unachievable or misaligned project goals.

The benchmarking process helps the vehicle manufacturer define the boundaries of performance across attributes – for vehicle dynamics this will include both ride and handling metrics, with the balance between these defined by the market positioning of the vehicle.

It is essential that the correct balance is struck between individual attributes, and that a full understanding of the implications of the targets is in place. For example, targeting ride performance of a Mercedes S Class (a leading performer in this attribute) with the handling performance of a BMW M5 will give an unrealistic set of targets – the bush stiffnesses and suspension geometries required to deliver S Class levels of ride will inhibit the ability to corner at the high lateral accelerations achieved by the M5.

For Randle Engineering, the application of engineering first principles early in a development programme ensures a thorough understanding of the engineering fundamentals required to develop the vehicle, removing guesswork and ensuring efficiency in the programme. This process is complemented by the use of benchmark data.

Benchmarking is not about imitation – it fuels innovation

A well-executed benchmarking programme can ignite the development of innovative solutions – it allows engineers to identify gaps in the competitive landscape and exploit them to the benefit of their programme.

They can fully understand the compromises their contemporaries have accepted and the opportunities to solve them to give a competitive advantage – informing true unique selling propositions for their products.

For Randle Engineering, the use of benchmark information fuels the first principles reasoning we apply to our projects – making sure we develop solutions aligned with market requirements in an efficient and effective way.

Benchmarking, for us, is not just about physical testing – we utilise a range of in-house developed tools to model vehicle performance, including the performance of benchmarks. These advanced modelling tools provide a quick-fire way to understand vehicle performance and the fundamental mathematics that underpins the suspension systems.

The use of modelling at this early stage will allow for a rapid concept phase, with clear understanding of performance and the impact of suspension design considerations at a much earlier stage than is typical – a clear benefit for manufacturers delivering programmes with short durations.

We see benchmarking as an essential part of the development process and a key input to fully understand the vehicle development targets.

Do you have the same opinion?

The post Benchmarking as part of the vehicle dynamics development process appeared first on Randle Engineering.

As the automotive industry advances towards higher levels of automation, vehicle manufacturers are increasingly integrating ‘X-by-wire’ systems – such as throttle-by-wire, shift-by-wire and brake-by-wire – to support automated driving functions.

These systems remove the mechanical connection between the user input and the vehicle actuation systems, replacing them with sophisticated networks of sensors, controllers and actuators that precisely control the vehicle in response to the user input.

Unlike other X-by-wire systems that have seen widespread adoption, steer-by-wire has remained a rarity in series production vehicles. Most manufacturers have opted for electric power assisted steering (EPAS) to enable their automated driving features. However, steer-by-wire offers significant advantages over EPAS, including enhanced handling characteristics, greater flexibility in component packaging and the ability to tune steering feel late into the development process.

This white paper explores these advantages and contrasts them with the challenges manufacturers face in developing steer-by-wire systems for series production.

It offers a comprehensive view of this emerging technology and its application, summerising how it will shape the future development of steering systems.

The post WHITEPAPER: Steer-by-Wire appeared first on Randle Engineering.