| Managing Elizabeth
Pilibosian is GM's director for noise and vibration By
integrating unavoidable noise, she and her group can give a luxury car or a sports
vehicle the appropriate sound and feel  | | GM's
Elizabeth Pilibosian: "seeing what will happen in the next twenty years." |
There
are always challenging issues to work on," says Elizabeth Anne Pilibosian,
integration director for noise and vibration at General Motors (Detroit, MI).
"Many of my areas directly affect the customers - the way they feel in the
car, the quietness of the car, how they perceive the car." And, most important
of all, if they'd like to own the car. "You
can do many different things with a vehicle," she explains. "We develop
vehicles to have a specific character." Pilibosian
has been with GM since 1982. She's been in her current job for three years, overseeing
about 170 people who use mathematical analysis and other tools to work on the
noise and vibration character of vehicles. She is based in Milford, MI, where
GM's main proving grounds are located. From
wind to suspension
It's her responsibility to make sure that unavoidable
noise associated with everything from wind to power train to suspension blends
into a harmonious whole. "As
an integration director, it's important to talk to all the disciplines - electrical,
body structures, power train - to make sure you've integrated each system,"
she says. And even though she's a director now, she still gets a chance to test-drive
cars and trucks. Eleven
managers report to her. "I want to give people the opportunity to resolve
their own issues," she says. "They and their teams work very hard. They'll
do what it takes to develop a vehicle that exceeds our customer's expectations." Working
a little harder
Pilibosian got her BSME from Oakland University (Rochester,
MI) in 1982. She was one of four women in her graduating class hired by Pontiac.
"Many
women were in electrical or systems engineering when I attended college. Those
majors weren't necessarily hands-on," she recalls. "There were very
few women in ME. I knew I had to work a little harder because I was female. But
once the men saw I could and would do whatever it took, they were very helpful."
Pilibosian
grew up in Detroit, MI. Her father was an automotive and industrial engineer at
Chrysler. "He taught me how to work on my car; he always helped me with everything,"
she says. "He's very supportive and has always told me I could do anything
I wanted to." When
she got to Oakland University, it had no formal co-op program. She and a friend
convinced the dean that one was needed. She co-opped at Bendix, an automotive
parts supplier, as an engineer and technician in an R&D group working on superchargers.
"It
was such a small group that I was able to get into the statistical analysis and
the testing of the superchargers in the dynamometers and in vehicles. I was also
involved in writing an SAE paper on the vane-type supercharger that was presented
that year. "I
learned many aspects of the business at Bendix," Pilibosian says. "It
was a great job." Problem-solving
at GM
Pilibosian spent one college summer as a draftsperson for Fisher
Body, then a division of GM. After college she went straight to GM, starting as
a project engineer in the Pontiac division. She
began with six months in CAD/CAM. "I designed components for specific vehicle
applications. It was a great experience and has really helped me understand the
power of math analysis." Then
they put her on hardware. This was a wonderful opportunity too, because design
engineers would come to her with design-phase issues. "I could use CAD, or
test by laying strain gauges, or get data on accelerations or noise. Whatever
it took, I helped each person solve the problem." From
1983 to 1985 Pilibosian continued on as a problem-solver, working on noise and
vibration issues for GM Sunfires and Cavaliers. She analyzed total vehicles, components
and systems. She spent some time in Germany, working with engineers there on noise,
vibration and vehicle development for an Opel/Pontiac/Daewoo joint venture. Hot
summers, cold winters
Meanwhile, GM reorganized a number of its divisions
and combined engineering areas to save money and increase efficiency. Pilibosian
found herself working on the Monte Carlo, Lumina, Grand Prix and Cutlass Supreme.
This involved spending summers and winters in Mesa, AZ, doing underhood and underbody
testing. Winters
can be cold in northern Arizona, and "Summers are very hot and dry, so it's
a great place to evaluate the integrity of our systems," she says. "You
have to make sure the components survive in extremes." She began to work
on integration factors like noise and vibration, vehicle dynamics, tires and shocks
- one of the first women at GM to get into those areas. Moving
toward management
From 1989 to 1994, Pilibosian worked as a development
engineer on Camaros and Firebirds in the mid-sized car group. She considers it
her first step toward management. She
followed that up with a few years in marketing. And from 1997 to 1999 Pilibosian
was an engineering group manager, responsible for a team that designed door systems
for the 2003 Grand Prix, Camaro, Firebird and Corvette. "Doors
are one of the toughest systems to design. The door is the first thing the customers
touch," she says. "They open the door every time they drive the vehicle.
You have to make sure it's quiet and solid." North
American cars
Pilibosian moved to the North America car group in 1999.
By now, engineering of cars and trucks was done together. "It benefited us,
because now we do things in common, which saves time and allows us to bring products
to market faster," she says. She
took over the noise and vibration responsibility in 2000. "There's a lot
of work for this team because we are consolidating," she explains. "My
task is to try to do more in math and less in hardware so we can get cars out
faster." But
even with all the work on software models and algorithms, she notes, the human
ear remains the final arbiter of sound quality. Pilibosian
is excited about her future with GM. "It's only been twenty years,"
she reflects. "I'm only halfway through my career at General Motors. "I'm
looking forward to seeing what will happen in the next twenty years!"
D/C
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Kate Colborn & Heidi Russell Rafferty | 
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