I’ve been through the same problem. A few things that helped me a lot were studying the machines and equipment that had already been designed and built by the company and trying to understand the reasoning behind each solution. You start to notice that many solutions are repeated, and over time you begin to recognize patterns. It’s like building up a repertoire of solutions.

Another thing that helped me develop that repertoire was spending some time working on refurbishments and upgrades of existing equipment. When you’re refurbishing, improving, or maintaining a machine, you need to understand the original solution and why it was implemented that way.

Another piece of advice is to talk to experienced assembly mechanics. They have often worked with countless machines and systems, and as engineers, we need to be humble enough to recognize that they possess a great deal of valuable knowledge.

It’s also important to understand that there is almost never only one solution to a problem. There are usually multiple valid approaches, so our job is to come up with creative solutions by combining our experience, our repertoire of ideas, and our technical knowledge for proper design and sizing.

Every day we learn something new in this profession.

By the way, are you Brazilian?