The Industrial Engineer partners with plant management and frontline supervisors to drive measurable gains in safety, quality, delivery, and cost (SQDC). With a balance of technical expertise and leadership influence, the role advances the company’s continuous improvement culture by aligning Lean and Six Sigma practices with company values: Execute with Determination, Connect with People, and Do the Right Thing.
Key Responsibilities:
Process & Technical Expertise:
Lead continuous improvement projects across assigned areas.
Conduct value stream mapping, time studies, and process flow analysis to optimize throughput, takt time, and resource allocation.
Design and implement ergonomic workstations and assembly lines to improve operator safety, efficiency, and quality.
Develop and maintain labor standards, capacity models, and production forecasts to support planning and scheduling accuracy.
Optimize material flow, internal logistics, and line-side delivery systems to reduce handling, downtime, and waste.
Implement visual management systems (kanban, Andon, production boards) to improve shop floor communication and accountability.
Lead root cause analysis and structured problem-solving (8D, A3, FMEA) to drive permanent solutions to production challenges.
Partner with welding departments to advance robotic welding automation, weld sequence optimization, and fixture/tooling design.
Support automation and technology integration (PLC-controlled systems, robotics, smart manufacturing, IoT-enabled equipment).
Apply statistical process control (SPC) and advanced data analytics to monitor quality and process performance.
Collaborate with Maintenance/Engineering teams on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) to improve the equipment’s uptime and reliability.
Work with New Product Engineering to integrate Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) into new axle and suspension designs.
Identify and implement cost reduction initiatives in direct labor, indirect labor, scrap, rework, and utilities.
Standardize best practices across regions, ensuring sustainability and replication of improvements.
Leadership & Influence:
Act as a local CI coach and trainer, mentoring plant managers and supervisors.
Facilitate Kaizen workshops and problem-solving events.
Track and report KPIs (OEE, scrap, safety, cost savings).
Promote best practice sharing across departments to reduce variation.
Drive the Lean culture through engagement with both leadership and frontline employees.
Qualifications:
Competencies:
Customer Focus – aligns CI work with the company’s product reliability and customer commitments.
Collaboration – effective across plants, union environments, and functional teams.
Operational Excellence – uses Lean/Six Sigma to drive sustainable results.
Communication – able to translate CI strategy from plant floor to executive level.
Change Leadership – drives adoption of CI culture in established operations.
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related field
Experience:
1-3+ years in manufacturing (axle, chassis, suspension, automotive/trailer components preferred).