MANUFACTURING ENGINEER Thermal Corporation | Rankin Facility | Custom Air Handlers | Houston, Texas COMPANY OVERVIEW Thermal Corporation, a Nailor Industries brand, designs and manufactures air handling equipment for commercial and industrial applications. The Rankin facility specializes in highly customized air handlers built to meet project-specific customer requirements. Nailor Industries operates multiple manufacturing facilities in the Houston area and employs more than 700 operations employees. POSITION SUMMARY The Manufacturing Engineer will lead hands-on improvements across fabrication, welding, sheet metal processing, subassembly, final assembly, and shipping. The role has two connected priorities: improve individual manufacturing processes for safety, quality, repeatability, labor efficiency, and throughput; and create a reliable flow of fabricated material to assembly. The engineer will also establish a one-piece-flow assembly process that moves each air handler from start to finish with minimal waiting, interruption, and work-in-process. This engineer will map the current state, identify constraints and root causes, design the future state, coordinate implementation, and validate results using measurable operating data. Success requires regular presence on the production floor and close partnership with Production, Planning, Materials, Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, and Purchasing. KEY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES - Evaluate and improve structural steel and sheet metal manufacturing processes, including saw and plasma cutting, drilling, welding and fixturing, laser, turret and shear cutting, brake-press forming, and insulated panel production.
- Map current-state production and material flow from raw material through fabrication, subassembly, final assembly, and shipping; identify bottlenecks, shortages, delays, excess work-in-process, and non-value-added movement.
- Design and implement a future-state flow that delivers the correct fabricated components to assembly in the required sequence and at the required time.
- Develop a one-piece-flow assembly system, including station layouts, work sequence, labor and equipment requirements, line balancing, material presentation, and standard work.
- Improve fabrication prioritization and daily execution so capacity is focused on parts needed for current assembly demand.
- Establish practical pull signals, staging, kitting, visual controls, and part-tracking methods that reduce missing or unprocessed parts and minimize emergency rework and expedite activity.
- Use time studies, cycle-time analysis, takt-time calculations, capacity modeling, value-stream mapping, and bottleneck analysis to develop and validate improvements.
- Reduce unit idle time, priority switching, assembly interruptions, and overall production lead time so completed units move off the constrained assembly floor as quickly as possible.
- Develop and maintain plant, equipment, workstation, and material-flow layouts using AutoCAD.
- Develop improved methods, tooling, fixtures, process parameters, carts, point-of use storage, and other production aids that reduce setup time, variation, defects, rework, ergonomic risk, and labor content.
- Create and sustain standard work, work instructions, training materials, and visual management for new or improved processes.
- Own improvement projects from problem definition and data collection through future-state design, implementation, employee training, performance validation, and project closeout.
- Partner cross-functionally to identify material and engineering readiness constraints before work reaches the assembly floor and support practical mitigation plans.
- Support capital equipment evaluations and implementations, process changes, and production ramp-up activities while maintaining company safety and quality standards.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - Assembly consistently receives complete and accurate sets of fabricated parts when they are needed.
- Missing or unprocessed parts, emergency fabrication runs, and schedule disruptions are materially reduced.
- Air handlers move through assembly in a defined sequence with less waiting, priority switching, and incomplete work.
- Work-in-process and unit dwell time decrease, freeing assembly-floor space for the next scheduled units.
- Fabrication and assembly processes demonstrate the capacity, stability, quality, and repeatability required to support committed customer demand.
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED - 5+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, process engineering, or a closely related manufacturing role, including hands-on responsibility for improving fabrication and/or complex assembly processes.
- Demonstrated success leading a production-flow, capacity, line-design, or material-flow improvement from analysis through implementation, with measurable results.
- Experience applying industrial engineering and Lean methods such as process mapping, value-stream mapping, time studies, cycle-time and takt-time analysis, line balancing, capacity modeling, standard work, pull systems, and work-in-process control.
- Ability to work directly with operators and supervisors on the production floor, translate observations and data into practical solutions, and follow improvements through sustained implementation.
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, schematics, and Bills of Material (BOMs).
- Experience developing manufacturing, equipment, or facility layouts using AutoCAD or equivalent drafting software.
- Strong analytical and communication skills, including proficiency with Microsoft Excel and the broader Microsoft Office Suite.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, communicate effectively across functions and organizational levels, and exercise sound judgment in a fast-changing production environment.
PREFERRED - Experience in high-mix, low-volume, engineer-to-order, or other complex assembly manufacturing environments.
- Experience creating or improving one-piece-flow assembly for large, highly configured products.
- Experience with structural steel fabrication, welding, liquid coating, sheet metal cutting and forming, insulated panel production, or comparable upstream fabrication processes.
- Experience with air handlers, HVACR equipment, industrial equipment, or other large custom-engineered products.
EDUCATION - Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical field preferred. Equivalent hands-on manufacturing and process-improvement experience will be considered.
Employment is contingent upon the applicant's ability to work legally in the United States without employer sponsorship. **No 3rd party recruiters at this time**
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