Manufacturing Engineers
If I asked you where the chair or sofa you're sitting on right now was made? Or the computer or smartphone you're reading this on? Or the car that takes you to school or university every day? Or the various electrical and electronic devices in your home? You'd certainly answer that they were made in factories. That answer is fairly easy and obvious to everyone, but what many of us don't know is how the various products in our lives are actually manufactured, and what stages any product goes through before it reaches us in the final form we see in stores and markets. For example: if a company decided today to manufacture a new electric car, how would that happen? Of course, the company would first hire engineers, technicians, and workers with previous experience in that kind of industry โ design, mechanical, and electrical engineers and technicians, among others โ to handle all the manufacturing procedures and processes. But at the top of all of them would be a specific engineer called a "manufacturing engineer." The manufacturing engineer may be the key, most important element across every industry, from a sewing needle to a rocket, because they're the party primarily responsible for the product from the very start of its manufacturing to the very end. They're the one who reviews with the designer the ideal shape the product should take, determines the raw materials needed for manufacturing and how to buy them at the best quality and lowest price, and chooses the machines, equipment, robots, and technological systems that will be used across the different manufacturing stages. They're also responsible for solving any problems that might arise during those stages and removing any obstacles that might face the other workers, technicians, and engineers involved in the manufacturing process. We could say they're the one who manages the various processes a product goes through in its manufacturing, so that in the end a highly efficient product is manufactured in the fastest time and at the lowest cost.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Apply continuous improvement methods, such as lean manufacturing, to enhance manufacturing quality, reliability, or cost-effectiveness.
- Design layout of equipment or workspaces to achieve maximum efficiency.
- Communicate manufacturing capabilities, production schedules, or other information to facilitate production processes.
- Design, install, or troubleshoot manufacturing equipment.
- Estimate costs, production times, or staffing requirements for new designs.
- Evaluate manufactured products according to specifications and quality standards.
- Investigate or resolve operational problems, such as material use variances or bottlenecks.
- Prepare documentation for new manufacturing processes or engineering procedures.
- Purchase equipment, materials, or parts.
- Review product designs for manufacturability or completeness.
- Troubleshoot new or existing product problems involving designs, materials, or processes.
- Prepare reports summarizing information or trends related to manufacturing performance.
- Provide technical expertise or support related to manufacturing.
- Read current literature, talk with colleagues, participate in educational programs, attend meetings or workshops, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in the manufacturing field.
- Supervise technicians, technologists, analysts, administrative staff, or other engineers.
- Train production personnel in new or existing methods.
- Analyze the financial impacts of sustainable manufacturing processes or sustainable product manufacturing.
- Develop sustainable manufacturing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize raw material use, replace toxic materials with non-toxic materials, replace non-renewable materials with renewable materials, or reduce waste.
- Evaluate current or proposed manufacturing processes or practices for environmental sustainability, considering factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water pollution, energy use, or waste creation.
- Identify opportunities or implement changes to improve manufacturing processes or products or to reduce costs, using knowledge of fabrication processes, tooling and production equipment, assembly methods, quality control standards, or product design, materials and parts.
- Incorporate new manufacturing methods or processes to improve existing operations.
- Determine root causes of failures or recommend changes in designs, tolerances, or processing methods, using statistical procedures.
- Design tests of finished products or process capabilities to establish standards or validate process requirements.