Job Description

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).

Technical Skills:

• Lean Six Sigma (Green/Black Belt preferred).
• Welding knowledge (manual/robotic, MIG, TIG, resistance).
• Time studies, labor standards, and plant layout design.
• ERP/MES (Oracle, Plex, SAP) and data analytics.