Lean Process Engineer

Role Mission & Overview

Utility Solutions Group is a manufacturer of natural gas pressure regulators for utility systems. The company manufactures 9 models of mechanical natural gas pressure regulators in a 120k square-foot facility. After completing a recent acquisition, we are starting production on new product lines that were recently relocated from PA to OH. This requires a higher volume of engineering requirements across many different types of engineering activities – e.g., continuous improvement/lean, quality control, production processes, and material compliance. The company is hiring an Industrial Engineer with a primary focus on lean manufacturing and continuous improvement.

In your Industrial Engineer role, you will primarily support lean and continuous improvement efforts to reduce lead times, reduce cost, and improve profitability. Expect to allocate 90% or more of your time to these projects for your first 1-2 years with the company. In the other 10% of your time, you may support engineering projects focused on quality compliance with external and internal product standards and qualify vendor-supplied components. Examples of these projects could be: maximizing efficiency through re-configuring processes or introducing new technologies, verifying dimensional compliance of components to their engineered drawings, providing specifications to vendors, conducting performance testing on materials or components, establishing statistical sample testing thresholds to meet quality goals, or determining the root causes of product test failures by significance. A successful Industrial Engineer will accomplish this while exercising strong interpersonal skills to build relationships and collaborate with all departments. You will report to the Engineering Manager.

Outcomes in the first three months:

• Become familiar with the team by meeting and building rapport with production, supply chain, maintenance, engineering, and IT; understand the style, personality, technical strengths, and weaknesses of leaders.
• Become familiar with operations activities on each production line, preventative maintenance plans, and manufacturing equipment.
• Map value stream for 143, 243, 441, 461 product lines.
• Establish baseline metrics on each product line for labor and material cost/unit, velocity, lead time, and first-pass yield.
• Develop a list of technology or process changes that have the potential to improve product quality and manufacturing efficiency on 143, 243, 441, 461 product lines. Present these opportunities to the CEO, President, Ops Director, and Engineering Manager with the following explanations and quantified estimates:
  • Concept of the project
  • Time to implement (Weeks)
  • CAPEX cost to implement ($) with an itemized list of costs
  • OPEX cost to implement ($/month for the duration of time) with an itemized list of costs
  • Improvement in direct cost/unit ($)
  • Improvement in velocity (#)I
  • Improvement in lead time (Days)
  • Payback period (Months)
  • Personnel or departmental resources or support required to complete
  • Level of Complexity (1 lowest, 5 highest)
  • Confidence in achieving estimated outcomes (1 lowest, 5 highest)

Outcomes in the first 9 Months:

• Execute the project opportunities selected by the management team.
• Utilize company training content or develop your own to use in teaching employees lean principles, including:
  • Identifying types of waste
  • 5S organization
  • Objective-driven Gemba walks
  • Kaizen project planning and execution

• Support the Director of Operations in executing Kaizen projects monthly with each shift, and develop at least two people per production shift to be Kaizen leaders.

Outcomes in 12 Months:

• Work with Production personnel to identify opportunities that could lead to improved first-pass yield on 143 and 496 product line by 50% or more.
• Work with Quality to achieve component receipt and inspection process such that component quality standards are met with a minimum 90% confidence interval and 6% margin of error.
• Collaborate with Quality to reduce customer returns and implement changes designed to achieve a 2% or lower return rate, measured as the quantity of products returned divided by total products shipped within the quarter.
• Study and re-design RMA process to reduce time by 50% or more.

Outcomes in 24 Months:

• Study and re-design monthly accounting close process to reduce time by 50% or more.
• Study and re-design the sales order entry process to reduce time by 50% or more.
• Study and re-design the purchase order process to reduce time by 50% or more.

Other Duties as Needed:

• Assist with failure analysis and resolution of any product failures.
• Assist with any engineering associated with refining product Bills of Materials.
• As needed, assist with creating work instructions for production line processes.
• Assist with Safety, Environmental, and Quality audits.
• Work with Production to engineer equipment and processes to support KPI’s associated with First Pass Yield, Daily Throughput, and On-Time Delivery.
• Assist Purchasing with supplier visits, sample testing, material analysis, and the QA/QC program.
• Support safety program improvements where engineering input may be required.
• Maintain engineering drawings as required; work through Purchasing Department to ensure material changes are provided to suppliers.
• Support Quality during approval process for certifications/approvals for new and existing products, including applications, material testing, performance testing, and all documentation.

Key Competencies and Personal Characteristics:

• Passionate continuous improvement champion dedicated to learning operations at a granular level and using evidence-based data to identify efficiency opportunities
• Dependable, accountable, responsible, ethical, highly organized
• B.S. education in engineering (Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, for example) – Industrial Engineering preferred
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification preferred
• Capable of training lean fundamentals and championing lean projects
• Experienced with at least 3 years of successful lean projects in a manufacturing organization
• Proven history of continuous improvement projects improving safety, quality, and costs
• Preferably experienced with start-up production operations and/or new product manufacturing
• Driven with a true “can do” attitude and genuine intellectual passion for innovation and positive change, knowing that the status quo is not acceptable
• Able to demonstrate remarkable persistence in the pursuit of progress and not overly risk averse
• Able to inspire and influence team in embracing a culture of continuous improvement and safety
• Collaborative in team problem solving but with confidence to execute a course of action
• Equipped with strong quantitative skills that enable granular understanding of product quality, component quality, and process deficiencies
• Able to communicate an engineering analysis in an understandable fashion
• Able to find and employ problem-solving resources beyond the organization when needed, including additional staff, consultants, and support from vendors
• Resolved that decisions should be based on observation, experimentation, and reason, and not because of common practice.
• Does not suffer from “not invented here” or “not invented by me” narrow- mindedness

What We Believe In

Our team feels it’s incredibly important that we can rely on one another. For that reason, as a baseline requirement people only work here if they D.A.R.E. to be great. And by D.A.R.E. we mean each team member must be Dependable, Accountable, Responsible, and Ethical. Anything short of this isn’t acceptable, and people who can’t live this way won’t last on our team. On the other hand, people who do live this way will love working with us since they’ll be surrounded by folks they can rely on day-in and day-out.

We also believe in being gritty, or GRIT-D. Coupled with passion and talent, grittiness is a powerful force that can push the most average organizations to achieve extraordinary things. For that reason, we’ve crafted our company values around it. The GRIT-D acronym is used as a framework to guide our operations, and we believe it’s what will ensure USG is able to continue creating solutions that improve the safety and reliability of utility infrastructure through the next century.

• Gather and accept objective evidence. Gut instincts are important, but making decisions based on data rather than emotions is even more important. It forces us to understand and grapple with the real forces of our business environment rather than making decisions based on assumptions.

• Reduce waste and inefficiencies. Da Vinci said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Taking his lead, we strive to make our business practices as simple and straightforward as possible. It reduces economic waste and helps people work together more seamlessly.

• Invest in resources that make the company resilient. We want to be a partner for our customers through the foreseeable future. This requires us to invest in people and resources that allow us to weather changes in the industry.

• Tailor solutions to fix utility problems. USG doesn’t want to be just another vendor our customers have to manage. We want to be a partner in their success. By focusing on the problems that cause the most pain, we can ensure we provide practical solutions to meet our customers’ needs.

• Dedicate yourself to your craft. This is the core of being gritty. Set high expectations for yourself and exceed them as often as you’re able. Being an expert at your craft means you take pride in your work and go out of your way to constantly improve yourself and your situation.

Compensation & Benefits

· $80K-$110K salary - an offer in this range will be made based on the candidate's experience and skill.

· 10% of salary performance-based bonus opportunity

· Company contributes 75% of employee medical, dental, and vision, life insurance.

· 4% 401K match