Industrial Engineer

Industrial Engineer – Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS)

Position Summary

The Industrial Engineer is responsible for optimizing manufacturing processes, labor productivity, facility layout, material flow, capacity, and production systems within an Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) environment. This role leads and supports continuous improvement initiatives designed to reduce waste, improve productivity and quality, increase on-time delivery, optimize capacity, and enable scalable growth across SMT, through-hole, box build, conformal coating, testing, and final assembly operations.

The Industrial Engineer applies Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, data analytics, and industrial engineering principles to improve operational performance and drive measurable improvements in cost, quality, delivery, and efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

Manufacturing Process Improvement

• Analyze, develop, and improve manufacturing processes to increase efficiency, throughput, capacity, and quality.
• Conduct time studies, labor analysis, process evaluations, and capacity assessments.
• Establish, maintain, and continuously improve standard work and labor standards.
• Identify and eliminate production bottlenecks, constraints, waste, and non-value-added activities.
• Support New Product Introduction (NPI), manufacturing readiness, and production launch activities.
• Lead and implement Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma improvement initiatives.
• Develop process models and recommend improvements based on data-driven analysis.

Labor & Capacity Planning

• Establish and maintain labor standards and production rates across manufacturing processes.
• Develop staffing models aligned with forecasted demand, production requirements, and capacity constraints.
• Monitor labor utilization and productivity and recommend corrective actions.
• Perform capacity analysis and constraint management to support production scheduling.
• Identify opportunities to balance workloads, optimize staffing, and improve resource utilization.
• Support long-range capacity planning and manufacturing growth strategies.

Factory Layout & Material Flow

• Design, evaluate, and optimize manufacturing cells, workstations, and production layouts.
• Improve material flow from receiving through production, test, final assembly, and shipping.
• Minimize material handling, production travel distances, WIP, and other non-value-added activities.
• Develop and implement flow improvements using Lean principles and value stream analysis.
• Support warehouse, inventory, point-of-use material, and storage optimization initiatives.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Lead Kaizen events and cross-functional continuous improvement projects.
• Implement Lean tools, including 5S, visual management, standard work, line balancing, and value stream mapping.
• Develop and maintain visual management systems, production metrics, and performance dashboards.
• Identify opportunities to improve process stability, flow, utilization, and overall operational performance.
• Support the implementation of Industry 4.0, automation, digital manufacturing, and data-driven production initiatives.
• Establish sustainable processes and controls to ensure improvements are maintained over time.

Metrics & Data Analysis

• Collect, analyze, and interpret manufacturing data to identify trends, performance gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing performance reports and dashboards.
• Monitor and improve key operational metrics, including:
  • Labor efficiency
  • Direct labor utilization
  • OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
  • Productivity
  • Throughput
  • On-Time Delivery (OTD)
  • Inventory turns
  • First Pass Yield (FPY)
  • Manufacturing cycle time
  • WIP levels
  • Capacity utilization

Cost Reduction & Business Support

• Identify opportunities to reduce labor, material handling, overhead, and manufacturing costs.
• Support quoting and new business activities by developing labor estimates, process assumptions, and manufacturing cost models.
• Evaluate manufacturing alternatives and make recommendations based on cost, capacity, quality, and delivery requirements.
• Develop ROI and payback analyses for capital equipment, automation, process improvements, and other manufacturing investments.
• Quantify and track cost savings generated through continuous improvement initiatives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration