Manufacturing Engineering Lead

Title: Manufacturing Tech Lead

Location: Appleton, WI (onsite)

Type: Fulltime

Experience Range: 7-15 Years

Specific industry experience: Automotive, Truck & Off-Highway

Job Description:

1. Lead and manage a team of onsite Industrial Engineers supporting 4-5 manufacturing facilities in the Appleton, WI area, ensuring successful execution of time studies, work measurement, line balancing, productivity improvement, Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement initiatives.
2. Serve as the primary liaison between Customer, Onsite, and Offshore teams, driving project governance, resource planning, risk management, stakeholder communication, and executive reporting. Oversee delivery quality, schedule adherence, value realization, and implementation of process optimization recommendations across multiple plants.
3. Support ongoing manufacturing transformation programs, including assembly line consolidation and high-flow line implementation, identifying opportunities for labor optimization, automation, robotics, material flow improvements, and digital manufacturing solutions.
4. Actively collaborate with customer leadership, operations, engineering, and sales teams to expand the engagement footprint, develop new business opportunities, and drive sustainable operational and financial benefits.
5. Coordinate effectively with cross-functional and offshore teams to ensure execution excellence.
6. Experience in performing Video based time studies and work breakdown activities.
7. Perform Line Balancing Studies using Yamazumi charts.
8. Identify process improvement and support in productivity improvement initiative.
9. Should have experience in high volume and high mix production environment
10. Experience in multi model line balancing and level loading.
11. Knowledge on Lean manufacturing, Total quality management, Kaizen, 5s, Material tracking – Kanban, Poke - Yoka etc.
12. Drive, Identify and Implement the key projects to improve quality, reduce cost, increase productivity, and improve cycle time.
13. Develop SOPs, work instructions, and standardized operating methods to improve process consistency and performance.
14. Identify opportunities to reduce labor, route optimization, warehouse and inventory optimization.
15. Streamlining Operations for Increased Productivity & Cost Reduction through Automation
16. Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the manufacturing teams. Develop and implement improvement plans, set KPIs, and track progress to ensure sustainable changes.
17. Data Analysis: Leverage data analytics tools to collect, analyze, and present data related to engineering processes. Create dashboards and reports that provide insights for decision-making.
18. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with different teams.
19. Risk Management: Identify potential risks and roadblocks in improvement projects and proactively develop mitigation strategies.
20. Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including senior management, to ensure alignment of objectives and support for improvement initiatives.

Key Competencies

• Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, 5S, Kanban, Poka-Yoke, and Total Quality Management (TQM).
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, conflict resolution, and change management skills.
• Proven ability to lead global teams and deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Program Governance, Multi-project Delivery Management, Risk & Issue Management, KPI / Metrics Driven Delivery, Customer Escalation Management, Onsite–Offshore Delivery Model, Lean Transformation, Stakeholder Management.

Qualification:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering / industrial engineering background