Design​/Improvement Specialist

Job Details

• Job Title:
  
  Design/Improvement Specialist
• Location:
  
  Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
• Job Type: Contract
• Posted: 28/11/2025

The Design/Improvement Specialist will play a key role in analysing, redesigning, and optimising engineering and operational processes across the organisation. The position focuses on driving continuous improvement, operational excellence, and efficiency in line with industrial engineering principles. The specialist will lead diagnostics, develop improvement strategies, and evaluate programme performance to ensure sustainable, measurable enhancements.

• Conduct detailed assessments of current engineering, production, and operational processes to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and improvement opportunities.
• Design optimisation solutions using industrial engineering methods such as Lean, Six Sigma, time-and-motion studies, value-stream mapping, workflow modelling, and capacity analysis.
• Evaluate the effectiveness and performance of engineering or operational programmes, ensuring alignment with productivity, cost, and quality objectives.
• Redesign processes to enhance throughput, reduce waste, improve resource utilisation, and introduce standard operating procedures (SOPs) where needed.
• Drive initiatives to improve production planning, layout optimisation, cycle times, equipment utilisation, and overall operational flow.
• Work closely with engineering teams, operations managers, production staff, and quality specialists to gather insights and ensure buy‑in for improvement initiatives.
• Promote continuous improvement culture by facilitating workshops, identifying root causes (e.g., Fishbone, 5 Whys), and implementing sustainable corrective actions.
• Use quantitative analysis, statistical tools, and engineering metrics to develop improvement recommendations and prepare clear reports, business cases, and performance dashboards.
• Identify and mitigate risks related to process reliability, safety, quality, and efficiency during improvement initiatives.

• Minimum Qualification Requirements – Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering, Commerce, or a related engineering discipline.
• Minimum Experience – 10 years of experience in industrial engineering, operations improvement, process optimisation, production systems, or continuous improvement roles.
• Core Competencies – Strong understanding of industrial engineering principles; ability to analyse and optimise complex workflows; proficiency in Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and continuous improvement frameworks; strong problem‑solving and diagnostic capability; excellent stakeholder communication and workshop facilitation skills; ability to deliver measurable improvements in cost, quality, and operational performance.