Manufacturing Engineer

Description

The Manufacturing Engineer owns the technical definition of how products are made at the site. This includes process parameters and equipment settings, line capability and capacity, equipment selection and installation, and the engineering standards that govern how equipment is specified, installed, and documented.

The role sits between what the business wants to produce and what the plant is physically able to produce, and is expected to close that gap with engineering rather than with effort. A Manufacturing Engineer is measured by whether lines run at the rate they were designed to run, whether new equipment starts up cleanly, and whether the plant has accurate technical documentation of itself.

• Define, validate, and document process parameters, equipment settings, and run rates for each product and line, so the plant has a known correct condition to return to.
• Analyze line performance and capacity, identify the constraining equipment or process step, and quantify the loss so investment and effort are directed at the actual limit.
• Evaluate equipment capability against product and packaging requirements, and determine whether a gap is a maintenance issue, a setting issue, a design limit, or a specification problem.
• Lead technical investigations on chronic equipment and process problems, determine cause, and drive engineering corrective actions to closure.
• Evaluate material, ingredient, and packaging changes for machinability, run production trials, and define the settings required to run them.
• Develop and maintain process flow documentation, line layouts, equipment specifications, and utility requirements.

• Scope, justify, and manage capital projects, including capital request preparation, financial justification, budget management, and schedule.
• Write equipment specifications and requests for proposal, evaluate vendors on technical merit and total cost, and make sourcing recommendations.
• Manage factory acceptance testing and site acceptance testing, and hold vendors to the specification before final payment.
• Manage installation, commissioning, debug, and rate qualification, and formally hand equipment over to Operations and Maintenance with documentation, spare parts, and training in place.
• Coordinate contractors on site, including scheduling, safety orientation, permit compliance, and quality of installed work.
• Verify that selected and installed equipment meets sanitary design requirements, machine safety standards, and electrical and mechanical code before it is released to production.

• Partner with Research and Development, Quality, and Operations to bring new and reformulated products from pilot scale into full production.
• Assess capacity, equipment fit, and capital or tooling requirements for proposed products, and provide an honest technical answer on feasibility and timing.
• Plan and run production trials, capture the data, and translate results into documented operating parameters.
• Manage engineering change control for process and equipment changes, including documentation, validation requirements, and communication to affected functions.

• Maintain accurate site technical documentation, including equipment drawings, line layouts, piping and instrumentation diagrams, and utility maps, so drawings reflect the plant as it exists.
• Maintain equipment files, including manuals, specifications, spare parts lists, and vendor contacts.
• Apply and maintain engineering standards for sanitary design, machine guarding and safety, and utility systems.
• Support internal, customer, regulatory, and third party audits by producing engineering documentation and technical justification on request.
• Track and report project status, capital spend, and technical performance against commitments.

• Provide engineering support to Maintenance and Production on equipment problems that exceed routine troubleshooting.
• Develop training and technical documentation for new equipment, and ensure operators, mechanics, and supervisors are trained before startup rather than after.
• Evaluate yield, waste, utility consumption, and material usage from an engineering standpoint, and identify where design or setting changes would reduce loss.
• Support Safety and Quality in equipment related risk assessments, including machine safety, ergonomics, and food safety by…