A Day in the Life of a Manufacturing Engineer at Medical Device Company
A manufacturing engineer's day, as described by Emma, begins with a morning meeting to address production concerns, including component shortages and assembly errors—"a point where we're able to bring up any concerns for the day". The remainder of the workday involves a variety of tasks, from floor-based troubleshooting to desk work such as document updates and investigating customer complaints to prevent recurrence.
Problem-Solving, Communication, Teamwork, Manufacturing Processes, Root Cause Analysis
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Emma Stramberg
Manufacturing Engineer
Medical Device Company
Cal Poly SLO
N/A
Engineering - Biomedical
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Operations & Supply Chain
Operations and Project Management
Greek Life Member, LGBTQ
Video Highlights
1. Manufacturing engineers work various shifts, depending on the company and manufacturing needs.
2. A significant part of the job involves addressing and resolving production issues, including component shortages and assembly errors.
3. Troubleshooting and conducting root cause analysis for customer complaints are important aspects of the role, highlighting problem-solving skills.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a manufacturing engineer look like?
For me, I basically come into the office around 8:00 or 8:30. That's because we only have one shift for all of our operators. Depending on manufacturing and engineering at other sites, you may come into the office at 3:00 AM and work three to noon, or work the overnight shift.
I have it pretty lucky, so I'm just your standard 8:00 to 5:00. I come in around then and attend our morning meeting. I check if everything is running properly and make sure there are no concerns or questions from the operators or supervisors.
That's where we communicate if we have component shortages, or if any parts never made it to the floor. We also discuss parts that were assembled incorrectly and shouldn't be sent to customers. Basically, it's a point where we can bring up any concerns for the day, anything that should be prioritized, or anything that should be communicated to management.
Other than that, I'd say it's just busy. Every day is a new challenge. Depending on what you're working on, you might be on the floor all day, or at your desk doing document updates. You might be updating different parts or investigating customer complaints.
If something happens and it made it into the field, we want to figure out what went wrong. So we do a root cause analysis to ensure it doesn't happen again. We're not on the floor directly; again, we're doing a lot of updates and making sure everything is running smoothly.
Advizer Personal Links
linkedin.com.in/estrambe