WHAT DOES A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ENGINEER DO?
Updated: Jan 01, 2025 - The Continuous Improvement Engineer drives the execution of continuous improvement strategies, ensuring project goals are met with low cost and risk. Implements best practices, monitors progress, and provides updates on objectives, performance measures, and risks. Actively supports the development of Continuous Improvement Champions and facilitates the application of problem-solving knowledge across the business.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Continuous Improvement Engineer
1. Continuous Improvement Engineer Duties
- Data Analysis: Gather data and accurately analyze work processes, systems, and organizational structures.
- Process Improvement: Using interviews, observations, data, statistical analysis studies, and other techniques to determine where and how to generate measurable improvements.
- Change Management: Generate local team buy-in to install necessary changes to realize measurable improvements for each installation.
- Training: Train personnel from operations in the effective use of management systems, tools, techniques, group problem-solving, team building, and consensus development skills.
- Operational Excellence: Install the appropriate application of the Operational Excellence methodology.
- Project Coordination: Prepare and conduct meetings and one-on-one interfaces with colleagues and the project team to ensure the job's key activities are completed.
- Documentation: Prepare written and oral feedback, presentation materials, critiques, systems documentation, process descriptions, evaluations, data summaries, and reports using the appropriate company templates.
- Innovation: Initiate innovative solutions where required and work closely with colleagues and project management to ensure they are installed for the most effective client impact.
- Communication: Communicate and coordinate all efforts with discipline and in accordance with the company values and ideals.
2. Continuous Improvement Engineer Details
- Process Improvement: Monitor and improve existing processes in the manufacturing of conventional cards (printing, assembling, lamination, die-cutting, hot stamping, etc.).
- Production Optimization: Monitor and improve production yields in accordance with conventional card operation and site goals.
- Production Planning: Establish production standards and throughput capacities for planning and scheduling needs.
- Process Development: Develop production-ready processes and qualify new products from a user's perspective, making necessary changes before releasing them to production.
- Project Management: Manage projects with outside organizations, as well as other facilities within the group.
- Equipment Qualification: Develop qualification criteria for new equipment and qualify them in conformance to ISO 9000:2000.
- Technical Writing: Write technical information, material lists, documentation, etc., to support developed products/enhancements.
- Technical Knowledge: Maintain a current working knowledge as well as understanding of test equipment required.
- Product Research: Research new products.
- Troubleshooting: Provide support and assistance, including troubleshooting problems.
- Quality Assurance: Ensure all work is done in conformance with ISO 9000:2000.
3. Continuous Improvement Engineer Responsibilities
- Project Updates: Provide updates on the project objectives, performance measures, issues, and risks.
- Continuous Improvement: Monitor and implement continuous improvement best practices.
- Project Coordination: Help develop and coordinate continuous improvement plans for projects with low cost and risk, reaching and sustaining project goals.
- Assessment: Participate in conducting organization readiness assessments, value realization, opportunity prioritization, resource evaluation, and execute continuous improvement strategies that meet business requirements.
- Issue Management: Handle basic issues and problems under direct supervision, while escalating more complex issues to appropriate staff.
- Champion Development: Develop and actively support Continuous Improvement Champions across the business.
- Coaching: Follow-up teaching, coaching, and mentoring.
- Guidance: Provide guidance in the application of problem-solving knowledge within the business.
- Obstacle Removal: Assist in removing obstacles to success.
4. Continuous Improvement Engineer Functions
- Procedure Development: Develop and introduce standardized operating procedures.
- Maintenance Review: Undertake reviews of existing maintenance techniques and practices.
- Team Leadership: Lead the maintenance teams to undertake reviews of maintenance processes.
- Process Improvement: Implement changes to more efficiently and effectively complete maintenance activities, driving cost savings and increased equipment availability.
- Engineering Support: Support the Engineering Change process to develop and deliver modifications and changes to improve the safe and reliable operation of fleets.
- Initiative Leadership: Lead and facilitate impactful simple to medium complexity initiatives within and across the business.
- Support: Assist with and support higher-level improvement initiatives and activities.
- Waste Reduction: Develop, facilitate, and actively support waste reduction activities across the business.
- Continuous Improvement: Positively promote Continuous Improvement throughout the organization by teaching, challenging, inspiring, and growing others to embrace positive change.
5. Continuous Improvement Engineer Overview
- Problem Solving: Develop corrective measures to solve production lag, high cost, raw material shortages, quality accidents, and other issues.
- Project Coordination: Coordinate project management related to production investment to ensure objective achievement.
- Productivity Improvement: Drive productivity improvement programs (I>WAY-20).
- Process Coordination: Coordinate daily/weekly priorities and facilitate cross-functional process implementation.
- Roadmap Implementation: Drive Road Map implementation, Policy Deployment, and people empowerment.
- Flow Assessment: Assess production flow coordination from order entry to shipment (Process Flows & Information Flows improvement).
- Visual Management: Drive improvement on visual management, documentation, and standardization.
- Initiative Support: Support key initiatives to follow up and deliver.
- Communication Deployment: Deploy communication kits with adequate content and ensure regular publication.
- Continuous Improvement: Support Ops initiative and roadmap on continuous improvement and transformation.
- Automation Identification: Identify automation opportunities on equipment and roadmap.
- Lean Tools Promotion: Promote lean tools such as 5S, Respect for People, Kaizen, Kanban, Andon, Scrap and WIP reduction, VSM, Lean industrialization.