Engineering Technician

Job Overview

The engineering technician will work alongside manufacturing engineers, maintenance personnel, toolmakers, and production personnel to implement engineering projects in the plant.

A Day In The Life

Primary Duties:
Support implementation of machinery replacement project.
•    Develops hands-on competency in Burndy Littleton’s patented tooling system for progressive metal forming. Gains the ability to perform die set-ups and machine set-ups, and to perform process monitoring and machine tuning. 
•    Develops hands-on competency in a unique graphical user interface (GUI) timing chart to control servo-actuated Bihler NC machine.
•    Reads and interprets production drawings to gain knowledge of critical product dimensions. Develops understanding of how product dimensions relate to process parameters and tooling dimensions, and assists engineers in new tooling fabrication and implementation.
•    Works alongside manufacturing engineering and operators to troubleshoot problems that arise with the implementation of any of the above tasks.
Support tooling development initiatives.
•    Continues the engineering initiative of cataloging and fully implementing tooling items into the engineering documentation library and SAP Plant Maintenance software.
•    Assists manufacturing engineering and machine operators with complex tooling assembly component storage and organization, including 5S tasks.
•    Orders perishable tooling from vendors. Receives tooling re-order request from operators, finds documentation for tooling, sends documentation to vendor for quote, receives quote, issues a thoroughly-filled-out requisition to the purchasing department.
Support CNC manufacturing.
•    Write, modify, review and adjust CNC programs for connector part production on both CNC turret and swiss style lathes and vertical milling machines.
•    Select appropriate tooling for various CNC production tasks.
•    c.    Work alongside manufacturing engineering to analyze, identify, design and implement improved manufacturing techniques and processes in CNC work cells.
Support automated manufacturing and assembly processes.
•    Work alongside manufacturing engineering to identify and reduce production bottlenecks associated with automated production sequences.
•    Provide PLC programming assistance to read, write and debug automated production issues.
•    Work Alongside manufacturing engineering to analyze, identify, design and implement new and/or replacement automation components to improve automated production output.
Support process improvements associated with production machinery and documentation.
•    Perform time studies to verify current production sequence documentation is accurate to the actual manufacturing processes.
•    Work alongside manufacturing engineering to analyze, identify and implement replacement machinery to improve throughput of various production processes.
•    Aid manufacturing engineering in defining requirements and guidelines for replacement equipment and processes from outside vendors.
•    Work with machine operators and manufacturing engineering to provide continuous improvement support to optimize the production process.
Additional Duties:
1.    Support of Company Safety Initiatives including Lock-out/Tag-out/Clear & Try.
2.    Work with engineering team on development of new products.
3.    Performs all tasks in a manner that doesn’t impede production schedule.

What will help you thrive in this role?

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:
•    Ability to read and understand production prints and tolerancing conventions.
•    Excellent verbal communication skills. Good written communication skills.
•    Ability to check computer throughout the day for emails and internal workflow notifications.
•    Mechanical aptitude: must be able to work on and with machinery in a manner that is safe, systematic, and effective. Must be comfortable working safely with progressive die sets.
•    Leadership: must be comfortable implementing changes in an environment where change is difficult.
•    Ability to use Microsoft Excel for project tracking and documentation indexing.
•    Must be familiar with creating CAD models and drawings; experience in Autodesk Inventor preferred.
•    Ability to converse with toolmakers and skilled setup personnel to understand critical tooling information, and to convey this information using engineering drawing conventions.
•    Must be able to take repeatable measurements with digital vernier calipers, micrometers, and gage blocks.
•    Must take responsibility for project successes. Must have the persistence required to complete technical tasks. Must proactively continue to check for task completion if the task has been delegated to another party.
•    Must have thick skin. Must react to potentially challenging situations in a way that diminishes or resolves conflict rather than amplifying it.
•    Must have basic understanding of cold forming physics.
•    Must be able to maintain a clean and organized workbench while simultaneously dealing with articles that do not fit into categories.
•    Bonus Skills (valued but not required): 
•    Understanding of fits and tolerances (press fit, slip fit, etc.)
•    Conversant knowledge of material compositions (D2, S7, 4140, etc.) and Rockwell Scale hardness for tooling applications.
•    Understanding of GD&T.
•    Ability to conduct bulk computations (macros) in Microsoft Excel.
•    Ability to make insightful recommendations for process improvements, and to develop an implementation plan for these recommendations.
•    Ability to perform basic electrical diagnosis with basic tools (test light, multimeter, etc.) and read electrical diagrams.
•    Experience with machine fixture and jig design.
•    General understanding of control systems and input/output logic as it relates to production machinery.