Project Engineer

Position Summary

The Project Engineer is responsible for creation, coordination, and realization of key equipment projects within manufacturing. The Project Engineer professionally executes projects per an agreed-upon timeline and budget, provides solutions of the highest quality, and delivers the anticipated results to achieve business goals and return on investment. The Project engineer has direct responsibility for major assets and operations as related to management of capital funds and developing solutions to production issues that achieve savings in waste, raw materials, etc. Projects involve both mechanical and electrical engineering components and typically fall within the following manufacturing processes - extrusion, coating and laminating, compounding, converting, material handling, or facilities. The successful performance of these duties can impact waste reduction, quality improvement, productivity improvement, capability for new product development, customer satisfaction, employee safety, and overall plant and company profitability.

Key Responsibilities

• Effectively leads all aspects of assigned projects from initial concept through realization
• Transforms high-level strategic goals related to capacity and machine capability into detailed project plans
• Engages with operations teams to establish new equipment / process requirements, identify key deliverables, create specifications, and develop validation methods
• Engages with operations teams to identify current sources of variability in like-processes and then integrates solutions for improved process control in new equipment
• Develops anticipated productivity metrics (uptime, waste, throughput, etc), staffing requirements, and expected capacity for new equipment
• Creates capital appropriation requests, including an overall project scope, ROI / justification, EHS plan, timeline, and quoted cost summaries
• Prepares quote packages and solicits multiple quotes for each project
• Issues project purchase orders and tracks overall project spending to budget
• Maintains project schedules by monitoring progress, coordinating activities, and resolving potential roadblocks
• Delivers project updates to management, including formal weekly / monthly project updates and one-on-one project walk-throughs, and utilizes technologies such as Microsoft Teams, graphics, videos, etc. for clear communication
• Manages the installation, startup, validation, and EHS sign-off of new equipment and processes
• Follows Management of Change processes and communication guidelines
• Develops process flows, risk analysis / FMEA, and basic standard work procedures
• Collaborates with plant maintenance, engineering, and operation resources to identify opportunities for and implementation of solutions for improved system integration and data collection
• Collaborates with plant process engineering, R&D, and the OEM to establish startup operating conditions, setpoints, and recipes
• Ensures applicable training materials are provided and key plant personnel are provided thorough training on new equipment and process
• Ensures predictive and preventative maintenance tasks related to new equipment are added to the CMMS
• Collaborates with plant departments to ensure calibration tasks related to new equipment are integrated into existing QC systems and maintenance CMMS
• Ensures recommended spare parts are purchased and added/inventoried in maintenance stores
• Investigates new coating, drying, converting, handling, inspection, and/or other appliable manufacturing technologies and processing methods and provides cost vs benefit analysis for potential consideration as future projects
• Identifies, plans, and coordinates with R&D and plant engineering resources to conduct trials on existing equipment to understand current equipment capabilities and/or validate process assumptions. yield, runtime, equipment reliability, equipment capability, and first-pass product quality
• Ensures new manufacturing equipment and processes meet safety and regulatory requirements.
• Engages with site operations and corporate team to establish and oversee the capital budget for assigned site(s)
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Scope:

• Decision Impact: Plant
• Department Responsibility: