Industrial Engineering Technician Responsibilities
Industrial engineering technicians work to assist in facilitating efficiency, productivity and safety at manufacturing plants, industries and business by applying engineering principles and techniques. Businesses that may hire these technicians include offices, repair shops, landfills, stores, factories and health care facilities. Depending on the employer, the industrial engineering technician responsibilities vary, in some industries they may have to carry additional tasks. One facet of this job post involves providing assistance in evaluating, developing and improving procedures and methods for the processes with which they execute their tasks. Technicians may work to make layouts and setup standards as well as processes.
Engineering technicians prepare equipment and machinery layouts to enhance the efficiency by complying the standards and policies or troubleshoot. They have the authority to propose solutions to various issues related to quality control. They may study and keep track of certain aspects such as motion, time, speed and method in execution of any operation; this is to establish production rates and improve efficiency of work. Other than the technical tasks, technicians may also have to write documentation such as reports, procedures and directives, identify preventions and implement solutions to various issues, refine or analyze operation, perform inspections and audit or recommend alterations.
Basic Tasks and Job Duties
A technician carries out all their tasks and duties by applying engineering principles and theories to resolve the problems related to production or industrial layout. They mostly work under the guidance of the engineering staff. Some of their typical job responsibilities are:
- Evaluating equipment, documenting detailed instruction of procedure, supervising operations data, reviewing and training staff and ensuring legal regulations compliance.
- Suggesting revisions for equipment layout, material handling or methods of operation, modifications in production form and standards for the meeting the optimal quality within the decided budget and equipment capacity.
- Interpreting schematic diagrams, engineering drawings and formulas.
- Preparing diagrams, graphs and charts to illustrate routing, work flow, floor layouts and procedure of material handling and use of machine.
- Providing assistance in planning work assignments as well as considering the capacity of machines, performance of workers and production schedules.
- Confer with engineering or management personnel to determine reliability and quality standards.
- Studying the steps and time taken by the workers and identifying efficiency of each worker. To set reliable production rates, the working strategy of the workers which involve their methods of performing operations, production, maintenance and service is analyzed.
- Recommend changes in the existing production standards and quality to meet the quality criteria.
- Observe the workers while using the equipment to know whether it is maintained and also if it works appropriately.
- Assist in planing the work assignments by considering certain factors such as machine capacity, anticipated delays, worker performance and production schedules.
- Use time devices to determine workers' operating speed and device speed.
- Assessing data and draft reports to indicate or validate deviations from existing operations and standards.
- Prepare charts or graphs of available data or evaluate the data through computers.
- Select products for examination at certain stages in the manufacturing process and examine them for performance characteristics and maintain the specifications.
- Read product processing and specification sheets to verify that records are maintaining the specifications of quality assurance.
- Record the examined data by implementing statistical quality control processes.
They also observe workers to make sure that the equipment is being used and maintained according to quality assurance standards. They then asses the resulting information to justify or point out alterations to the standards or the operations to improve efficiency along with quality. These technicians usually work in teams under the direction of industrial engineers.
Educational Requirement
A bachelor's degree in industrial engineering or an associate's degree or a similar major is required to be hired for the position of industrial engineering technician. An associate's degree program may have courses on motion study, computer aided drafting, safety in the workplace, measurements, automated systems, process control, robotics, statistics and industrial technology. Usually, getting hired for this job post does not require certification, but some employers may request for a quality engineer certification approved by the American Society for Quality. Qualifying a written examination and holding eight years experience of on-the job training is the criteria to get the certification, although a degree or diploma can work as an alternative to experience.
Key Qualities
- Industrial engineering technicians should be proficient enough in supporting the engineers to figure out the required changes in the working conditions, systems, operations, etc., and how the environment will affect the results.
- They have to work under the administration of engineers, so they should be able to clearly identify the given instructions and communicate or confer issues with the supervisors.
- Proficiency in mathematics is essential as technicians use its principles for designing, analyzing and troubleshooting in their work.
- They must be capable to assist the industrial engineers in estimating why certain operations or processes are not working in an appropriate way.
- These professionals spend much of their time in observing the use of machines and working strategy of workers and make the required changes or take corrective actions to improve the quality and productivity.
Industrial engineering technician responsibilities cover all the facets of technical tasks that require wide knowledge of their industry.
