Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers
Design, organise and oversee the construction, operation, logistics and maintenance of mechanical and process plant and installations, establish programs for the coordination of manufacturing activities, and ensure usage of resources is cost effective.
Friday afternoon on the packing line
You are a production engineer at a factory, responsible for keeping the packing line running and improving how it works. It is 2pm on a Friday. A large order must leave the factory by 6pm, the line has just stopped, and you have a handful of decisions to make while the truck driver waits.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
The line stopped because the guard sensor has failed. I can bypass it with a jumper wire and have you running in five minutes. Or I can wait for the part and that will be Monday. The truck is waiting. Your call.
Tell Dale to use the bypass, because the order cannot be late
The line restarts with a guard that is not protecting anyone. Someone reaches in to clear a jam without the machine stopping, and the near miss shakes the whole shift.
Tell Dale not to bypass the guard, then work with the supervisor on how to get the order out another way
You split the order between two other lines, pack part of it by hand with extra staff and ship most of it on time. A safety device is there for exactly this kind of day.
Say you will decide after speaking to your manager, and leave the line idle
Your manager says the same, but the half hour of waiting costs you part of the load. Some decisions are yours to make from the start.
While we wait, can I tell you something? The new box we are using is a bit taller and it jams the sealer about every hour. We clear it, but it slows us down. Nobody asked, so I did not say.
Thank her, look at the jam with her now and note the details for a proper fix
You see the box is catching on the guide. A small change to the guide fixes it later, and Ngaire feels heard. Many improvements start with someone saying something.
Tell her you will deal with it after the busy period
Reasonable on a hectic day, but you forget by Monday and the jam continues. A quick note would have kept the issue alive.
Tell her the box was approved by purchasing, so the machine must be the problem
Ngaire goes quiet. She was the first to spot a real fault, and now she is less likely to speak up next time.
I have a proposal. To save money we could cut the monthly maintenance stop and run the line right through. Production would go up. You know the machines best. What do you think?
Agree, since more production is exactly what the plant needs right now to catch up on orders
For a few months output rises. Then the unscheduled breakdowns start, and they are longer and more expensive than the stops were.
Say you need time with the figures, then show Gerard what the stops prevent and shorten them
Gerard sees that the stops are cheaper than breakdowns, and agrees to a shorter schedule you design with Dale. An engineer shows the cost of the thing that does not happen.
Refuse to discuss it, because maintenance is not negotiable and the stops are staying as they are
You are probably right, but Gerard feels shut down and takes the idea elsewhere. He needed numbers and an alternative, not a closed door.
How it went
By 6pm most of the order is on the truck, the guard is repaired on Monday and a jam fix is on the list. Production engineering is about people, machines and time, and solving problems where the pressure to cut corners is real. Do you like the idea of making a whole factory work better?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The slowest machine was not the problem
A fictional case set in a factory that makes packaged goods, where lines of machines run most of the day.
The situation
Kirra was an industrial engineer at a factory in Tamworth that packed biscuits. Orders were late and management wanted to buy a faster packing machine. Kirra was asked to make the case for it. But when she watched the line for a full week, she noticed that the packing machine was often stopped, waiting for boxes. The packers kept leaving their station to fetch cartons from a storeroom at the far end of the building.
What they did
Kirra timed the walks and mapped the packers' movements on a floor plan. She showed the plant manager that each packer spent a significant part of the shift walking for cartons. She proposed a small shelf and a daily restock beside the line. She asked the packers to try it, listened to their changes and moved the shelf twice before it felt right. She recommended holding off on the new machine until the results were clear.
How it turned out
The line ran noticeably better with no new machine, and the late orders improved. The company spent a modest amount on shelving and saved a large amount on equipment. The packers were pleased that their feedback had shaped the change.
What would you do?
- Why might the obvious fix not be the right one?
- How would you ask the people doing a job for advice on improving it?
- What would you want to watch for a week before recommending anything?