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Mechanical engineers who work in manufacturing develop
manufacturing processes, oversee day-to-day operations
on the factory floor, and install equipment. They design,
install and operate complex manufacturing systems that
involve people, materials, and equipment. They may develop
preventive maintenance programs, work on teams with
design and test engineers, or develop products and production
processes.
Increasingly, industry work means working in teams;
process engineers in research, for example, work in
a highly interdisciplinary environment. Their job is
to develop new processes and to improve existing ones,
so they work with other engineers, people who work on
the factory floor and are affected by any changes, and
financial people concerned with insuring that changes
are economically efficient. In engineering school, you
will work in teams on your projects, and this will help
prepare you for a lifetime of on-the-job cooperation
with others.
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on what part of the process we're on, your typical
day looks very different. So, my typical day, right
now, is probably going to look very different from
three months from now. And it can vary -- like,
right now, I spend a lot of time in the office,
working on technical documentation. Because we're
kind of in the middle of a project, right now. The
design phase. And, so, we're heavily working with
vendors to look at equipment, trying to do option
analysis, things like that. And most of my time
is spent in the office. Now, very shortly, I'm going
to be spending most of the time working with vendors,
which means probably on the road, working with them.
Working with an engineering-design house. So, I'll
be spending probably most of my time either at some
other local offices, or traveling to these meetings.
And then, during the final phase of a project, you're
spending a lot of time at the plant. So, you're
at the manufacturing site, solving problems, sorting
out the equipment and such. So, it's kind of hard
to say that -- what is a typical day, because it
varies from month to month and -- depending where
you are in the project cycle. - Dale Pankow,
Technology Leader, Procter & Gamble |
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