Production Engineer Job at Arkema in North Kansas City

SITUATION IN ORGANIZATION

The position reports to the North Kansas City (NKC) plant operations manager with functional accountability to the leader of the Recipe Industrialization group, which are both aligned to the global manufacturing excellence center.

JOB DIMENSIONS

This position is a shared role within the NKC plant. The position reports to the NKC site leader with functional accountability to the centralized leader of the Recipe Industrialization group

The expectation is to devote 50% of the role to production engineering support for a Powder Coating manufacturing site with two batch reactors and 50% of the role to the regional Recipe Industrialization Group which is part of a global Coating Resins Business Unit (BU)

KEY ACTIVITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Plant Production Support (50%)

The production engineer will serve as back up for the Production Leader in the following responsibilities:

Safety, Health, and Environmental (HES) Activities and Responsibilities:

• Ensures plant, BU, and corporate HES policies and procedures are implemented and enforced to promote Arkema safety culture and advance HES as a core value
• Conduct Root Cause Investigations for all Safety, Health, and Environmental incidents. Manage progress for corrective actions, and document all findings and results using incident tracking databases.
• Work with local manufacturing team to encourage NKC operational involvement in HES corporate initiatives.

Production Activities and Responsibilities:

• Learn and understand all powder coating process technology, equipment, and control technology.
• Effectively communicate with logistics, supply chain, and operations team to maintain an evergreen production schedule, provide batch records to operators in a timely fashion, and keep supplies and raw materials in stock.
• Effectively communicate with logistics, supply chain, and operations team to facilitate the introduction of new products or product / process changes into the daily production schedule.
• Effectively communicate daily production activities across the site and within the organization to ensure local and BU goals are achieved safely, efficiently, and within budget.
• Supervise and motivate production employees to work safely with maximum productivity and accountability
• Schedule overtime as necessary to achieve efficient completion of the production schedule at minimum cost
• Ensure that all SAP and recordkeeping activities are completed in real time relative to batch planning, staging, and production confirmation activities
• Support Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) and Logistic Coordinator to ensure On-Time shipments
• Monitor and investigate material usage variances (MUVs) and stock adjustments. Identify opportunities to minimize or eliminate variance when possible.
• Provides backup for planning operations and SAP transactions in the absence of the logistics leader.
• Read and understand NKC Union Contracts and ensure that contracts are adhered to with all plant activities
• Maintain time sheet records and ensure that eTime is accurate and submitted on time every two weeks
• Develop, write, and implement new operating procedures; Review and revise existing operating procedures on an annual basis.
• Work with local and BU teams to optimize operations and meet BU / plant goals (quality, cost, production, etc.).

Quality Activities and Responsibilities:

• Complete trend analysis (Customer Complaints, COPQ, NPS, RFT) to identify quality improvement opportunities (QIPs).
• Works with plant personnel to identify and prioritize issues and improve quality through the use of tracking tools (IMPACT, QUIMEO)
• Reviews and approves new / changed specifications and ensures implementation of required changes in the plant utilizing Management of Change (MOC).
• Conduct Root Cause Investigations for all QUALITY incidents (out of specification batches); manage corrective actions for these using incident tracking databases

Recipe Industrialization / Product Improvement and Optimization (50%)

• Works with R&D Applications and Process development teams to ensure alignment and delivery of technical goals, strategies and coordination of appropriate resources across the cross-functional team.
• Assesses the manufacturing capability of new products and supports the development and commercialization of these new products at various sites.
• Utilizes the stage-gate product development work process to bring new products to commercialization.
• Provides product development leadership through all phases of the scale-up at the plant. This includes managing experimentation in the lab, analyzing process capability and product robustness within the manufacturing facilities, and aligning final quality specifications to the process capabilities and / or limitations of the plant.
• Leads quality improvement projects with direct customer interaction. These projects may involve leading improvement initiatives for Arkema-owned products at the customer's site or serving as the primary technical support for customer-owned products which are toll-manufactured at Arkema's sites.
• Manages batch recipes for all products by maintaining master product recipe and composition documentation, and submits all recipe changes for approval through e-MOC and / or appropriate documented revisions.
• Collaborates with the Product Regulatory group to provide the data needed for creation of product Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
• Utilizing statistical analysis of available data to identify and resolve product quality and process technology issues.
• Utilizes continuous improvement methodologies when appropriate (ie, SPC, Lean, Six Sigma, etc).
• Documents technical findings discovered through experimental work, pilot trials, production trials, and manufacturing data analysis.
• Support initiatives to identify and qualify suitable raw material substitutions for existing batch recipes to reduce supply risks for single sourced raw materials and achieve cost savings for lower cost alternatives.
• Serve as the liaison with global teams to understand the needs of regional customers and identify potential project ideas that provide solutions while also supporting business goals. Develop and refine these project ideas, obtain business alignment, and lead projects to completion

CONTEXT AND ENVIRONMENT

• Supports the site HES policy and complies with all regulatory and internal requirements
• Participates in HES activities provided by site management and Arkema Inc. (e.g., Behavioral Base Safety, SafeStart, etc.)
• Supports and promotes the reporting of all health, safety, environmental, near-miss, accident or injury incidents
• Comply with the rules of the specific location to which one is assigned as well as the rules set by the business unit (BU) and Arkema Inc.
• The NKC site operates 24/7. This engineering position is a member of a field-based, site team, and may need to be available on call or in person for urgent manners.
• As needed travel (up to 30%) to other production sites or tollers to obtain data, assist in design, and assist in product scale-ups or startups.

REQUIRED EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS / WORK EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering is required.
• Three to five years of experience in batch or semi-batch processes in a chemical manufacturing plant is strongly preferred.

DEMONSTRATED COMPETENCIES

• Advanced skills in analyzing processes such as reactions, agitation / mixing, heat transfer, separations, drying, powder processing and handling, etc.
• Innovation and engineering problem solving (independently and / or collectively).
• Skilled in handling multiple tasks, organizing and planning.
• Skills in oral and written communications.
• Networks in the technical community, inside and outside Arkema.