Careers: We look at ourselves: The manufacturing engineer: The best ones are good planners and organizers, with a knack for interfacing with multidisciplined individuals

Manufacturing engineers come in as many different packages as the products they produce. They can be young men and women working as supervisors and troubleshooters at manufacturing stations. They can be older people in management, overseeing such operations as scheduling manufacturing, holding down costs, and requisitioning tools and labor. They may work for a company that produces large, sophisticated, multimillion-dollar electronic systems. Or they may be involved in the production of simple discrete components, electronic modules, or solid-state chips. But one thing they all have in common is that they are primarily concerned with the fabrication, testing, and assembly of a system or product that has already been designed. Only rarely are they involved in the initial design concept. They also share the following characteristics: • They interface with an unusually large number of multidisciplined people in and out of their own company. • They manage and motivate people and at the same time should have a knack for recognizing good suggestions about improving products, systems, or production operations. • They are good planners and organizers.