My Journey Of Work Experience As An Industrial Engineer

I did not start out wanting to be an Industrialindustry.
Engineer, as I approached my senior year in HighSo I stopped in Winston Salem/Greensboro the
School my anticipations and goals was to becomeheart of the textile/apparel industry. I was able to
a Federal Marshall. I had it all planned out whileobtain a position as an Junior I.E. with Hanes within
attending Penn State University for a bachelorsa couple of months of searching for a job in my
degree in law (did not have any discipline plannedchoosen field. This was my first introduction into
out) I would work evenings for a local policepredetermined time standards. Since this was the
department, after graduating with a BS in law, Istandard operation for the engineering
would then extend my education level to Mastersdepartment I was given the gift of being sent
and switch my evening job with the Policeback to school to learn the H.B. Maymard system
department to the Sheriff Department. Finallyof M.O.S.T. Again the I.E.s were in charge of
once I attained my Masters I would have theMethod development and standard implementation.
education, years of law experience and I wouldI stayed with Hanes for seven years until I got
have reached the minimum age to apply for abored and itched for new adventures and
position as a Deputy Federal Marshal.accepted a job as I.E. Manager for Fruit of the
Now enough of the dreaming and time to wakeLoom for their new multi million dollars facility in
up, all that was abruptly change by my first wife'sTexas. Delayed construction would keep
father talking me out of the law enforcement trialoperations from starting up on-time , so I was
and on to the Engineering trial, since he himselfbounced across the US and Canada performing
was a Industrial Engineer with a Master Degree invarious projects for one year until the opening of
the same field. I started off going to the samethe plant. This stage in my career was probably
university as he to obtain my Industrial Engineeringthe most enjoyable time getting to see the USA
degree, but instead of going on to get mywhile getting vast amounts of experience. But
Masters, I chose to diversify and while working asfinally it was opening day and work started at the
an Industrial Engineer I went for a second degreeTexas plant, I had a small staff of four to cover
in Business Administration. But enough of thea plant of 1200 employees on two shifts.
background which led me up to working as an I.E.Standards practices were methods development
for more than twenty years.and improvements, standard development and
My first job was a I.E. Technician for Pullmanimplementation. This lasted for about seven years
Standard in Butler Pa. Pullman Standard was aand that villain reared its head again and the
manufacture of railroad cars, the type they built indownsizing and plant closures began once again.
Butler were Coal Cars and Box Cars. These wereThe apparel industry was moving into Honduras
all built from raw material stock all the way thruand Mexico, even thou I made my share of trips
the assembly and painting operations. Theto both countries while working at Fruit of the
Industrial Engineering Department was made up ofLoom, it wasnt my thing to accept a transfer
about seven engineers with varying degrees ofthat far south. So with yet another plant closing I
experience, we were all responsible for thewas out looking for another job.
methods, standards and quality criteria of overIronically my next job lead me back to my original
two thousand workers all spread over threeroots of metal fabrication with a fuel filtration
shifts. Looking back it now this was probably thevessel manufacture. And with this move and
only company I worked for were the I.E.move back to the standard duties of using time
department was truely in charge of all aspects ofstudies for standard development with an added
the engineering discipline. Unfortunatley this wastwist of compiling the data into a computerize
short lived by three years, for this was the startdata system to keep track of methods and piece
of the era of companies going overseas tostandards. Four years later the company after 25
manufacture their product this downsizing andyears in business decided to outsource the
company closings. Pullman chose the later, overfabrication operation and run purely with the
two thousand people out of a job.filtration end. Add another 4 more years and that
Onto my next stop, with a generous severancebrings me up to date, working with the same
package (compared to todays standards) of onecompany but working with the filtration products.
month of pay for every year of service, I hadDuties range anywhere from setting standards, to
three months to find a job before we had to digdeveloping methods, to ensuring quality criteria are
into the savings account. Fortunately I was able tofollowed. Using a mixture of time studies,
obtain another Engineering job within threepredetermined standards and video analysis.
months, althou it was short lived and put to deathAlthou there isnt the once large I.E. department of
by the same villain as my first job. The duties ofsix or seven to handle the plant, it may keep us
this job was much like the first develop andbusy all day long but the two of us can handle it.
implement standards and methods for the variousSo there you have it over two decades bouncing
operations thru out the electronic devices ofaround the US working for some major industries
Robertshaw Controls. At the end of this shortthat were taken under by foreign competition. I
lived job I started to think that maybe the northsometimes wonder what would have happen if I
was not such a safe bet to obtain a job thathad followed the Law enforcement career, there
would last until retirement. So being young andis a never ending supply of products (criminals) to
brave (or maybe just ignorant) I setoff to theobtain a guarantee job security without fear of
south to look for a job in the textile/apparelthe product line moving overseas.