outershell

Thanks for the input. We do have a QA person who actually took that over years back when the previous engineer left, but he just checks stuff before it goes out. Product traceability might be a good idea though our stuff works quite well for the many years we guarantee it for-we see very little warranty claims. We're already pretty lean and do as much high mix/low volume as we can pretty much, so the only obvious project there is work flow which I'll look into when I'm more seasoned. Though that's really the realm of what they today call industrial engineering, so I wont make that a primary focus. The handling of material defects is in the same realm, but I'll definitely check into that down the road. I suppose I can look into documenting our adherence to the industry standards as one future ongoing project. That might be nice to have on hand.

Greetings, but do spare me the welcome, as I used to post on here infrequently but forgot my old login and email address. Anyway, I recently got my BS in mechanical engineering and have taken a nice position at a smaller company (~50 ppl) in a small town as the mechanical engineer. They are a small manufacturer that I think does quite well, and they found themselves with no real engineer on staff. So, I was hired two months ago, and so far my default regular duties are just familiarizing myself with the product by working in the shop. There have been some minor projects that I've taken care of but nothing ongoing. So, the end of my training/familiarization is nearing, and I am at almost a complete loss for what I will do every day at work. During my interviews with them it was apparent that they simply wanted an engineer on staff for projects and dealing with engineers from client companies when the need arose, and also they needed somebody young with a degree to start taking a leadership role in years to come. I've asked about what my regular duties will be once or twice, and it's become clear that it will be up to me to find stuff to do. Note that we have a very mature product with which there are few simple improvements, if any, that need to be made, and we have a casual shop that is not looking to go all Lean Six Sigma. Of course we already have a foreman and production team, so I see no crucial regular role for me to fill. The boss has mentioned a few times "adding value to the product." So, what's a guy to do? Offhand I can think of a few possible projects, but in a year what will I do at work every day? I really just need some guidance from another engineer who has been in this position. Thanks in advance for replies. edit: don't think I'm complaining. It's a dream place for a mechanical engineer: full machine shop, welding, burn shop...etc.