2 Engineering Manager Searches

2 Design Engineering Manager Searches for a Forging Job Shop

We were tasked with finding a hands-on, shop floor Engineering Manager from the forging industry who's also a Die Designer, knows Deform and can lead a New Product Introduction process from cradle-to-grave for a forging job shop running closed die presses and hammers.

In our database, we had previously identified over 400 forge shops in the United States, but only 137 of these forge operations do any level of in-house Die Design, with Closed Dies or Semi Closed Dies on Forge Presses or Hammers. Some of these shops use CAD drawings and some still use hand drawings! Some use Forge Simulation Software, some don't. A majority of these shops use Die Designers for Design, with a small minority of forgers use an Engineering Manager to complete any of the actual Die Design work. These are the only places across the country which have the environment to develop the skills we need our Engineering Manager to have. Additionally, not all of these forgers are job shops, nor are all of their business systems refined enough to produce the management skills and efficiency we need in an Engineering Manager.

First, we began by searching through the Closed Die forge shops in the state, beginning with those that run Presses.
Next we expanded by searching through the Closed Die Press shops in the Midwest (OH, WI, IL, IN, KY, MI), North East (PA, DE, MA, NY, CT) and then the remaining Closed Die Press shops in the U.S (West Coast, South & South East).
Next we expanded by searching through any Closed Die forge shops in the Midwest (OH, WI, IL, IN, KY, MI), North East (PA, DE, MA, NY, CT) and then the remaining Closed Die forge shops throughout the U.S (West Coast, South & South East).
Finally, we searched through the remaining forge shops (Open Die, Ring Rolling, Upsetting, etc.) in the U.S.

When we searched through the forge shop's organizational structures, we looked for candidates with any variance of the following Job Titles:

Engineering Managers
Chief Engineers
Engineering Directors
Forging Engineers
Engineering Supervisors
Design Engineers
Die Designers
Engineers
Tool Designers

Even if we initially knew little more about a prospective candidate, other than their Job Title and the Company they work for, we made the assumption these candidates are likely to possess many of the specific experience requirements we needed to find for this Engineering Manager search, so we added them to our call plan. We also searched for anyone with any of these Job Titles who used to work for any forge shop at any point during their career and we added them to the call plan.

Below is the criteria we considered when evaluating the candidates we spoke to:

Must have Forging Design Experience
Should have experience leading the NPI process
Must be able to handle managing within the changing priorities of a job shop
Must be proficient with Microsoft Office
Must have experience designing for Closed Die Hammers or Presses
Must have a collaborative leadership style
Must be willing to work another 5+ years
Must fit within salary range
Should have experience in continuous improvement and development of people
Should have previous experience using continuous improvement tools such as Lean, 6-S, Six Sigma, etc.,
Must have experience with quality systems and standards like ISO 9001
Should be a hands on Manager/Designer that gets out on the shop floor
Must be comfortable spending 20% of their time designing
Must be able to communicate with Executives and Customers as well as with the hourly employees
Must not have history of job hopping and demonstrate a strong likelihood to not leave the company
Should have a minimum of 2yrs managing/supervising experience
Must be willing to work 50+ hrs per week
Must fit with company culture
Must be willing/comfortable working in a union environment
Must be able/willing to relocate
Must be US Citizen or Green Card holder
Prefer metrics driven Manager
Must not be negative
Bachelor Degree strongly preferred

We ultimately identified 408 prospective candidates from the forging industry, spoke directly with 133, were turned down by 126 and submitted 7 people who met the desired criteria and expressed interest in the opportunity. The Engineering Manager we found started only 10 weeks from the date we launched the search, and we found him locally which saved the company relocation expenses.

A little over a year later, in 2016, we were informed the Engineering Manager who was hired had been pursued by his prior company and given an offer to return, which he chose to accept. So, we were again tasked with finding a hands-on, shop floor Engineering Manager from the forging industry who's also a Die Designer, knows Deform and can lead a New Product Introduction process from cradle-to-grave, etc.

In 2016 we further refined our Engineering Manager target profile in order to identify 315 prospective candidates. Most of the candidates who turned us down in 2015 were not worth calling again in 2016, due to what we learned about them during the prior year's phone conversation.
We spoke with 169 people who turned down the opportunity and/or did not meet our requirements. A majority of turndowns come from candidates 'not willing/capable of relocating
13 candidates expressed interest and were submitted:

Candidate 1 (BS Degree, MBA, Black Belt & Design experience)
Candidate 2 (BS Degree, Green Belt, Die Design, Forge Simulation & Management experience)
Candidate 3 (BS Degree, Green Belt, Design, Forge Simulation & Management experience)
Candidate 4 (BS Degree, Die Design, Forge Simulation & Supervision experience)
Candidate 5 (BS Degree, Die Design, Forge Simulation & Supervision experience)
Candidate 6 (BS Degree, Black Belt, Management experience)
Candidate 7 (Die Design & Forge Simulation experience)
Candidate 8 (BS Degree, Master's Degree, Die Design & Forge Simulation experience)
Candidate 9 (Die Design, Forge Simulation & Supervision experience)
Candidate 10 (BS Degree, Master's Degree, Black Belt, Die Design, Forge Simulation & Management experience)
Candidate 11 (Die Design, Forge Simulation & Management experience)
Candidate 12 (BS Degree, Die Design, Forge Simulation experience)
Candidate 13 (BS Degree, Die Design, Forge Simulation & Supervision experience

8 of those candidates were phone interviewed
3 of those candidates were brought onsite for the first round of face-to-face interviews
2 of those candidates were brought onsite for the second/final round of face-to-face interviews

We again identified, attracted, thoroughly screened and successfully hired an extremely rare, hands-on, shop floor Engineering Manager from the forging industry who's also a Die Designer, knows Deform and can lead a New Product Introduction process from cradle-to-grave.

Laminin Corp's recruitment process narrows down potential candidates based on your criteria. Find candidates for your job opening with the help of our trusted Forging Recruiters. CONTACT US now!