IE Manager - Footwear company - $2000-$3000

Job Summary
Lead the Industrial Engineering team for the footwear supply base in Northern Vietnam. Take charge of site productivity improvement, labor standardization, production line balancing, lean system transformation, manufacturing cost reduction, and end-to-end continuous improvement for tier 1 manufacturing factories. Collaborate closely with factory management, production, quality, technical teams and regional headquarters to achieve core IE KPIs, drive operational excellence, and replicate standardized best practices across all supplier production sites.
Key Responsibilities
1. Team Leadership & Management
Lead, coach and develop a team of IE engineers and specialists, including setting team and individual performance objectives, conducting regular performance reviews, and recruiting and upgrading internal IE talents.
Build systematic IE capability within cooperative factories, provide professional training for factory IE staff and production supervisors on time study, MOST work measurement, production line balancing, lean manufacturing tools and standardized operation procedures.
2. Labor Standard & Productivity Management
Establish, verify and maintain accurate Standard Minute Values (SMV) and labor standard specifications for footwear production processes, including cutting, upper sewing, lasting, assembly and finishing.
Carry out time and motion study, workstation layout optimization, manpower allocation adjustment and production line balancing for new product styles and existing mass production lines.
Monitor core operational indicators including line efficiency, OEE and labor productivity, track unit production cost, identify operational gaps, and formulate and implement targeted improvement plans.
3. Continuous Improvement & Lean Projects
Lead full-cycle continuous improvement and lean manufacturing projects, covering waste elimination, 5S management, Kaizen improvement, SMED quick changeover, TPM total productive maintenance, production bottleneck elimination, and reduction of rework and equipment idle time.
Build and manage project pipelines, track project ROI, manufacturing cost savings and productivity improvement data, and submit monthly performance reports and business value analysis to regional management teams.
Optimize factory overall layout and on-site material flow, effectively reduce work-in-progress inventory and production lead time.
4. Cross-functional & Supplier Collaboration
Serve as the core IE technical lead for tier 1 manufacturing suppliers in Northern Vietnam and surrounding industrial zones.
Cooperate with product development, quality control, sourcing and production planning teams in product development, pre-production verification, pilot production and formal mass production stages.
Support new supplier factory onboarding, production capacity evaluation and IE system standard audit for new and existing cooperative factories.
Timely report and escalate operational risks, productivity deficiencies and capacity constraint issues to regional management.
5. Reporting, KPI & Standardization
Establish IE data dashboards and monthly performance reports, covering production efficiency, SMV compliance rate, labor cost, project cost savings and factory lean maturity assessment.
Promote unified global IE management methods, standard templates and technical tools in local manufacturing bases, and align on-site operation practices with corporate operational excellence standards.
Participate in green manufacturing and sustainable production initiatives to reduce production energy consumption and material waste.
Requirements & Qualifications
1. Education
Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Footwear & Textile Engineering or other related engineering disciplines.
2. Professional Experience
Minimum 7 years of industrial engineering working experience in footwear manufacturing industry, including at least 3 years of team management experience as IE Manager or Senior IE Lead.
Profound practical knowledge of full footwear production procedures, including cutting, upper sewing, lasting, assembly and finishing processes.
Proven successful experience in leading lean transformation and continuous improvement projects, with verifiable achievements in labor cost reduction and production efficiency improvement.
Familiar with international brand supplier management standards, with rich experience in serving international footwear brand customers.
Proficient in SMV formulation, time & motion study, MOST work measurement system, line balancing and footwear production cost accounting.
3. Technical & Soft Skills
Fluent in oral and written English, capable of smooth cross-region business communication and report presentation.
Strong data analysis capabilities, proficient in advanced Excel functions (Pivot Table, VLOOKUP, Power Query) and independent production KPI dashboard design.
Excellent root cause analysis, on-site problem-solving, project management and cross-department stakeholder coordination skills.
Able to travel to supplier factories in Northern Vietnam on a regular basis.
Practical and down-to-earth working attitude, capable of rooting in production workshops and driving operational reform and team improvement.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt / Black Belt certification is a strong plus.
4. Core Competencies
Result-oriented, sensitive to manufacturing cost and efficiency, with strong work ownership and responsibility.
Good cross-cultural collaboration ability, capable of unifying factory teams to achieve overall operational KPIs.
High professional integrity, familiar with international manufacturing factory audit and compliance management requirements.