Lab Continuous Improvement Engineer Intern

Daikin Applied Americas • Plymouth, MN

4d • Onsite

About The Position

Daikin Applied is hiring a Continuous Improvement Engineering Intern for a 12-week internship in its Plymouth, Minnesota HVAC/R, chiller, and compressor test facility. The intern will support improvements to safety, quality, delivery, cost, test capacity, and employee engagement, working with engineers, technicians, laboratory planners, controls and instrumentation specialists, skilled trades, and operational leaders. With guidance from a Continuous Improvement Engineer, the intern will lead a defined improvement project from initial observation through pilot implementation, measurement, and final presentation.

The internship offers hands-on experience with Lean and continuous improvement methods, coaching from a Continuous Improvement Engineer and technical subject-matter experts, and opportunities to collaborate across engineering and operations functions. The intern will present project results and recommendations to laboratory leadership.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, engineering technology, quality engineering, operations management, data analytics, or a related technical field.
• Sophomore, junior, or senior standing at the start of the internship.
• Experience using Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Ability to collect, organize, analyze, and communicate information.
• Strong problem-solving, organization, collaboration, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to work safely in both an office and an active industrial laboratory environment.
• Work visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Nice To Haves

• Coursework or project experience involving Lean, Six Sigma, PDCA, DMAIC, statistics, quality engineering, operations research, or project management.
• Familiarity with SIPOC, process mapping, time studies, Pareto analysis, 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, standard work, 5S, or visual management.
• Experience with Power BI, Power Query, Minitab, SharePoint, Microsoft Lists, or similar analytical tools.
• Previous manufacturing, laboratory, maintenance, engineering, technical-club, or student design-team experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead one scoped improvement project using PDCA or DMAIC methodology.
• Develop a project charter, SIPOC, stakeholder map, baseline, root-cause analysis, countermeasure plan, and final report-out.
• Conduct Gemba observations, employee interviews, time studies, workflow analysis, and current-state/future-state process mapping.
• Analyze test readiness, setup, teardown, turnover, downtime, lost test hours, action aging, or other operational measures.
• Create Pareto charts, trends, Excel tools, dashboards, checklists, standard work, visual controls, or process-confirmation methods.
• Support a focused Kaizen or structured problem-solving activity.
• Pilot practical countermeasures, collect employee feedback, compare before-and-after results, and identify unintended effects.
• Create a control and sustainment plan with named owners, review cadence, and follow-up measures.
• Present project results and recommendations to laboratory leadership.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern