Recruiting is an interesting and a challenging job especially if we are able to understand well, the job description and other key parameters required for a particular position. Unluckily, though we have lakhs of recruiters across the globe, there are very few places where you can get thorough training on recruitment terms and concepts. I am a CEO for an Executive Search Company and a job portal, having over 20 years extensive experience in Executive Search and Recruitment. The content of this post comes from my experience along with some research that we did while developing our comprehensive recruitment training program. This post will acquaint you with all terms and concepts involved in recruiting for engineering/ manufacturing jobs.

Recruiting for Manufacturing Jobs- It involves hiring people, who manage various activities and processes that takes place in a factory or a manufacturing unit. Besides engineering people are also required at various construction/ project sites. Major qualifications in this field are- B.E./B.Tech/M.Tech/Diploma Engineers at senior levels and ITI and graduates/ undergraduates at lower levels. B.E/ B.Tech and other engineering qualifications like M.Tech and Diploma can be in following streams-

1. Mechanical/Production Engineering- It applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design and manufacturing. These people primarily work in Auto Industry, Steel, Power, Light & Heavy Engineering sectors, besides in many other industries for specific purposes. This stream has highest applications amongst all streams combined. BE Production Qualification is similar to mechanical and is used interchangeably.

2. Electrical Engineering- Dealing with electricity, electronics and electro-mechanical these people work primarily in electrical related industries besides in maintenance jobs of electrical equipments in other industries.

3. Electronics- Dealing with electrical circuits/electronic equipments these people work primarily in electronic industry and in few cases in some other industries for specific purposes.

4. Civil Engineering- Dealing with the construction and real estate industry these people are involved in construction of buildings (like houses/commercial centers/hotels etc) roads/dams/bridges and base for the plant and machinery for numerous industries.

5. Other Engineering Streams include- Instrumentation, Chemical, Textiles, Mining, Rubber and Plastic etc. These are small streams which are used normally in their own specific kind of industries and in few cases in other industries for specific purposes.

Though every manufacturing unit has different procedures, processes and machinery but broad categories of roles involved in the manufacturing units, may be categorized as follows-

1. Projects- It is the field whereby all activities related to setting-up of a plant or a machinery or a power project or factory etc are undertaken. It may include planning for the project, design, liasioning for licensing if any, purchases related to the project, installation & election of machinery and equipments and commissioning of the project. Project may be of installation of a small machinery or can be a huge project like that of a large power plant which may take even years to complete. People who are placed at the site for monitoring may be called site engineers/supervisors/mangers.

2. Production/ Manufacturing/ PPC ( i.e Production, Planning, Control)- This function is the core of most of the industries and means producing/making/ manufacturing of products of the company by use of the machineries involved. PPC includes planning as to the volume that needs to be produced and the time span in which it should be produced for various products and further controlling the output as per plan. Assembly is another word related to production whereby a person manages assembly of various parts to make a bigger product like a vehicle or a generator etc.

3. Quality also referred to as (QA/QC)- Quality is the process and function of maintaining systems in a unit or may relate to the quality of the product produced. While former includes terms like- ISO, TQM, 6 Sigma, CMM Level, TS/QS Systems etc. When it comes to product quality it may involve checking the quality of raw materials, checking quality of intermediary products, and quality or inspection of final products made. Inspection is another common term which is used for verifying the quality of incoming or final products.

4. Research & Development (R&D)- This involves research, design and development of better variation/versions of products that may be more useful or acceptable or saleable. This may involve various designing softwares like CAD, Catia, Pro Engineer, Uni Graphics, STAAD etc.

5. Production/Manufacturing/Process Engineering (PE/ME)- This is different than normal production or manufacturing and is an activity of improving the process/method/steps involved in production/manufacturing. This field should not be confused with a person who writes his qualification as Bachelor of Engineering in Production or when a experienced person writes that he is an Engineer involved in production.

6. Maintenance- It is a function of maintaining and troubleshooting of various plant, machinery and equipments installed at the factory/office. Customer service/ Technical service people takes care of maintenance/ troubleshooting of machineries/equipments sold to customers. Maintenance people may alternatively be called as operations people wherein they may handle some additional responsibilities of operations of the factory/ machinery. Maintenance people at times may be involved in Installation & Commissioning of machinery.

7. Safety & EHS- People in this field manage safety and security aspects at the plant. EHS means environment, health and safety and besides safety aspects they manage environmental and health impact of company's operations to ensure quality environment for the workers and non emission of hazardous by products near the factory.

8. Other Engineering Terms- Other Engineering terms that may come up while working on various positions are:-

Tool room where the tools and dyes are made, repaired and stored

Paint shop where paint on a particular product is done

Furnaces where products are melt and moulded as per the need

Fabrication which means carrying out activities on ,say, metal related product to create a desired kind of product

Hope the above information will be useful for the recruiters who hire for engineering/ manufacturing jobs. This is my second post on recruitment training, first being on recruiting for sales and marketing jobs. This post may also be useful. Comments/ criticisms/ suggestions on the above content is most welcome