Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between lean manufacturing engineers and packaging engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a lean manufacturing engineer, becoming a packaging engineer takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a packaging engineer has an average salary of $88,452, which is higher than the $75,994 average annual salary of a lean manufacturing engineer.
The top three skills for a lean manufacturing engineer include lean manufacturing, kaizen events and process improvement. The most important skills for a packaging engineer are CAD, project management, and solidworks.
| Lean Manufacturing Engineer | Packaging Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $75,994 | $88,452 |
| Hourly rate | $36.54 | $42.52 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 59,193 | 54,028 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 76% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
Lean manufacturing engineers are engineering professionals who are responsible for executing the lean manufacturing method, a process that reduces waste in a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity. These engineers must utilize lean tools and train all plant personnel about using these tools to identify wastes and reduce costs. They must lead the process improvement teams to initiate activities that eliminate waste in all aspects of the operation. Lean manufacturing engineers must also perform cost or benefit analysts to determine the return of investment (ROI) of capital expenditures and project initiatives.
A Packaging Engineer plans and implements packaging designs to ensure product integrity and appeal. Their primary duties include supervising and managing the complete packaging development process, analyzing engineering drawings, and conducting periodic vendor reviews.
Lean manufacturing engineers and packaging engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Lean Manufacturing Engineer | Packaging Engineer | |
| Average salary | $75,994 | $88,452 |
| Salary range | Between $59,000 And $97,000 | Between $65,000 And $118,000 |
| Highest paying City | Milpitas, CA | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Stryker | Apple |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between a lean manufacturing engineer and a packaging engineer in terms of educational background:
| Lean Manufacturing Engineer | Packaging Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 76% | Bachelor's Degree, 79% |
| Most common major | Industrial Engineering | Engineering And Industrial Management |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between lean manufacturing engineers' and packaging engineers' demographics:
| Lean Manufacturing Engineer | Packaging Engineer | |
| Average age | 43 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 84.4% Female, 15.6% | Male, 77.1% Female, 22.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.5% Asian, 17.1% White, 63.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 13.1% White, 67.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 4% |