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The differences between manufacturing consultants and manufacturing engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a manufacturing consultant, becoming a manufacturing engineer takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a manufacturing consultant has an average salary of $86,698, which is higher than the $78,522 average annual salary of a manufacturing engineer.
The top three skills for a manufacturing consultant include business process, enterprise resource planning and gap analysis. The most important skills for a manufacturing engineer are lean manufacturing, CAD, and solidworks.
| Manufacturing Consultant | Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $86,698 | $78,522 |
| Hourly rate | $41.68 | $37.75 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 40,993 | 115,384 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Average age | 42 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 2 |
Manufacturing Consultants play an essential role in a company through their outside expertise and experience. They provide solutions and implement actions during the product development process and establish the infrastructure needed for manufacturing. Their duties typically include creating specifications for various components and assembly steps, determining production benchmarks, and optimizing manufacturing efficiency, reliability, and throughput. They are also responsible for providing support in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) development and training and formulating lean manufacturing methods.
Manufacturing Engineers are responsible for handling and developing an efficient manufacturing system or procedure that will help a company produce up to standard products while in adherence to the policies, regulations, and expected cost and schedule. Furthermore, Manufacturing Engineers must also monitor quality control, identify or detect errors, provide and suggest improvements, oversee the procurement of materials involved in the production, and coordinate with various teams or departments within the company to ensure the effectiveness of innovations or new developments.
Manufacturing consultants and manufacturing engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Manufacturing Consultant | Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Average salary | $86,698 | $78,522 |
| Salary range | Between $55,000 And $135,000 | Between $60,000 And $102,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Palo Alto, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Intel | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a manufacturing consultant and a manufacturing engineer in terms of educational background:
| Manufacturing Consultant | Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Most common major | Business | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | New York University | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between manufacturing consultants' and manufacturing engineers' demographics:
| Manufacturing Consultant | Manufacturing Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 88.8% Female, 11.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 11.6% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 17.0% White, 62.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 5% |