Lab Continuous Improvement Engineer Intern

Join the world's largest HVAC company!

Daikin Applied is now hiring for a Continuous Improvement Engineering Intern in Plymouth, Minnesota. This 12-week internship offers hands-on experience in an HVAC/R, chiller, and compressor test facility while supporting improvements that strengthen safety, quality, delivery, cost, test capacity, and employee engagement. 

You will work alongside engineers, technicians, laboratory planners, controls and instrumentation specialists, skilled trades, and operational leaders. With guidance from a Continuous Improvement Engineer, you will lead a defined improvement project from initial observation through pilot implementation, measurement, and final presentation. 

What's in it for you? 

• Own a meaningful, real-life improvement project that can directly improve Plymouth Test Lab performance. 

• Gain practical experience with Lean, PDCA, DMAIC, Gemba, process mapping, time studies, root-cause analysis, standard work, 5S, visual management, and performance measurement. 

• Build relationships with interns and professionals across engineering, test operations, quality, facilities, controls, instrumentation, and skilled trades. 

• Receive regular coaching from a Continuous Improvement Engineer and support from experienced technical subject-matter experts. 

• Present your results and recommendations to laboratory leadership and gain a measurable accomplishment for future interviews. 

• Explore career paths in continuous improvement, industrial engineering, test engineering, quality, operations, project management, and data analytics. 

What you will do

• 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. 

Minimum qualifications 

• 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 active industrial laboratory environment. 

• Work visa sponsorship is not available for this position. 

Preferred qualifications 

• 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. 

Employment is contingent upon successful completion of pre-employment requirements, including verification of employment history, education, background screening, and drug testing where permitted by law. Safety-sensitive positions may require cannabis (marijuana) testing. All testing and employment decisions will comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws.