Benjamin Armstrong
Sanford,NC
Summary
Enthusiastic Industrial Systems Technician eager to contribute to team success through hard work and attention to detail. Self-motivated to learn, grow, and excel in the industrial/manufacturing field.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
Work History
Product Assembler II
Caterpillar Inc
Sanford, NC
04.2025 - Current
- Assigned to WS05-WS14/WFWS/WCPS.
- Follow SOP, standard work, and routings to complete assembly bays in accordance with safety and quality policies.
- Encourage and drive Continuous Improvement throughout my section; field, refine, submit, track, and follow up on CI ideas from myself and teammates.
- Strive for a wholistic understanding of the routings, and the intent and reasoning behind them; assist Assembly Planning with correcting, optimizing, and clarifying standard work/routings.
- Leverage my talents and education to achieve quality beyond the minimum required by standard work; perform successive checks beyond what is required by standard work.
- Take advantage of any opportunities to learn more bays, and how they and their work content affect/interact with other bays.
- Train/retrain teammates to ensure appropriate safety and quality.
- Assist with work content rebalances to ensure safety, quality, velocity, ergonomics, and efficiency; specifically contributed to the creation of a new bay, WS08B, by defining part of its work content.
- Take advantage of any opportunities to learn about assembly support roles/functions, to more efficiently interface with them; interface with them on behalf of my teammates.
- Take initiative in discovering, reporting, correcting, and preventing defects; plan, coordinate, and execute machine rework.
Product Assembler I
Caterpillar Inc
Sanford, NC
04.2024 - 04.2025
- Assigned to WLAS, then to WS09-WS14.
- Followed SOP, standard work, and routings to complete assembly bays in accordance with safety and quality policies.
- Strove for a wholistic understanding of the routings, and the intent and reasoning behind them.
- Leveraged my talents and education to achieve quality beyond the minimum required by standard work; performed successive checks beyond what was required by standard work.
- Took advantage of any opportunities to learn more bays, and how they and their work content affected/interacted with other bays.
- Took initiative in discovering, reporting, correcting, and preventing defects.
- Troubleshot and resolved basic automated dolly faults and issues.
- Actively participated in the Warhammer XL (275) and XXL (285) production launches; applied my skills, knowledge, and experience to help Assembly Planning refine, and my linemates understand, standard work and routings throughout WLAS.
Forging Robot Gripper Specialist
Bharat Forge Aluminum USA Inc
Sanford, NC
01.2023 - 03.2024
- Sole Gripper Specialist, and in-house end-of-arm tooling assembly expert; core member of both the Product Changeover Improvement and Execution teams.
- Collaborated with Operational Excellence to reduce gripper assembly/changeover time by ~50%, and overall gripper-related line downtime by ~25%.
- Worked with Forging Planning/Maintenance to investigate and address assembly/design issues of the grippers.
- Worked with Forging Planning and Industrial Maintenance to develop best practice in the cleaning, assembly, changeover, and repair of the grippers; trained Forging Technicians accordingly.
- Maintained supporting documentation, including product-dependent assembly configurations and component prints, inventories, and supplier information.
- Refurbished components to meet dimensional and functional requirements.
- Reverse engineered and improved basic component designs.
- Milled/turned aluminum, bronze, and mild steel components to tolerances as tight as +/-55 microns (+/-2 thou).
- Performed IRA tasks for all Forging and Casting tooling.
- Worked efficiently in a fast-paced environment.
- Adapted to frequently-changing priorities, deadlines, and production schedules.
- Continued performing all previous General Tool and Die duties as needed.
General Tool and Die Technician
Bharat Forge Aluminum USA Inc
Sanford, NC
04.2022 - 12.2022
- Assisted with Forging Planning execution.
- Milled/turned casting and forging test specimens for Quality.
- Set up and operated a VMC to manufacture refractory tooling for Casting.
- Cleaned, assembled, repaired, and optimized hot-form closed dies for Forging.
- Troubleshot tooling-related issues during casting and forging production runs.
- Operated forklifts and overhead cranes to move loads of up to 3 tons.
Machine Design/Build Intern
Mertek Solutions Inc
Sanford, NC
01.2021 - 02.2022
- Performed basic component design.
- Milled, drilled, and tapped aluminum components to print-specified dimensions and tolerances.
Education
Associate of Applied Science - Industrial Systems Technology
Central Carolina Community College
Sanford, NC05.2021
Skills
- Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Pre-calculus
- Critical thinking, troubleshooting, and problem solving
- Aluminum, bronze, and steel machining processes using mill and lathe
- PLC programming (RSLogix 500 and 5000)
- Print reading
- Self-motivation
- Adaptability
Timeline
Product Assembler II
Caterpillar Inc
04.2025 - Current
Product Assembler I
Caterpillar Inc
04.2024 - 04.2025
Forging Robot Gripper Specialist
Bharat Forge Aluminum USA Inc
01.2023 - 03.2024
General Tool and Die Technician
Bharat Forge Aluminum USA Inc
04.2022 - 12.2022
Machine Design/Build Intern
Mertek Solutions Inc
01.2021 - 02.2022
Associate of Applied Science - Industrial Systems Technology
Central Carolina Community College