About Nick
About a year ago I completed my Master’s degree in Systems and Control at TU/e. My interest in process thinking and technical and engineering challenges made me decide to join Nobleo Manufacturing last September. In my role as System Analyst & Industrial Engineer, I am part of a project team, in cooperation with Nobleo Technology, that develops and realizes high-precision actuator prototypes. In addition to realizing actuators, I was given the opportunity to be part of a project team within the Manufacturing Intelligence program line. In this project, I am involved with both the translation of the factory processes into models and data, and the translation back from the data from our developed tooling into improvements and actions.
Green Belt
My start at Nobleo coincided seamlessly with the ten-week Green Belt training. The Green Belt training combines the principles of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma in improvement projects to eliminate waste and reduce process variation. Using both principles leads to improvements in performance and maintenance of product quality. In my prior studies, I gained little theoretical knowledge in the field of business administration and process improvement. Therefore, the Green Belt training offered me an excellent opportunity to acquire this knowledge alongside my work in a short period of time.
Within my current projects at Nobleo, I haven’t had the opportunity to apply the method as an autonomous solution. However, I have been able to use separate tools from the Lean Six Sigma principles to identify process variation and mitigate risks, among other things. Furthermore, in a temporary project of mine, I notice the results of the improvement projects done by colleagues and see the value it ultimately brought to our customers.
Running two long-term projects and a temporary third project is both educational and challenging. In addition to the projects, attending training and courses provides me with tools to develop myself. By attending training courses in groups, you learn from each other’s experiences in projects and apply the theory immediately. It is great to be part of this team and I am looking forward to what the projects and the coming time at Nobleo will bring.


Want to know more?
Contact Nick at nick.smit@nobleo.nl or fill in our contact form.