When I first stepped into the role of a manufacturing process engineer, I thought it was mostly about charts, calculations, and looking smart in meetings. Turns out, it’s way more about people, broken machines, and fixing problems at 2 a.m. while wondering how things went sideways so fast. Nobody really tells you that part upfront. I remember my first month pretty clearly. I had a fresh notebook, a head full of lean manufacturing theories, and a strong belief that data would always lead me to the right answer. Then a production line missed its target by 18{dfd53f50f8b7bf8dbe0b61092f8fb7cc41a76a4fe982e9f7ddf57f2fb9bd2b00}, and my perfect…