Industrial/Systems Engineer Intern
Summary
An Industrial/Systems Engineering intern at Fulfyld's e-commerce fulfillment warehouse in Madison, AL, supporting process analysis, time and motion studies, ergonomic assessments, and productivity measurement. The role mixes warehouse-floor observation with data analysis (primarily Excel) to recommend workflow, layout, and labor improvements.
Industrial/Systems Engineer Intern
Position overview
Fulfyld is seeking an Industrial Engineering Intern to support warehouse optimization, ergonomics, productivity measurement, and continuous-improvement initiatives within our e-commerce fulfillment operation.
This is a hands-on position combining warehouse observation, data analysis, and practical process improvement. The intern will study how products, orders, and employees move through the facility, identify opportunities to reduce waste and improve safety, and help test solutions in a live operational environment.
The ideal candidate is an Industrial or Systems Engineering student who is curious, analytical, and comfortable spending time both on the warehouse floor and working with data. This internship is designed to provide meaningful project ownership and exposure to fulfillment operations, process engineering, and warehouse technology.
Compensation: $20-25/hr.
Key responsibilities
- Process analysis and improvement
- Observe and document receiving, replenishment, picking, packing, shipping and value-added-service processes.
- Conduct time and motion studies.
- Develop process maps, flowcharts and standard-work documentation.
- Identify unnecessary movement, waiting, rework and material handling.
- Analyze warehouse travel paths and product flow.
- Recommend practical improvements to workflow, layout and labor utilization.
- Assist with testing and measuring process-improvement pilots.
- Compare results before and after implementation.
- Document findings, recommendations and expected financial impact.
Ergonomics and workstation design
- Evaluate packing, receiving and production workstations for ergonomic risks.
- Observe lifting, reaching, bending and repetitive-motion requirements.
- Gather employee feedback about workstation design and physical constraints.
- Recommend adjustments to work height, placement, material presentation and equipment layout.
- Help prioritize ergonomic improvements based on risk, cost and operational benefit.
- Support warehouse leadership in documenting approved workstation standards.
- Final safety and ergonomic decisions will remain with qualified company leadership.
Productivity and labor measurement
- Establish baseline productivity measurements for key warehouse processes.
- Analyze orders, units and tasks completed per labor hour.
- Study labor requirements for kitting, labeling, FBA preparation and other warehouse projects.
- Help develop reasonable labor standards using observed data.
- Identify common causes of downtime, rework and productivity variation.
- Support labor and capacity planning for seasonal and high-volume periods.
- Assist Operations and Finance with quantifying the cost and benefit of proposed changes.
Layout, slotting and capacity
- Analyze storage utilization and product placement.
- Assist with SKU velocity and slotting analysis.
- Identify opportunities to reduce picking travel and congestion.
- Evaluate material staging and replenishment locations.
- Support warehouse layout and space-utilization projects.
- Help model the operational effects of volume growth, new customers or seasonal demand.
- Prepare recommendations for equipment, racking or layout changes when appropriate.
Data and reporting
- Gather, clean and analyze operational data from available systems and observations.
- Build clear Excel-based analyses and project reports.
- Define requirements for dashboards that the Systems & Automation team may build.
- Maintain a prioritized improvement backlog.
- Track project owners, expected benefits, and implementation status.
- Present findings to Operations and company leadership.
- Create clear documentation so improvements can be maintained after the internship.
Example internship projects
Depending on timing and operational priorities, projects may include:
- Packing-station ergonomic assessment
- Pick-path and warehouse travel-distance analysis
- Receiving dock-to-stock time study
- Replenishment workflow analysis
- SKU velocity and storage-slotting recommendations
- Kitting, labeling, or FBA-project labor standards
- Packaging and carton-use analysis
- Warehouse congestion and staging review
- Seasonal labor and capacity model
- 5S and visual-management improvements
- Root-cause analysis for recurring warehouse errors
- Measurement of automation or equipment ROI
Qualifications
- Currently pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Engineering Management, or a closely related discipline.
- Completed foundational coursework in process analysis, statistics, operations research, ergonomics, or manufacturing systems.
- Comfortable collecting data in an active warehouse environment.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel or a comparable analytical tool.
- Ability to organize findings and communicate recommendations clearly.
- Willingness to ask questions and learn from warehouse employees.
- Ability to balance academic methods with practical operational constraints.
- Dependable, organized, and able to manage an assigned project.
Preferred qualifications
- Junior, senior, or graduate-level standing.
- Experience with time studies, process mapping, or Lean methods.
- Familiarity with 5S, standard work, root-cause analysis or continuous improvement.
- Coursework or experience in ergonomics or human factors.
- Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Python or another analytical tool.
- Previous warehouse, manufacturing, logistics or operations experience.
- Familiarity with warehouse management or inventory systems.
- Experience presenting technical findings to non-technical audiences.
What success looks like
By the end of the internship, the successful candidate will have:
- Documented baseline performance for several major warehouse processes.
- Completed time studies and ergonomic reviews of priority work areas.
- Identified and prioritized measurable improvement opportunities.
- Helped pilot at least two or three practical process improvements.
- Produced before-and-after measurements for implemented changes.
- Created usable process documentation and standard-work recommendations.
- Presented a final warehouse-improvement roadmap to leadership.
- Quantified potential labor, safety, space, or productivity benefits.
Learning and growth opportunities
The intern will gain practical experience in:
- E-commerce and third-party logistics operations
- Warehouse process engineering
- Ergonomics and human factors
- Time and motion studies
- Labor and capacity planning
- Warehouse systems and operational data
- Lean and continuous-improvement methods
- Financial justification and ROI analysis
- Cross-functional project management
- Presenting recommendations to business leadership
- Strong performance may create opportunities for an extended internship, future co-op term, or consideration for a full-time operations or process-improvement position after graduation.
Physical and work-environment expectations
This is primarily an on-site position in an active warehouse environment. The intern must be able to:
- Spend extended periods standing and walking through the facility.
- Observe warehouse processes safely without disrupting employees.
- Work around material-handling equipment and normal warehouse activity.
- Use required personal protective equipment.
- Move between warehouse-floor observation and computer-based analysis.
