Samantha Case
Manufacturing Engineer
Kennametal Inc.
Manufacturing allows you a front seat to help develop the cutting-edge technologies that are on the market today. Additionally, as part of manufacturing it’s exciting to see products we produce every day help to improve someone’s life.
Samantha joined Kennametal’s early-career rotational leadership program, known as EMERGE, in 2017. During her rotation, she was essential in creating a new department that helps reduce machine set up time and developed a plan to physically create the new area on the shop floor through collaboration with maintenance, manufacturing and procurement teams. Once the department was operational, Samantha also trained and supported new team members across the various shifts to ensure they were properly onboarded. Thanks to these expansions, machine efficiencies have significantly improved.
Now, as a full-time manufacturing engineer, she continues to lead efforts to manage and refine the tooling department at Kennametal’s Solon, Ohio site. She has also taken on the responsibilities of project manager for several machining cell installations, supporting the site program manager with a significant modernization investment.
Her organizational skills and forward-thinking attitude have set a precedent for others to follow. For example, she works closely with candidates currently completing the EMERGE program, helping them develop skills such as leadership and problem-solving that will be essential throughout their careers. She is also leading this year’s United Way campaign at the Solon site. As she does in all aspects of her life, Samantha takes her role in the United Way campaign seriously and works wholeheartedly toward the goal of bettering her workplace and her community.
Samantha not only supports and enriches her company and her colleagues, she volunteers to support engineering talent, especially female talent, in her community. Speaking to classes at local high schools, Samantha encourages young women to explore STEM-related fields and instills in them a desire to become future leaders in the field.
