Essential Functions & ResponsibilitiesAs a strategic partner to plant leadership, you will lead plant-level continuous improvement that delivers measurable, year-over-year gains in cost and productivity, with savings that at minimum offset inflation. You will translate company initiatives into prioritized projects on the plant floor, and own the KPIs that track cost, maintenance, automation and reliability.
This role sits within the Operational & Engineering Center of Excellence and has a dotted-line relationship to the local Plant Leader.
What you'll doFind and deliver savings- Review plant practices, workflows and systems to spot waste and improvement opportunities that affect production and business results.
- Design and implement solutions that raise operational efficiency and lower cost, with the goal of maximizing EBITDA.
- Use data, not assumptions, to decide which opportunities to pursue.
Lead improvement and capital projects- Manage capital, plant and cost-reduction projects from scoping through completion.
- Run improvement projects across departments using standard OPEX tools and methods.
- Investigate performance issues using lean tools such as DMAIC, value stream mapping, 5-Why, Ishikawa diagrams, FMEA and Kaizen, then build and execute action plans.
- Lead root cause analysis and put corrective actions in place for process problems.
Create a Continuous Improvement Culture- Create and update process documentation and workflows, and make sure the business sustains them.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to build a culture of continuous improvement.
- Train and coach employees at every level on operational excellence principles, new processes and tools.
- Build safety and health considerations into every improvement.
Measure, report and keep learning- Develop and track KPIs for cost, maintenance, automation and reliability.
- Monitor implemented initiatives and adjust when results fall short.
- Report on FPP initiatives and their impact to leadership.
- Share knowledge with plant resources, engineering, sister plants and internal or external consultants, and bring forward new technologies and methods worth testing.
Education- Bachelor's degree in engineering (required)
ExperienceWhat you'll bring- 10+ years in engineering, maintenance, reliability, project management, Six Sigma/Lean, productivity or continuous improvement roles.
- A track record of delivering measurable cost and productivity savings in a plant or operations setting.
- Hands-on use of lean and Six Sigma problem-solving tools (DMAIC, VSM, 5-Why, Ishikawa, FMEA, Kaizen) and working knowledge of statistical process control (SPC).
- Experience managing capital and cost-reduction projects.
- Experience building KPIs and tracking the results of improvement initiatives.
- Proven ability to lead and coach teams, and to drive change across functions without direct authority.
- Strong analytical skills: you gather data from many sources, interpret it accurately and document results with precision.
- Comfort presenting results to senior leadership and connecting plant-level detail to the bigger business picture.
Preferred- Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
Tools and systems- Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, OneNote
- Power BI
- Minitab or similar statistical analysis software
- ERP systems
OverviewPhysical Job Requirements
