CI Manager

Cornerstone Building Brands•Lithia Springs, GA

2h•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager, Continuous Improvement leads the development, deployment, and sustainment of Lean and continuous improvement initiatives across a windows and doors manufacturing facility. The role advances operational excellence through structured problem-solving, Kaizen events, process optimization, and capability building. The manager leads a Continuous Improvement Specialist and partners with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), Engineering, and Maintenance to deliver measurable improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and employee engagement. The position leads the plant's Lean transformation roadmap and aligns priorities with the company's enterprise continuous improvement strategy. It manages improvement projects from identification and planning through implementation and sustainment, builds employee capability through training and coaching, and tracks and communicates performance measures and validated benefits to plant leadership and corporate teams.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Industrial Technology, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered.
Five or more years of experience in manufacturing operations, including at least three years in a Continuous Improvement or Lean leadership role.
Demonstrated success planning and leading Kaizen events and cross-functional improvement projects that produced measurable results.
Strong working knowledge of Lean tools, structured problem-solving methodologies, process mapping, and performance measurement.
Experience supervising, coaching, or mentoring employees or project team members.
Excellent communication, facilitation, influencing, organizational, and change-management skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in windows, doors, building products, or another high-volume manufacturing environment.
Lean Practitioner, Lean Leader, or comparable Lean certification.
Six Sigma Green Belt certification or higher.
Proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools such as Microsoft Excel, Minitab, and Power BI.
Experience implementing standard work, visual management, leader standard work, and daily management systems.

Responsibilities

Lead the plant's Lean transformation roadmap and align priorities with the enterprise continuous improvement strategy.
Champion waste elimination, standardization, accountability, and employee engagement throughout the organization.
Facilitate cross-functional alignment on improvement priorities, resources, and implementation plans.
Coach and develop the Continuous Improvement Specialist and other CI practitioners.
Plan, facilitate, and ensure follow-through on Kaizen events addressing throughput, changeover reduction, scrap reduction, ergonomics, material flow, and other operational priorities.
Conduct value stream mapping, time studies, process observations, and root-cause analysis to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities.
Manage the plant CI project pipeline, including charters, owners, milestones, risks, timelines, and financial impact tracking.
Apply structured problem-solving, basic Six Sigma methods, statistical process control, and data analysis to improve process capability and decision-making.
Partner with Engineering and Maintenance to optimize equipment performance, improve reliability, reduce downtime, and support new product and process launches.
Deploy and reinforce Lean tools and systems, including 5S, Kanban, Total Productive Maintenance, Gemba walks, visual management, and daily management systems.
Sustain improvements through documented standard work, clear ownership, visual controls, training, and layered process audits.
Coach supervisors and team leads on daily accountability, escalation, leader standard work, and continuous improvement behaviors.
Develop and deliver hands-on training in Lean fundamentals, problem-solving, process mapping, and continuous improvement tools.
Build a pipeline of CI practitioners and improvement leaders across the plant and promote employee participation in identifying problems, testing countermeasures, and sustaining gains.
Track, validate, and report CI measures, including cost savings, productivity gains, throughput, downtime, scrap reduction, quality improvements, and safety impact.
Present project status, results, risks, and next steps to plant leadership and corporate continuous improvement teams.
Maintain accurate project documentation and support financial validation of benefits with Finance and operational stakeholders.