Sr Manager Operational Excellence

Kennametal, Inc.•Bedford Township, PA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Sr. Operational Excellence Manager is responsible for managing the activities of plant operational excellence personnel and leading continuous improvement initiatives within multiple sites/plants in their region. This role involves implementing strategies, frameworks, and methodologies to enhance operational efficiency, streamline processes, and optimize performance on a multi-plant scale. The manager will collaborate with site management and cross-functional teams to identify improvement opportunities, establish and share best practices, and foster a culture of operational excellence. The Sr. OpEX Manager is expected to lead by example in Lean standards and Kaizen principles.

Requirements

Bachelors degree required, prefer STEM or Industrial Engineering area of study
At least 10 years with demonstrated success in manufacturing, quality, engineering, lean/6-sigma, and /or supply chain experience.
Knowledge and practice experience of the following tools: 5S and visual controls, Standard work, OEE and time study, Muda Hunting, Pull system/ Kanban, SMED, TPM, VSM.

Nice To Haves

6-Sigma greenbelt or black belt is plus
Strong leadership, communication, teaching, and coaching skills.

Responsibilities

Develop the lean competences of sites of the region and help sites to become autonomous in continuous improvement management.
Deploy Global Lean Strategies and the associated standards, methodologies, and tools in the responsible sites/plants in region.
Work closely with regional manufacturing directors/Plant/Site Managers, and Plant / Site OpEX Managers to define lean priorities, action plans and approaches.
Make timely diagnosis of lean methodologies and tools and practice On Job Training on his/her sites.
Collaborate with site-level Opex Managers to drive Kaizen workshop execution and monitor progress.
Coach Plant operation teams: Plant/Site Managers, Production Managers, Plant / Site OpEX Managers, Production Supervisors et al to deliver training sessions, workshops, and coaching to enhance Lean knowledge and skills within the region.
Ensure consistency in approach, share best practices, and facilitate knowledge transfer among different locations, promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement across all sites.
Participate in the definition of lean budget guidelines.
Establishes performance metrics and monitors progress towards improvement goals. Able to analyze data and performance reports from each site to identify trends, areas of concern, and opportunities for improvement.
Report performance updates to senior management and provide insights for decision-making.
Promotes standardization of OpEx practices and processes across the region.
Facilitates the sharing of best practices, success stories, and lessons learned among different sites.
Develops and maintain a repository of tools, templates, and guidelines to support continuous improvement efforts.
Implementing Lean or OpEx initiatives at a regional/multi-plants level, requires effective change management and stakeholder engagement.
Able to collaborate with site leadership, functional heads, and employees at various levels to gain buy-in, address resistance, and ensure successful adoption of Lean practices.
Communicates the benefits and impact of improvement initiatives and provide guidance throughout the change process.
Support crisis site with task force working group.
Support the Plant/Site Managers, Production Managers and Plant / Site OpEX Managers to understand the lean strategies and apply the lean tools.
Support the production supervisors to understand the importance of the respect of the standards and their improvement role.
Ensure that Plant/Site OpEX Managers network is fulfilled at right level for success.
Manage the Plant / Site OpEX Managers network of the region: annual professional competences appraisal, contribution & validation to recruitment, definition of training plan, validation of annual appraisal and manage detection/growing of local lean potentials.
Organize network meeting and On Job Training.
Organize the cross sites sharing of good practices within the product family or region.
Ensure that lean rules are taken into account in new projects at right time.
Validate the Sites lean deployment plan vs Global directives & instructions, and Sites Priorities, including smart factory (industrial 4.0/digital tools) development, and support their deployment.
Help the Plant / Site Managers identify opportunities for SQDCIP improvement.
Deploy and follow Global initiatives within his/her region.
Check through a regular presence on every Site of his/her region that Sites are working on appropriate priorities.
Agent of region lean culture change.
Coach Plant / Site Managers : Plant, Production, OpEX, Production & Supply Chain support functions on lean processes implementation.
Check regularly genba in depth the proper deployment of lean roadmaps and ensure a close follow up of progress plans.
Challenge the budget, lean related financial indicators of sites in budget preparation phase.
Validate, challenge & follow Direct Labor and OEE improvement actions.
Ensure a regional lean reporting, KOS metrics correct.
Lean mission report within 3 working days after site visit, share with site and regional management visit summary and quarterly focus alignment.
Contribute to the improvement of Global lean standards & tools and external benchmarking.
Participate to global lean workshops , Committees & Working group.
Contribute in selected Global lean initiatives upon request.
Troubleshooting and help building progress roadmaps for sites when in crisis.
Critical workshop, task force team driver.