Continuous Improvement Specialist

Overview / Job Summary

Commonwealth Rolled Products is a leading manufacturer of Aluminum rolled products for the Automotive, Commercial, and Industrial markets. The Company operates its production facility in Lewisport, KY with the support of an Automotive Innovation Center for R&D, Sales and Field Service in Madison Heights (DET), and Inside Sales in the Cleveland, OH area.

Our production facility is seeking to add a talented Continuous Improvement Specialist to its team. The purpose of this role is to lead the implementation, training, teaching, coaching and management of a world class continuous improvement system utilizing lean and six sigma techniques in our Lewisport facility. This position is a key support and tactical execution role of one of the cornerstones of our continuous improvement system.

Responsibilities Include

• Actively participate in maintaining a zero incident safety culture.
• Live and champion the Commonwealth Rolled Products core values; Safety, Integrity, Customer Focus, Ownership, Excellence, and Teamwork.
• Support the implementation of a world class Continuous Improvement System: Reliable People (Lean Operations), Reliable Process (CPC) and Reliable Assets (Equipment).
• Teach and train the continuous improvement curriculum for engineers, technical support, operations, maintenance and staff throughout the facility.
• Provide coaching and mentoring of plant teams in the impact they have on operations reliability.
• Apply Lean activities and tools to the day-to-day business.
• Support cultural transformation within the Business Improvement Plan and Strategy.
• Support the plant management of Reliable Operations, Reliable Process and Reliable Assets through project work and data analysis.
• Support the plant continuous improvement roadmap and event hopper.
• Assist the department managers and plant team members in A3 develop and project hopper selection, execution, and sustainment.
• Support the plant teams through facilitation and participation of advance problem solving techniques.
• Demonstrate effective team facilitation skills to engage the various teams to deliver improvement results on time.
• Implement the standardized continuous improvement toolbox, including core tools: 6s, A3 Thinking, SMED, RCFA, TWI, Standardized Work, VSM, TPM, CPC, Equipment Reliability and Problem Solving.
• Coach, facilitate and participate in plant shop floor teams to enable Commonwealth Rolled Products to continuously improve performance, leverage Information Centers for continuous improvement, and create a visual workplace, solve complex problems.
• Develop and participate in continuous improvement auditing at all levels of the organization. Make recommendations and drive to implementing sustainable solutions.
• Assist leadership in the development of strategic A3s for the business and plants.
• Coordinate event follow-up (30/60/90 day reviews) to monitor the progress of planned improvement implementation to assure timely action, appropriate management support, and achievement of expected tangible benefits.
• Lead and facilitate projects, events, and/or activities which address value-at-stake opportunities, helping to drive improvements in all facets of operations.
• Participate in Continuous Improvement and HSE audits. Drive solution implementation.
• Identify and focus on short and long-term wins that will transform the culture and produce results.
• Lead Root Cause Failure Analysis of significant People, Process, Equipment related downtime events at Plant locations; implementing permanent corrective actions to mitigate probability of reoccurrence.
• Facilitate FMEA(Failure Mode Effect Analysis) on equipment and processes within the facility.
• Be a leader within the Continuous Improvement organization – engage the workforce.
• Openly and effectively communicate about continuous improvement, build credibility through relationships, and provide leadership to the program.
• Be a resource for operations, maintenance, HSE and supply chain in support of delivering the business objectives.
• Use, teach and coach lean and six sigma methodology and proactive problem solving.
• Spend 75% of working time at Gemba (on the plant floor) focusing on employee engagements and teaching the lean concepts.

Required Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED
• 2+ years of experience facilitating, coaching and implementing Lean, kaizen/six sigma, TPM events, and driving lean transformation with proven results and implementations in an manufacturing environment.
• Lean Certification – both course work and hands on.
• Proven ability to work independently and successfully facilitate cross functional teams, while implement improvement within an established time frame.
• Well organized, high energy, data driven, and results oriented.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, verbal communication skills and organization skills, must be comfortable teaching and presenting to large groups at all levels of the organization from shop floor to CEO.
• Must be proficient in MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Project, Oracle and various analysis tools (minitab, visio, etc.).
• Willingness to travel approximately 10% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor degree strongly preferred, preferably in engineering, manufacturing/operations.
• Aluminum Casting or Rolling Experience
• Six Sigma Green or BlackBelt training/certification
• SPC training/certification
• Process/Technical/Operations/Maintenance experience

Commonwealth Rolled Products is an equal opportunity employer and supports diversity in the workplace. Qualified applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. Our HR team will reach out to the applicants who met the qualifications and most closely aligned with requirements of the positions.