What are the responsibilities and job description for the LEAN Manager position at PALFINGER?
The PALFINGER values of People, Entrepreneurship, Respect and Learning, are more than words. We strive every day to create and support an atmosphere of collaboration, transparency, empowerment and customer focus so our greatest assets, our people, will be able to harness their passion, drive and motivations to make a significant impact!
As an international group, PALFINGER offers its customers around the world hydraulic lifting solutions at the interfaces of the transport chain. At the moment, PALFINGER operates business in 16 sectors: loader cranes, EPSILON timber and recycling cranes, marine cranes, davit systems, winches and offshore equipment, offshore cranes, boats, wind cranes, hooklifts, access platforms, tail lifts, passenger lifts, mobile cranes, truck bodies, railway systems, and truck-mounted forklifts as well as attachments and equipment for increasing crane efficiency. Furthermore, as a member of the PALFINGER North America Region, PALFINGER continuously pursues our vision of being the preferred provider of truck equipment throughout North and Latin America.
PALFINGER is seeking a strong LEAN Manager candidate familiar with working in a plant environment to join the team and work out of our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Council Bluffs, IA. If you like contributing your talents, being rewarded for strong performance and enjoying the satisfaction of accomplishment, then we think you have found the right place to come and build a future. We believe you will join a company with a strong heritage and, more importantly, a strong future.
Job Summary
This position will work with all departments within the plant to support continuous improvement activities, including but not limited to supporting Kaizen events, training and creating work orders. This role reports to the Production Manager, offering a competitive compensation package and opportunity for ongoing career growth.
Primary Responsibilities
- Understand the Lean strategy on a corporate and regional level
- Deliver the basic and advanced Lean training to staff and shop floor employees
- Train the shop floor employees and staff on a development plan
- Develop OPC (target value streams and factory layout concept)
- Implements LEAN thinking based on value streams and shop floor management - deploys LEAN in the plant
- Document the value streams with value stream analysis
- Improves value streams with value stream design – tracks OEE of workstations
- Exchanges best practices with other plants
- Defines and implements standards
- Establishes shop floor management - meeting structures and KPI tracking
- Conducts improvement workshops
- Support continuous improvement activities
- Work instructions- provide work instructions (WI) for assembly and manufacturing, modify or create work instructions for any safety or quality issues that are identified
- Provide training for new employees
- Maintain skills matrix for employees and work centers
- Continuous Improvement (CI)- provide support for production, manufacturing, and warehouse areas for Cl activities, kaizen events, training, audits, etc., and regularly update work center boards
- Root Cause and corrective action- assist the quality department and production manager in root cause investigations and corrective action plans
- Link activities to business objectives and develop transformation plans by site in collaboration with appropriate leadership
- Identify, target and prioritize areas and processes for the application of improvement events
- Determine the appropriate tools and methodologies and timing of improvement activity to achieve business objectives
- Support, track, assess, and report progress on implementing and using LEAN and Six Sigma principles across all divisional sites
- Develop and maintain detailed process maps, metrics, and control plans for key manufacturing processes
- Foster a continuous improvement culture assuring buy-in and ownership at all levels of the organization
- Train and mentor divisional talent on continuous improvement tools and techniques to build local capability and ensure sustainability
- Manages the development and maintenance of metrics to measure performance against objectives
- Uses the metrics to define and champion an ongoing series of continuous improvement actions and initiatives
- Facilitate Goal Deployment Planning across the business
- Identify and implement best practices across the plant
- Special projects and/or initiatives as required by business conditions or organizational focus
- Must have the ability to travel nationally and internationally 75% to 100% of the time for projects at other facilities for up to 3 months per project
- Runs LEAN projects
- Other duties and roles as assigned by the Manager
Qualifications
- High school diploma or GED equivalent, college education preferred
- Proven leadership ability
- Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word) proficient. Excel experience would be at an intermediate level
- Experience with PowerBI is a plus
- Excellent communication skills, both technical writing skills with well-spoken English is a requirement
- LEAN Manufacturing experience preferred
- SAP experience
- AutoCAD or similar 2D modeling software
- Ability to work with all levels of employees including difficult personalities, and the ability to always remain calm and professional in tense or adverse situations
- Ability to train all levels of employees and mentor others in the department
What We Offer
- Competitive compensation and performance rewards
- A comprehensive Benefits package with flexible options
- Opportunity for ongoing career growth
- An environment of Respect, Integrity, Openness, Inclusion and Support
- The opportunity to build strong teams, improve operations and make a significant impact
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state, or local protected class.