Lean Specialist

A Brief Summary of This Position:

The Lean Specialist drives, facilitates, and enables operational excellence by implementing Lean principles and practices to achieve customer focus, simplicity, agility, and accountability. In addition, the role will:

• Utilize Engineering and Lean skill sets to drive high-impact improvements and Lean methodology mentoring activities at the site.
• Lead team in the development and improvement of business processes, architecture, requirements, change management, and metrics.
• Identify, communicate, and overcome obstacles that may affect performance and assist teams in resolving conflicts to achieve optimal improvement.
• Calculate and maintain Lean-related measures, maintain records, maintain visual boards, and communicate data to relevant personnel.
• Positively contribute to all activities related to production, quality, warranty, product reliability, and rework serving as a global resource for site managers and engineers.
• Champion the use of value stream maps at all locations.
• Utilize the information from value stream maps to analyze, identify improvement opportunities, create action plans, execute the plans and PDCA, and communicate best practices across the system.

Essential Functions:

• Development and execution of a Lean strategy.
• Facilitate and coach Lean events, and coordinate Lean activities, including acting as a liaison between teams, support groups, management, and other functional areas, removing obstacles that may affect Valley's performance.
• Lead teams in the development and improvement of business processes, architecture, requirements, change management, and metrics.
• This position prepares updates for Senior Management and positively influences the Group President, Vice Presidents, General Manager, and other divisional leaders to adopt the practices of Operational Excellence (The Valmont Way principles, systems, and tools), to drive customer focus (VOC), continuous improvement, and bottom-line results for Global Irrigation.
• Promote and facilitate diagnosis of workflow impediments and other waste throughout the Division and provide counsel on appropriate tools to eliminate them.
• Development and maintenance of standard processes for measuring and reporting the status of, and improvements in, Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost (SQDC) metrics.
• Represent Valmont's Irrigation segment Lean team on cross-divisional committees.
• Coach Division President, Executive staff, GMs, and business leaders in Lean Management and Operational Excellence practices utilizing The Valmont Way Operating System and the Lean Playbook.
• Guide site managers, general managers, plant managers, Lean technicians, and site staff on Lean philosophies and Lean leadership.
• Define and facilitate improvement activities based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act/Adjust (PDCA) methodology and by the site Lean Roadmap.
• Drive improvement in, and quality of, relevant discipline standards and practices to continually increase the value to the customer.
• Specialized project management responsibilities which generally include assisting international production plants.
• Champion Lean learning and use of effective tools to improve the business, measure success, and deliver Lean process improvement results.
• Calculate and maintain Lean-related measures, maintain records, maintain visual boards, and communicate data to relevant personnel.
• This position reports to the Plant Manager and has no direct reports.
• This role requires up to 15% travel (internationally/domestically), including overnight stays.

Required Qualifications of Every Candidate (Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities):

• A bachelor's degree in engineering or related discipline.
• Two-year engineering focus driving Lean or other continuous improvement transformation.
• A professional Lean Certification and commitment to continuous Lean learning.
• Expert in Lean Manufacturing and experience in program management including knowledge of Best Practices in strategy deployment, project execution, and implementation.
• The ability to travel up to 15% of the year.
• The ability to work independently and in a team environment, building relationships with all levels of employees.
• A customer-focused, result and change leader for Valmont that can move the change process forward.
• Mentor and coach teams to find a way forward in ambiguous situations.
• Ability to organize and manage multiple, simultaneous priorities and meet aggressive deadlines.
• Strong leadership, problem-solving, and planning skills.
• Passion and integrity with the drive to excel and deliver exceptional results.
• A broad knowledge of the material, costs, techniques, and processes used within the manufacturing industry.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Outlook).
• Effective facilitation skill set for interaction with all levels of the organization.
• The ability to perform math calculations required by Lean methodology including basic algebra.
• The ability to use Access, PowerPoint, and Visio.
• The ability to create a self-sustaining culture of continuous improvement where all employees are treated with mutual respect, their ideas and contributions are recognized and valued.
• The ability to work with, motivate, develop, and direct multicultural teams.
• Attention to detail with accuracy while working in a fast-paced environment with multiple deadlines.
• Judgment and decision-making skills while comparing relative cost and benefit potential.

Highly Qualified Candidates Will Also Possess These Qualifications:

• A master's degree in engineering, business, or a related Lean field is preferred.
• Proven facilitation/coaching of TPM events, Standard Work events, SMED events, RCAs, manufacturing and administrative value stream improvement projects, and experience in TPS is preferred.
• PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification is preferred.
• In addition to English proficiency, proficiency in another language is preferred.