Lean Manager I

James Hardie Building Products Inc. is the North American leader in fiber cement home siding and exterior design solutions. Hardie® products offer long lasting beauty and endless design possibilities with trusted protection and low maintenance. The company pioneered modern fiber cement building products and continues to invest in innovation to transform the industry. James Hardie is a high-performance organization, with an unwavering commitment to Zero Harm. The company proudly employs a diverse workforce of over 3,000 employees across operations in North America.

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Onsite from the Reno, NV plant

What You’ll Do:

The Lean Manager will focus on growth and process improvement projects. Responsibilities include:

• Change Management
  • Drives targeted, sustainable improvement by leveraging cross-functional teamwork and change management processes
  • Functions as a senior leader of the site to implement continuous improvement in targeted areas
  • Assists in the development of improvement roadmaps (i.e., how to use tools and processes to drive sustainable improvement results)
  • Supports focused deployment of Lean tools across the organization to assure excellence in operational execution
  • Ensures successful kaizen events by installing and ensuring commitment to the kaizen process which includes 1) planning of kaizen with a dynamic funnel process, 2) kaizen execution, and 3) sustainment of kaizen

• Communications:
  • Responsible for Plant and Network communications (written and oral)
  • Elevates critical business decisions to the appropriate management teams and/or functional managers

• Relationship/People Management:
  • Promotes and facilitates diagnosis of work flow impediments throughout the business and provides expert counsel on appropriate tools to eliminate them
  • Collaborates with internal and external business partners for benchmarking performance and knowledge building of industry best practices to guide decisions for implementation of projects
  • Develops and maintains strong relationships with functional leaders to drive success of projects and teams
  • Promotes and facilitates kaizen leadership
  • Influences cross-functional collaboration

• Process Management:
  • Process Improvement knowledge through delivery of high quality and high impact deliverables
  • Actively reviews policy and practice improvements to drive performance excellence
  • Influences cross-functional systems effectiveness
  • Financial acumen - budget, forecast, and strategic plans
  • Continuous improvement of the product development process to optimize time to market

• Leadership Requirements:
  • Lead a group or team of employees in the achievement of organizational goals. Guide, coach, direct, and develop direct reports.
  • Provide leadership through influence in a complex, matrixed environment.
  • Focuses on Voice of Customer, Voice of Business, personal accountability, and an unyielding commitment to results.
  • Foster a diverse workplace that enables all participants to contribute to their full potential in pursuit of organizational objectives.
  • Monitor and ensure compliance with company policies and procedures (e.g., federal/country and regulatory requirements).

The position responsibilities outlined above are in no way to be construed as all encompassing.  Other duties, responsibilities, and qualifications may be required and/or assigned as necessary.

What You’ll Bring:  

• • Proficient in Lean, including Kaizen (continuous improvement design and facilitation)
  • Excellent communication skills; comfortable in front of all levels of the organization, as well as external customers.
  • Strong leadership, negotiation and conflict management skills.
  • Experience using process improvement tools.
  • Capable of working independently under ambiguous and/or changing conditions.
  • Demonstrated ability to function independently in a high-impact position, with deadline and resource constraints.
  • Demonstrated ability to coordinate across disciplines and integrate all aspects of business as they impact development projects, including negotiation of scope, roles and responsibilities, specifications, timelines, and resources up, across, and down in the organization.

    Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in leading process improvement projects in manufacturing environment

  • Minimum of 3-5 years of lean, six sigma, continuous improvement experience; daily management, strategy deployment, and problem solving in manufacturing environment
  • Demonstrated proficiency applying Lean principles in a variety of situations
  • Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification preferred
  • Advanced degree (MS, MBA) is desirable

What You’ll Receive:

James Hardie Building Products Inc. is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetic information, veteran's status, marital status, pregnancy, disability, or any other basis protected by law.