Operational Excellence & Manufacturing Development Manager

Purpose of the Role

The Manufacturing Development Manager is responsible for improving operational performance across established manufacturing operations by driving productivity, quality, delivery, cost, and process improvement initiatives.

The role works closely with site management, production teams, manufacturing engineering, supply chain, quality, and maintenance functions to identify improvement opportunities, implement best practices, and support the deployment of manufacturing standards.

The primary objective is to improve factory performance through practical operational improvements.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Performance Improvement

• Identify and lead initiatives to improve Productivity, Throughput, Capacity utilization, Lead time, Cost efficiency, Delivery reliability
• Support sites in removing operational bottlenecks and process constraints.
• Facilitate performance improvement workshops and Kaizen activities.

Manufacturing Excellence

• Support implementation of manufacturing standards and best practices.
• Drive operational excellence initiatives.
• Promote structured problem solving and root cause analysis.
• Support deployment of Lean tools and continuous improvement methodologies.

Manufacturing Process Development

• Analyze current manufacturing processes and identify improvement opportunities.
• Work with manufacturing engineering and operations teams to improve: Process stability Flow efficiency Labor productivity Material flow
• Support industrialization and manufacturing process optimization activities.

Digitalization and Data Utilization

• Support adoption of existing manufacturing systems and digital tools.
• Improve operational reporting and KPI visibility.
• Utilize production data to identify performance gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Participate in deployment of digital manufacturing initiatives when business cases are established.

Quality and Continuous Improvement

• Drive initiatives to reduce waste, rework, and cost of poor quality.
• Support corrective and preventive action processes.
• Participate in quality improvement projects and process standardization efforts.

Capability Development

• Support sites in sharing and implementing best practices.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer between factories.
• Contribute to manufacturing training and competence development activities.

Success Measures

Success will be measured through:

• Productivity improvement
• OEE improvement
• Throughput increase
• Manufacturing cost reduction
• Lead time reduction
• Delivery performance improvement
• Cost of poor quality reduction
• Safety performance
• Completion and realization of improvement projects

Candidate Profile

Experience

• 10-15 years of experience in: Manufacturing Production Manufacturing engineering Operational excellence Industrial engineering Continuous improvement
• Experience leading improvement projects in a factory environment.
• Exposure to Lean manufacturing and performance management.

Competencies

• Manufacturing operations
• Lean and continuous improvement
• Problem solving and root cause analysis
• Data analysis and KPI management
• Process optimization
• Project management
• Change management
• Stakeholder collaboration

Leadership Characteristics

• Hands-on and results-driven.
• Strong analytical mindset.
• Comfortable working directly with shop floor teams.
• Pragmatic problem solver.
• Focused on execution and measurable business results.