Director, Quality and Continuous Improvement

The Director of Quality and Continuous Improvement Canada will provide leadership, direction, and oversight of quality assurance and continuous improvement efforts for improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. This leader will report directly to the VP of Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement with dotted line to the Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations Canada. This role will be accountable for prioritizing, developing, leading, and reviewing the deployment of the Cornerstone Production System (CPS) across the Canadian Business Unit. The goal of this position is to build a continuous improvement culture and provide financial savings and sustainable process improvement.

Preferred candidate location would be Ontario, Canada but can be remote if willing to travel.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Include, but are not limited to, the following:

The prioritization and deployment of Cornerstone Production System in multiple plants

End to end quality responsibility: design, manufacturing, and customer satisfaction

Monitor the Canadian business unit customer satisfaction, drive initiatives and projects to improve quality as a competitive advantage

Teaching and developing skill of the factory salary and hourly employees. This is accomplished by supporting CPS College, conducting Kaizen events, and developing training material

Helping the plants within the region to develop Annual Plans using the Kaizen Methodology. The Annual Plans include training and development of team members and meeting financial targets established by corporate leadership

Lead the CPS Steering Meeting and conducting monthly follow-up calls and to ensure that all plants within the Business Unit are meeting the Annual Plan

If plants need assistance, the QA&CI Director will support the plant in need of help

Provide plant support when required if a plant is underperforming to target

Lead the deployment of the Cornerstone Production System Management System and assessment

Ensuring the concepts and principles defined in the corporate Cornerstone Production System are deployed in each of the plants in a standardized practice that complies to the corporate expectation

This position requires the ability to communicate to all levels of the organization, including the President and CEO.

The QA&CI Director needs to have good verbal and written communication skills, the ability to lead change and teach others, to facilitate Kaizen Events, CPS College, Fresh Eyes Activities, and the ability to integrate, align and influence diverse cross functional teams

Lead the effort to leverage best practices and standardize processes and procedures across all factories to meet company objectives and customer expectations

Explore, identify, and pursue new technologies that improve effectiveness of our quality control systems including error and mistake proof solutions, digital, real-time quality assurance systems

Lead and/or facilitate team problem solving for customer and internal quality issues to find true root cause and develop Permanent Corrective Actions

Understand that speed matters and is prompt with action and information, willing to make decisions based on calculated risks, and moves issues to closure by driving teams forward

Qualifications

Requires regular travel (75%), travel could be international to USA and Mexico

Master’s degree preferred and MBA a plus

Minimum of 15+ years of manufacturing experience in a complex, manufacturing environment and at least 5 years leading continuous improvement and quality assurance

Proven expertise in Continuous Improvement. This includes the creation and execution of enterprise-wide production system

Six Sigma Black Belt certification, Master Black Belt preferred

Ability to build strong business relationships and work collaboratively across multiple functions and regions

Demonstrated success in process improvement for reduction in waste, reduction in cost and/or improvement in process control

Demonstrated ability to utilize data, strategic thinking skills, intuition, and influence to solve critical and real work problems

Proven experience in effectively working with complex manufacturing process issues with large customers and vendors

Extensive knowledge and experience in Production Systems, Lean Manufacturing Deployment/Transformation

Thorough understanding of quality control standards and methodologies.

Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or related software