Operational Excellence Manager - York, PA

About the role

Our client is seeking an experienced Operational Excellence Manager to lead Lean transformation and Continuous Improvement initiatives within a high-volume manufacturing environment. This position plays a critical role in building and sustaining a Lean culture across the plant while driving measurable improvements in productivity, quality, safety, cost, throughput, cycle time, inventory, and loss elimination. The Operational Excellence Manager will partner closely with plant leadership, department leaders, technical resources, and frontline employees to identify opportunities, facilitate improvement initiatives, develop organizational capability, and ensure Lean practices become embedded in the day-to-day operating culture. This is a highly influential role for a leader who can teach, coach, facilitate, challenge, and influence without relying on direct authority.

The successful candidate will be a hands-on Lean leader and change agent who can move comfortably between the production floor and the leadership team. You will be expected to do more than facilitate improvement events. You'll help build the systems, behaviors, leadership capability, and accountability necessary to make Continuous Improvement part of the plant's everyday operating culture. We're looking for someone who can influence without authority, teach rather than simply direct, and demonstrate measurable results through the teams they develop.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the plant's Lean and Operational Excellence strategy in alignment with overall business objectives.
• Identify opportunities for productivity improvement, waste elimination, loss reduction, cost improvement, and process optimization.
• Lead Kaizen events and other Continuous Improvement initiatives from opportunity identification through implementation, follow-up, and results validation.
• Facilitate pre-event preparation and training, event execution, communication, post-event follow-up, and auditing to ensure improvements are sustained.
• Analyze plant and departmental performance metrics and use data to identify root causes, establish priorities, and develop action plans.
• Drive improvement in key performance indicators through the application of Lean principles and structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Develop and maintain a site transformation plan in partnership with plant leadership.
• Teach and coach Lean methodologies at all levels of the organization, including:
  • Kaizen
  • 5S
  • TPM
  • Setup Reduction / SMED
  • Standard Work
  • Visual Management