| Location | Southfield, Michigan |
| Job Type | Full-time |
OVERVIEW:
The Director ot Maintenance & Continuous Improvement is responsible for establishing and executing the Piston
Autotnotive strategy maintenance reliability, asset management, equipment uptime, and operational excellence
across PA manufacturing locations.
This leadership role drives sustainable business performance by developing standardized maintenance systems,
advancing continuous improvement capability, and partnering with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain,
Finance, Human Resources, and Plant Leadership to improve salety, quality, delivery, productivity, equipment
reliability, and cost performance.
The Director partners with the Piston Group Director of Lean/SCI to ensure alignment of Lean principles, CI roadmaps,
governance routines, and capability-building methods. While maintaining clear accountability for Piston Automotive
maintenance excellence, reliability systems, and PA execution results.
Piston Automotive wasn’t just founded to make things. It was founded to make things better. And that begins with building better teams solely dedicated to achieving excellence at every level of execution through a combination of experience, expertise, and a deep seeded passion for what we do. Our assemblies consistently set the standard because our people consistently raise the bar.
Why Piston Automotive?
Competitive Wages, Paid Holidays & Vacation, Medical & Rx Plans, Dental & Vision Plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, Employee Assistance Program, Life & Disability Coverage, 401K with Company Match, Tuition Reimbursement , Vehicle and Product Discounts
Responsibilities:Enterprise Alignment, Strategy & Governance
- Develop and execute Piston Automotive strategy for Maintenance Excellence and Continuous Improvement in
alignment with business objectives, operational priorities, and corporate expectations.
-Translate Piston Group Lean/SCl strategy, PPS standards, annual priorities, and governance expectations into
practicel PA deployment plans, maturity roadmaps, and scorecards.
- Partner with the Piston Group Director ot Lean/SCI, PA Operations leadership, Engineering, Quality, and Plant
Leadership to align strategy with tactics and avoid duplication of enterprise-level Lean ownership.
- Establish PA govemance routines for maintenance reliability, SCI execution, project prioritization, progress
reviews, and results reporting across all Piston Automotive facilities.
- Drive organizational change by fostering accountability, collaboration, standardization, operational discipline, and
a sustainable culture ot continuous improvement.
Maintenance Excellence & Asset Reliability
- Establish standardized maintenance systems, reliability expectations, asset management practices, and
performance measures across Piston Automotive facilities.
- Lead deployment and sustainment of preventive and predictive maintenance practices, equipment reliability
initiatives, spare parts discipline, downtime reduction methods, and standardized maintenance work processes.
- Partner whth Manufacturing Engineering and Plant Maintenance teams to improve equipment uptime, launch
readiness, process capability, maintainability, and lifecycle asset performance.
- Support capital planning, maintenance budgeting, equipment readiness, and operational risk reduction through
data-driven maintenance strategies and cross-functional leadership.
Operational Excellence & SCI Value Creation
- Lead Piston Automotive deployment of Lean and SCI practices, including Kaizen events, value stream mapping,
5S, standardized work, problem-solving workshops, and waste elimination activities.
- Own PA SCI cost-savings goal deployment, project identificatio, execution tracking, benefit validation, read-
across, and results reporting in alignment With corporate and PA financial objectives.
- Use operational metrics, customer scorecards, BOS/MBR inputs, and plant KPIs to identity trends, prioritize
improvement opportunities, gnd drive sustainable business results.
- Ensure improvement initiatives enhance safety, quality, delivery, productivity, customer satisfaction, cost
performance, and overall equipment effectiveness.
- Develop and sustain practical standards, procedures, dashboards, and visual management routines that make
performance gaps visible and drive disciplined follow-up.
People, Capability & Culture Development
- Provide leadership, coaching, and development to PA maintenance, engineering, and continuous improvement
leaders.
- Build internal capability through standardized training, mentoring, train-the-trainer approaches, knowledge
sharing, and succession planning.
- Serve as a coach and change agent by helping leaders and teams apply Lean thinking, maintenance best
practices, root cause analysis, and structured problem solving in daily Operations.
- promote cross-plant collaboration, benchmarking, best-practice sharing, and read-across Of successful
maintenance and SCI solutions.
Cross-Functional Business Partnership
- Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, IT, Finance, Human Resources, Program
Management, and Plant Leadership to support strategic initiatives and operational objectives.
- Partner with executive and plant leadership to establish long-term operational priorities, performance objectives,
and improvement strategies that support profitability, growth, launch execution, and customer performance.
- Support successful launch of new equipment, technologies, and manufacturing processes by ensuring
maintenance readiness, operational standards, training, and sustainment plans are in place.
• Participate in management reviews related to operational performance, maintenance effectiveness, quality
systems, and continuous improvement progress.
Governance, Compliance & Risk Management
- Ensure compliance With corporate policies, regulatory requirements, safety expectations, and applicable industry
standards related to maintenance, equipment, and operational excellence.
- Champion a proactive safety culture through risk identification, standardized work practices, layered
accountability and continuous improvement in workplace safety.
- Establish gcwernance processes that ensure consistent execution, accountability, escalation, and measurable
performance across Piston Automotive facilities.
- Periodically review the suitability and effectiveness of PA maintenance and continuous improvement systems with
appropnate leadership and functional stakeholders.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
Directly and/or functionally leads Piston Automotive Maintenance Excellence and Continuous Improvement resources
as assigned. provides coaching, direction, priorities, and performance expectations for PA site and central resources
supporting maintenance reliability and SCI execution.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Business, or a related technical discipline.
- Minimum Of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, maintenance, engineering.
operations, or continuous improvement including multi-site responsibility.
- Demonstrated success leading maintenance reliability asset management, operational excellence, Lean
transformation, or SCI execution in a manufacturing environment.
- Deep working knowledge of Lean methodologies, such as Kaizen, value stream mapping, 5S, standardized
root cause analysis, and structured problem solving.
- Proven ability to translate enterprise strategy into plant-level execution plans, governance routines, metrics, and
measurable financial or operational outcomes.
- Strong facilitation, coaching, communication, change-management, and cross-functional influence skills.
- Business acumen with experience using operational metrics, financial data, and project tracking to support
decision-making and performance improvement.
- Experience applying maintenance exellence, equipment reliability, preventive/predictive maintenance, and
asset-performance practices.
- Experience Microsoft Office products and data-driven performance manegement tools.
- Ability to travel regularly to Piston Automotive facilities, up to approximately 50% based on business needs.