Director of CI & Manufacturing Performance

Teijin Automotive Technologies is an innovative and full-service Tier One supplier with a global presence and emphasis in development for lightweight technologies. Teijin Automotive offers employees the opportunity to join a leading edge company within the composite material industry and enjoy the benefits offered by a growing company in North America and internationally.

Essential Job Functions:

• Partner with the VP of Manufacturing to develop and execute annual manufacturing strategies, operational priorities, and multi-year continuous improvement roadmaps.
• Translate organizational manufacturing objectives into measurable improvement initiatives across the manufacturing network.
• Collaborate with Regional Directors of Operations to align plant-level improvement priorities with enterprise manufacturing objectives.
• Support the evaluation and prioritization of capital investments, operational improvement opportunities, and resource requirements.

• Represent Manufacturing in cross-functional strategic discussions with Finance, Engineering, Supply Chain, and other corporate functions, as delegated.
• Prepare and present manufacturing performance analyses, strategic recommendations, and operational updates to executive leadership.
• Identify opportunities to standardize manufacturing processes, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen performance accountability across facilities.
• Lead consolidated manufacturing budget tracking, financial performance reporting, and variance analysis across all manufacturing facilities in partnership with Finance.
• Collaborate with plant leadership and finance to identify cost reduction opportunities, productivity improvements, and operational efficiencies.
• Develop and maintain financial business cases for continuous improvement initiatives and proposed capital investments.
• Establish processes to quantify, validate, and track cost savings associated with manufacturing improvement projects.
• Analyze manufacturing cost drivers and recommend corrective actions to address unfavorable performance trends.
• Support annual budgeting and capital planning activities through operational analysis and financial recommendations.

• Partner with Finance to ensure consistency and accuracy in reporting improvement-related financial benefits.
• Establish and maintain a standardized manufacturing performance management framework across all facilities.
• Define and standardize key performance indicators, including Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), scrap, downtime, throughput, productivity, quality, and safety.
• Partner with Operations, Engineering, and IT to establish consistent manufacturing execution system (MES) reporting and data integrity standards.
• Develop dashboards and reporting tools that provide visibility into manufacturing performance and improvement opportunities.
• Lead weekly and monthly manufacturing performance reviews in collaboration with regional and plant leadership.
• Identify underperforming facilities and coordinate structured root-cause analysis and corrective action planning.
• Monitor progress against established performance targets and escalate significant performance risks and resource constraints to the Vice President of Manufacturing.
• Promote data-driven decision-making and accountability for measurable operational improvements.

• Develop and deploy standardized continuous improvement methodologies, tools, and operating practices across the manufacturing network.
• Establish expectations for the application of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), and other operational excellence principles.
• Provide functional leadership, technical guidance, and coaching to plant-level Continuous Improvement Managers.
• Establish and facilitate a network-wide CI community of practice to promote training, knowledge sharing, and consistency in improvement methodologies.
• Review and prioritize plant-level continuous improvement project pipelines based on operational impact, financial return, and alignment with organizational objectives.
• Evaluate improvement initiatives to ensure appropriate project discipline, measurable results, and sustainability.
• Facilitate the replication of successful manufacturing practices across multiple facilities.
• Identify organizational capability gaps and recommend appropriate training, resources, or process improvements.
• Partner with plant leadership to embed continuous improvement practices into daily manufacturing operations.

• Build effective working relationships with Regional Directors of Operations, Plant Managers, and corporate