The Lean Specialist is responsible for driving and standardizing continuous improvement initiatives across all U.S. manufacturing facilities. This role partners with site leadership to implement and sustain Lean methodologies, with a strong emphasis on standard work, SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies), and waste elimination.
Reporting directly to the COO, this position serves as a key change agent, deploying enterprise-wide operational excellence strategies that improve quality, delivery, and cost performance while ensuring consistency across sites.
Responsibilities
Enterprise Continuous Improvement Leadership
- Lead the deployment of Lean Manufacturing principles across all U.S. facilities
- Drive a consistent operational excellence framework across plants
- Identify and prioritize high-impact improvement opportunities aligned with business objectives
- Facilitate Kaizen events and structured problem-solving initiatives (A3, DMAIC)
Standard Work Development & Sustainment
- Establish, document, and deploy standard work across critical operations
- Partner with site teams to ensure adherence and sustainability of standard processes
- Audit and continuously improve standard work to drive consistency and repeatability
- Train plant leadership and operators on standard work principles and execution
SMED & Changeover Optimization
- Lead SMED initiatives to significantly reduce setup and changeover times
- Analyze current changeover processes and separate internal vs. external activities
- Implement best practices to improve equipment uptime, flexibility, and responsiveness
- Drive replication of successful SMED improvements across all facilities
Operational Performance & Metrics
- Develop and standardize key performance metrics (OEE, changeover time, scrap, throughput, lead time)
- Use data analytics to identify trends, gaps, and improvement opportunities
- Support sites in achieving measurable performance improvements
Process Optimization & Best Practice Deployment
- Drive cross-site standardization of best practices and processes
- Support facility layout, flow improvements, and capacity optimization efforts
Cross-Site Collaboration & Leadership
- Act as a liaison between corporate leadership and plant operations
- Influence and support plant leaders to adopt and sustain improvements
- Share best practices and lessons learned across all facilities
Training & Culture Development
- Train and coach employees at all levels on Lean tools and methodologies
- Build internal capability in standard work, SMED, and problem-solving
- Drive a culture of accountability, discipline, and continuous improvement
- Ability to influence across multiple sites without direct authority
- Strong facilitation and coaching skills
- High level of ownership and accountability
- Strategic thinking with hands-on execution capability
- Excellent communication across all organizational levels
- Change management and cultural leadership
- Corporate role supporting all U.S. manufacturing facilities
- Travel required: approximately 40-60% to plant locations
- Hands-on presence in plants to lead and sustain improvements
Education and Work Experience Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, or related field)
- 5+ years of experience in manufacturing, operations, or continuous improvement
- Demonstrated success implementing Lean initiatives across multiple sites preferred, specifically in Standard Work, SMED, VSMs, etc
- Experience in medical device or regulated manufacturing strongly preferred
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt
- Formal Lean or Toyota Production System training is a plus