Director of Continuous Improvement; OPEX

American Trailer World (“ATW”) is North America’s leading manufacturer, distributer and retailer of professional and consumer grade trailers, truck equipment, and parts and accessories. The company formed in 2016 when the nation’s two leading trailer companies, American Trailer Works and Big Tex Trailers merged in a deal led by Bain Capital. ATW has approximately, 5,000 employees and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

ATW’s nationally recognized brands include Big Tex Trailers, PJ Trailers, BWise Trailers, CM Truck Beds, Dakota Bodies, Carry-On Trailer, RC Trailers, and Big Tex Trailer World. Its products are sold to dealers, retailers, big box retailers and other OEMs, all of which serve a variety of end markets including agriculture, construction, landscaping, recreational and general industrial markets.

The Director of Continuous Improvement will support the ATW Organization in development & planning of Lean strategies and metrics. Providing support in selection, coaching, training, mentoring plant level Lean Tool experts that will facilitate future Kaizen events and drive Lean Transformation at the tactical level. This position provides support & training across various levels in the organization to clearly link opportunities and metrics to strategic objectives.

• Facilitate development of Lean strategy for transactional, manufacturing and distribution assets to ensure all objectives are met in the areas of safety, quality, profitability, productivity, waste reduction and team excellence.
• This position will provide leadership, mentoring, training, and coaching to all levels of the organization on the use and practice of Lean methodology and tools.
• This position will have responsibility for supporting, identifying, planning, and training/leading/mentoring through the execution of Lean transformation events targeted towards improving the plant’s performance on safety, quality, delivery, inventory, and productivity (SQDIP) as well as establishing a solid foundation around Lean Daily Management (LDM) & 5S in the workplace with process, metrics, and ownership defined at all levels.
• This position will require the ability to identify and analyze complex operational data from multiple disparate sources to produce actionable evidence of root cause or improvement opportunities.
• This position will focus on business performance improvements that yield zero accidents, defect free products, on demand and on time delivery, at the lowest cost by partnering with the organization’s process owners and champions to drive results.
• This position will act as a key driver of change within the organization, supporting management/cross functional decisions by communicating the organization-wide changes to employees and helping them to learn, understand, adjust, and grow with the business’s Lean transformation.
• Expert proficiency in the use and implementation of Lean tools such as:
  Toyota Production System/Danaher Business System, Lean Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping, Business Process Reengineering, Kaizen, TAKT, Kanbans/Pull/Material Systems, Single Piece Flow, 8 Wastes, 5S, Poka-Yoke, PDCA, Hoshin Kanri, Root Cause Analysis, Workshop Management, and KPI's.
• This is a key leadership as well as developmental role to grow within the organization. This role will be considered for future Management roles to include Supply Chain, Operations, Quality, Engineering, and Plant Manager roles. This position reports directly to the Director of Operations.
• Other responsibilities, as needed

• Minimum 5-7 years of hands-on experience in applying lean tools, training, mentoring & coaching team members at all levels of the organization.
• Results based Leadership style skill set with strong impact and influencing skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering (ME, IE, other) preferred but with the right amount of experience, will consider other fields of study.
• Lean or Six Sigma certified preferred
• Highly Proficient in MS Office Suite including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook at a minimum.
• Ability to travel 75% of the time within the region
• Ability to travel 10% of the time out of region