Continuous Improvement Leader

For over 24 years, Dakkota Integrated Systems has delivered excellence through precision-engineered, build-to-order vehicle components from cockpits to fascia assemblies. Our award-winning team combines advanced lean manufacturing, strong product development, and a highly efficient supply chain to meet customer demands with reliability and innovation.

If you're looking for a company that empowers you to grow while driving excellence, collaboration, and innovation to create real impact, we’d love to meet you.

We are seeking a strategic, future‑focused, and dynamic Continuous Improvement (CI) Leader who excels in driving enterprise‑wide operational excellence and is eager to expand beyond improvement work into broader operational responsibility. This role offers the opportunity to build visibility, influence, and cross‑functional capability while progressing toward a long‑term career path in Plant Operations Management.

This role is responsible for leading high‑impact Kaizen events, developing Lean capabilities across the organization, and ensuring long‑term sustainment of process improvements. The ideal candidate is an innovative, data‑driven leader with a passion for operational transformation, employee development, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and growth.

This is a hybrid position based in Southeast, Michigan, reporting to the Head of Lean Deployment as part of the Corporate Lean Deployment team.

• Lead high-impact Kaizen events that deliver measurable improvements in productivity, quality, cost, and overall operational performance.
• Develop, coach, and mentor employees in CI tools and methodologies to build a sustainable culture of problem‑solving, ownership, and continuous learning.

• Create and implement robust sustainment plans (30, 60, and 90 day) to ensure improvements remain embedded and effective.
• Monitor and audit post‑Kaizen results, reinforcing process adherence, standard work, and best practices through consistent follow‑up.

• Educate employees at all organizational levels on Lean principles, structured problem-solving, and data‑driven decision making.
• Facilitate hands‑on training workshops to strengthen team capabilities and drive enterprise‑wide CI maturity.

• Partner with plant and organizational leadership to identify, prioritize, and execute improvement initiatives aligned with key business objectives.
• Provide guidance to teams on utilizing analytics and data insights to elevate operational performance.

• Daily Management – Establish and reinforce disciplined daily accountability systems to drive performance and transparency.
• 6S (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain, Safety) – Lead efforts that improve workplace organization, efficiency, and safety.
• Value Stream Mapping (VSM) – Analyze end‑to‑end processes to identify waste and implement optimized flow.
• TPI (Total Process Improvement) – Facilitate structured process improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency and throughput.
• Structured Problem Solving – Apply A3, 8D, DMAIC, and other root cause methodologies to eliminate issues at their source.
• Gemba Walks – at the point of work to observe processes, collaborate with employees, and uncover improvement opportunities.
• Flow