Manager II, Operations

Under the direction of the Vice President -- Operations, the Operations Manager is responsible for directing and coordinating the daily operations of the following production units within the Lorain's Plant’s Departments:

• VCC casting
• DCC casting
• Heat treating
• Raw material flow
• Plant maintenance
• Production planning and throughput
• Quality

This individual will drive continuous improvement and optimization of all processes. This includes developing efficiency strategies to ensure Primary Operations meets production goals and standards at manufacturing costs. This individual is also responsible for upholding a safe work environment. The successful candidate will have the key skills to develop processes that will maximize stewardship, safety, quality, and productivity. In addition, the successful candidate serve as a member of the Lorain Management Team. This team is collectively responsible for continuously improving the Lorain's Plant’s overall effectiveness, which ultimately enhances its ability to better fulfill the Company’s customer requirements.

• Work with the Lorain team to provide overall direction and guidance to the operation with the objective of maximizing growth and profitability.
• Assures that the Safety, Environmental, Quality, Production, Cost & Yield, Customer Satisfaction, On-time Delivery, and Equipment Reliability objectives of Lorain's Operations are met. Plans for longer term needs of the department.
• Direct staffing and development of hourly and salaried team members and create an environment with high morale, where engaged team members are motivated to produce high-quality, low-cost products in a timely manner; interact with all employees directly or through direct reports on a regular basis. Frequent presence on the manufacturing floor.
• Manage production costs and product quality and modify programs to maintain and enhance profitable operation. Requisition raw materials and utilize required scrap materials to maximize value and maintain high quality products.
• Assist accounting to plan and forecast department’s requirements with respect to equipment, manpower, materials and establishing budgets for labor and materials.
• Work with the Lorain team to manage policy deployment in the areas of Lean Manufacturing techniques, quality, cost reduction, complete and on-time delivery, safety, customer satisfaction, employee relations, visual controls and department performance measures.
• Work with the Lorain team to improve the Lorain operation process control activities, procedures and results; generate significant process improvement successes, which will impact the product quality and, ultimately, the customer satisfaction.
• Establish Key Performance Indicators related to business goals and regularly tracks and reports progress.
• Work with the Lorain team to maintain department production capacities through capital investment and maintenance to ensure consistent reliability and to compensate for design and product changes.
• Maintain a safe, clean working department and comply with federal, state, local and corporate safety and environmental policies and regulations.
• Schedule and conduct department meetings.
• Interface with customer representatives when required as a part of normal business.
• Interact regularly with local and corporate support departments (Operations, Sales, R&D, Procurement, Finance, HR, etc.).
• Support and promote Company vision, mission, and values.
• Train, coach, and motivate employees to consistently achieve performance standards.
• Share a trusting relationship with workgroup and recruit, manage and develop department staff. Ensure effective employee relations.
• Conduct employee performance reviews.
• Stay current with latest production management best practices and concepts.

• The position requires a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering field, Production/Operations management, technical or business related field.
• 8+ years of proven leadership experience in a manufacturing environment and demonstrated progression of increased responsibilities.
• Induction furnace experience is preferred.
• Knowledge of melting furnace construction, refractories, furnace ventilation, and casting mold design experiences are preferred.
• Formal education / training in Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, and industrial automation principles are a plus.