WHAT DOES A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT MANAGER DO?
Updated: Jan 12, 2025 - The Continuous Improvement Manager role focuses on driving cultural transformation through engagement in initiatives and fostering an environment of process ownership. This position involves developing detailed plant metrics to monitor performance and identify improvement opportunities. Additionally, the manager facilitates collaborative activities like Kaizens and workshops to align teams and optimize operational efficiency.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Continuous Improvement Manager
1. Continuous Improvement Manager Duties
- Leadership: Provide leadership, planning, and management capabilities for systematic, process, and data-driven continuous improvement opportunities.
- Project Management: Use a combination of project/program management and continuous improvement (CI) tools/techniques to validate issues, identify root causes, develop corrective actions, and implement change.
- Collaboration: Lead and drive collaboration across overall business operations to ensure the best outcomes for operations, their customers, and the team.
- Change Management: Ensure all continuous improvement initiatives are deployed with the active support of stakeholders, utilizing effective change management methodologies.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Work closely with Sales, Operations, and other parts of the business to develop win/win outcomes.
- Cultural Change: Support cultural change that embraces continuous improvement through LEAN/Six Sigma tools and methodologies.
- Compliance: Look at Safety and Compliance - all aspects of operational performance, leadership, and decision-making.
- Team Management: Manage a national team effectively while ensuring planning, process, and consistency are met.
- Project Management: Manage initiatives and projects including planning, monitoring, controlling, and reporting.
- Leadership: Engage with all stakeholders and leaders across the business to champion change.
2. Continuous Improvement Manager Details
- Roadmap Development: Develop a roadmap for improvement to relevant areas of the business using the Dover Operations Excellence Model.
- Performance Indicators: Define and maintain key performance indicators for assigned areas and levels of the organization and utilize visual dashboards or displays to present performance.
- Gap Evaluation: Evaluate gaps to target performance in safety, quality, service levels, and cost and utilize lean tools to close identified gaps.
- Cross-Functional Work: Work cross-functionally with Packaging, Logistics, Manufacturing, Customer Service, Quality, and IT to streamline and improve material and information flow.
- Specifications Development: Develop specifications for equipment, tools, facility layouts, and material handling systems.
- Technology Utilization: Determine opportunities for utilization of technology to improve material and information flow, work cross-functionally to implement.
- Lean Systems Optimization: Develop and optimize lean material handling systems including Plan for Every Part (PFEP), material markets, material delivery routes, and pull signals.
- Culture Drive: Drive a culture of continuous improvement within the organization.
- Kaizen Leadership: Define, lead, and conduct kaizen events and daily A3 problem solving on the shop floor.
- Leadership: Provide leadership for driving effective tiered daily management.
- Health Checks: Conduct health checks (audits) of systems and processes, including 5S, systems execution, safety, quality, and daily direction setting.
3. Continuous Improvement Manager Responsibilities
- Cultural Transformation: Drive cultural transformation through engagement in continuous improvement initiatives, accountability through standard work, and creating an environment of equipment/process ownership.
- Cost Management: Drive 4-wall cost, develop annual savings plans, and hold accountable for achieving these goals.
- Metrics Establishment: Help establish meaningful plant metrics to monitor performance at a level sufficiently detailed to illustrate the real nature and cause of problems and to demonstrate the skills and focus needed for improvement opportunities.
- Facilitation: Facilitate Kaizens, brainstorming sessions, workshops, problem-solving sessions, and process mapping exercises to bring alignment, extract knowledge, and improve performance.
- Visual Workplace Creation: Create a visual workplace leveraging progressive 5S and visual controls.
- KPI Management: Manage plant-wide KPIs, integrating data in decision-making and prioritization of projects.
- Training and Mentoring: Train and mentor plant leadership to create a culture that can engage employees at all levels in the problem-solving process to achieve plant goals.
- Culture Driving: Drive a data-driven, frontline team-based culture.
- Data Improvement: Drive continuous improvement of plant data collection and reporting systems to increase data accuracy.
- Loss Analysis: Responsible for loss analysis and OEE improvement plan development, plan execution leadership, and results tracking.
4. Continuous Improvement Manager Accountabilities
- Continuous Improvement Leadership: Lead the Continuous Improvement process of the site.
- Priority Definition: Define priorities and areas for continuous improvement to increase the overall performance of the activities in collaboration with other Leadership Team members.
- Plan Management: Manage the continuous improvement plan by defining short and medium-term areas of progress and ensuring the standardization of processes.
- Performance Improvement: Improve performance (security, quality, costs, and deadlines) using Lean Manufacturing tools: identify losses, recommend corrective actions, etc.
- Action Plan Development: Elaborate action plans by evaluating the relevance and profitability of these actions (return on investment, organizational impact, quality impact, etc.).
- Project Leadership: Lead, coordinate, follow improvement, and problem-solving projects: VSM, Kaizen, 5S, MRP, etc.
- Safety Enhancement: Help to improve safety performance and culture using Lean tools.
- Reliability Application: Apply reliability expertise to stabilize and improve the operation.
- Gap Assessment: Conduct/facilitate ongoing facility gap assessments around continuous improvement efforts to include Zero Based Analysis.
- Lean Expertise: Be the expert on Lean manufacturing and overall continuous improvement concepts as well as providing learning opportunities to members.
5. Continuous Improvement Manager Overview
- Business Process Analysis: Analyze existing business processes using various methods such as value stream mapping or process mapping to find opportunities for improvement and determine root causes.
- Strategy Development: Act as an internal consultant, developing short- and long-term CI (Continuous Improvement) strategies for the organization.
- Lean Facilitation: Direct and facilitate the ongoing lean improvement process teams through the use of techniques such as Kaizen, 5'S, PDCA, TPM, Kanban, Policy Deployment, etc.
- Cost Reduction: Facilitate progress and reduce costs in terms of workflow inefficiencies and reduction of operational waste.
- Project Coordination: Coordinate and lead key projects for improvement across all levels of the organization.
- Process Improvement: Drive the improvement of processes and systems and implement programs that will have continuing long-term benefits.
- Standard Establishment: Establish measurable operational standards.
- Planning: Develop plans, schedules, and budgets to improve existing processes.
- Team Supervision: Supervise and direct the workflow of CI department staff.
- Training and Oversight: Provide lean improvement orientation and on-the-job training for teammates, ensure that responsibilities are defined and understood, and oversee the lean projects.