WHAT DOES A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST DO?
Updated: Jan 12, 2025 - The Continuous Improvement Specialist plays a key role in translating strategy into actionable tactics and operational solutions, ensuring the successful implementation of global projects at a local level. This role involves arranging and facilitating Lean training, coaching colleagues, and driving continuous improvement initiatives across departments. Additionally, the specialist leads CI event follow-ups, monitors progress, and contributes to the leadership team's development for future plant leadership roles.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Continuous Improvement Specialist
1. Continuous Improvement Specialist Duties
- CI Management: Responsible for CI activity on-site in conjunction with the CI Manager.
- CI Strategy: Creation, Implementation, and Management of a site Continuous Improvement Strategy.
- CI Coaching: Delivering coaching and education workshops with colleagues in CI and lean activities.
- CI Reporting: Ensuring customer & business have all relevant information regarding CI & lean activity on-site.
- KPI Reporting: Provide regular management information/KPI reports to the CI Manager to fully track the progress and effectiveness of the CI activity.
- Training Development: Work with the Training Coordinator and HR team to design and deliver effective training and development plans.
- Safety Compliance: Ensure all staff follow Safe Working Practices and Health and Safety.
- Conduct Leadership: Lead by example in adherence to the Clipper Code of Conduct and Rules and Procedures.
2. Continuous Improvement Specialist Details
- Safety Leadership: Drives a safety-first culture in all aspects of the role, leading by example and setting standards for process and engagement.
- Safety Management: Creates and maintains a safe work environment, and promotes a high level of safety awareness among the operations teams and beyond.
- Lean Process Review: Uses lean principles to review production process flow to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
- Work Instruction Development: Improves, designs, and develops effective and efficient work instructions.
- Operational Improvement: Continually improves the existing operation for increased quality, productivity, efficiency, and cost savings.
- Operational Investigation: Partners with manufacturing sciences to investigate operational challenges affecting production.
- Data Provision: Provides manufacturing data to support teams in resolving issues without affecting productivity.
- Production Data Analysis: Provides data on production control charts, reliability, and process capability.
- Process Improvement: Improves the process and monitors and measures using process improvement tools such as Six Sigma and lean manufacturing techniques.
- Cost Reduction: Identifies ways to reduce production costs through recommendations.
3. Continuous Improvement Specialist Responsibilities
- CI Methodology Expansion: Expand the repository of Continuous Improvement (CI) methodologies and tools based on their application within Johnson Matthey, in the interactive JM SharePoint site.
- CI Partnership: Partner with all JM business units in all sectors, identify subject matter experts, and align CI methodologies and tools with proven best practice examples within JM.
- Best Practices Identification: Actively seek out and recommend best practices, emerging technologies, and techniques from across the region, the wider business industry, and other relevant sectors.
- CI Project Participation: Identify and participate in continuous improvement and cost-saving projects using Lean Manufacturing diagnostic and problem-solving techniques throughout the Group.
- Lean Training Support: Support and facilitate lean training and coaching (online and on-site) to foster a culture of continuous improvement in processes, equipment, and the engagement and capabilities of people.
- Lean Assessment: Assess and support sites on their Lean journeys through Manufacturing Excellence Programmes, driving Lean engagement and value for the businesses.
- Innovation: Challenge the status quo through innovative and creative thinking.
- Equipment Management: Work with the engineering team to manage equipment development, including effective planned preventative maintenance by the operations teams.
- Training Plan Support: Support the sites' training plans where required and drive the quality culture.
- KPI Support: Support the production team leaders to ensure key performance indicators are relevant, updated, and used to make improvement decisions.
- CI Goal Alignment: Work with the Continuous Improvement Manager to ensure that the site goals and global PPI (Practical Process Improvement) programs are met.
4. Continuous Improvement Specialist Accountabilities
- Plant Performance Improvement: Work closely with the department business partners to plan, support, and lead overall activities to improve plant performance, productivity, and decrease costs.
- Strategic Development: Assist in the development of strategic A3s for the plant, departments, and 1x1 problem solving.
- Visual Management: Champion, deliver, and manage (where applicable) Visual Management systems.
- Gemba Focus: Spend 75% of working time at Gemba, focusing on employee engagement and observations to deliver and sustain improvement results.
- Problem-Solving Coaching: Coach and develop plant personnel to foster a problem-solving culture at all levels of the organization.
- CI Training Delivery: Deliver Continuous Improvement training and development for all salary and hourly employees.
- Lean Methodology Expertise: Provide lean methodology expertise for plant-wide CI deployment, including core tools: 5S, Flow, MDI, A3 Thinking, Standardized Work, Value Stream Mapping, and Problem Solving.
- Analytical Skill Development: Promote and develop analytical skills for the measurement, analysis, and evaluation of process data to accurately identify and document improvements.
- CI Team Maximization: Maximize the value of the CI Team services to assist the plant in reaching targets and goals, including development.
- Servant Leadership: Lead using a coaching style with a servant leadership mindset.
5. Continuous Improvement Specialist Functions
- Strategy Translation: Work with various teams to translate strategy into tactics and operational solutions on the ground, helping implement global projects and processes on a local level.
- Lean Training Facilitation: Arrange Lean training for colleagues and facilitate CI workshops.
- Lean Coaching: Coach colleagues on Lean principles and liaise with people of all seniority levels across departments.
- Improvement Initiative Implementation: Identify improvement initiatives and drive the implementation of all initiatives.
- Operations Support: Visit Operations within Belgium, with international travel 1-2 times per year.
- Improvement Opportunity Leadership: Lead activities to identify the required improvement opportunities.
- CI Event Follow-up: Lead CI event follow-up to monitor the progress of planned improvement implementations, ensuring timely action, appropriate management support, and achievement of expected benefits.
- Leadership Development: Learn the process and be an active and contributing part of the department leadership team, developing for future plant leadership roles.