Director of Operations

The Performance Chemicals Americas Silicate Operations Director is responsible for leading the Americas Silicate manufacturing operations footprint consisting of 13 plants, and 350 employees with a total budget of $35M in fixed costs and $140M in variable costs. This position will report to the Performance Chemicals Vice-President of Manufacturing & Engineering.  

The incumbent will be accountable for aligning operational people, processes, measurements, standards, capital, and resources across assigned sites with the primary focus areas of HSE, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, and productivity against Functional, Business, and Company goals and objectives. The incumbent is responsible for fostering an organizational culture of safety, integrity, continuous improvement, ownership, diversity, and accountability while developing a strong bench of operational know-how, experience, and talent.

Responsibilities:

• Work with Leadership at all levels to ensure safe and beneficial operations of Americas Silicate Operations that achieve annual functional, business, and company goals and objectives. 
• Lead the team to be a world-class, customer-centric team, motivating and leading the team in the framework of a manufacturing strategy, to improve overall performance KPIs.
• Participate as a critical member of the Global Operations Leadership Team & Americas Silicates Leadership Team
• HSE
  • Supported by the EHS function, responsible for the HSE results; driving to Zero OSHAs incidents and strong compliance with year-over-year Perfect Days improvement.
  • Coordinate with the Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental functions to implement policies and maintain compliance with external and internal requirements.
• Continuous Improvement / Manufacturing Excellence
  • Lead continuous improvement culture and systems across all plants to ensure and improve quality, and productivity, reduce fixed and variable costs (raw material usage) and increase OEE, through the implementation and use of Lean Six Sigma tools and practices.
  • Support process improvements by identifying process gaps related to quality (Voice of the Customer and Critical to Quality), sustainability, manufacturing, administrative processes and procedures; implementing viable sustainable solutions.
  • Improve Americas Silicate asset capability while optimizing efficiencies, yields, cost, and reliability; maintaining or exceeding current quality standards
  • Implement measures, systems, and processes that track KPIs; utilizing visual management to keep the organization focused and motivated.
  • Use the Plant Specific Improvement Plans to develop and implement improvement projects and activities. 
• Cost and Production
  • Directly responsible for managing the annual budgeting process, aligning with the business's financial goals and targets.
  • Responsible for achieving the operational cost goals and objectives, approx. $35M fixed cost budget and approx. $140M in variable cost.
  • Work closely with Mfg. & Engr. VP and finance to analyze cost results and deliver forecasts to the function and the business 
• Inventory
  • Develop manufacturing strategies that maintain high service levels while minimizing on-hand inventory
  • Minimize DOG/SMOG inventory by measuring and controlling aging inventory and collaborating with IBM/sales to manage risks
  • Supply Chain
  • Ensure proper coordination of all people, processes, and materials to achieve the company objective of year over year On-Time and In-Full delivery.
  • Work with the business to optimize the Americas Silicate network capability while minimizing, and optimizing interplant production assistance and achieving business inventory targets. 
  • Participate directly in the Americas SIOP process, including strategic and tactical capacity planning and the execution of the overall supply plan for the Americas
• Human Resource Management
  • Partner with HR to develop and implement personal improvement plans, and manage performance and succession plans.
  • Oversee the succession planning and career development program for plant management and plant engineers.
  • Allocate resources effectively to fully utilize assets to produce optimal results
• CAPEX
  • Work closely with the Process Manufacturing Technology group to execute the annual capital plan, utilizing the FEL stage gate process.
  • Provide analysis and recommendations on short and long-term manufacturing and capital planning needed to support the mid-and long-term business needs.
• Quality  
  • Ensures that plants deliver outstanding production reliability and customer service, and maintain RC 14001 certification.
  • Ensure that the plants operate and produce product and delivery that meets the quality requirements of the customer.
  • Assist in the development and implementation of Quality program enhancements to achieve the company objective of zero internal and external defects.
• Business Support
  • Fill the role of Americas Operations Business Leader on the Americas Silicate Business Team.
  • Ensure Operations achieves the goals of the business
  • Participate and support the development and execution of Business growth plans.
  • Implement strategies in alignment with Business strategic initiatives and provide a clear sense of direction and focus

Travel:

• This role requires the ability to travel away from the primary location ~50% of the time, depending on current assignments.

Minimum Education, Experience, and Core Competency Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering or another related field, with 8+ years relevant experience in large plant operations or multi-site operations responsibility. International experience is beneficial.
• Preferred location would be Malvern, PA, or co-located with a major facility
• Experience and application in Continuous Improvement programs, Six Sigma and/or Lean Mfg. activities.
• Demonstrated strong team leadership and team building skills which focus on informal influencing of others with data-driven logic vs. formal organizational hierarchy
• Effective written and oral communication as well as presentation skills with all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated ability to coach, mentor and motivate employees through interpersonal and lean techniques to achieve site and corporate goals or initiatives.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills which include the ability to make simple, meaningful conclusions from complex technical data including determining the final financial benefits or gains
• Self-motivated and able to work independently and with minimal direction
• Must be willing to lead a strong understanding of “lean manufacturing” and Continuous Improvement concepts, processes, and tools and have the aptitude to build a deep understanding and ability to apply these concepts through Continuous Improvement / Lean Manufacturing tools and techniques.
• Minimum of 5 years working in a Unionized Environment including sitting in on a contract negotiation. Must have experience preparing and implementing a strike contingency plan.
• Working knowledge of budgets and financial statements for use in the analysis and utilization of financial data. 

• A full range of coverage – including health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance – protects you against the uncertainties of life.
• In addition, a Flexible Spending Account allows you to set aside pre-tax dollars for certain health and dependent day care expenses. 
• 401K (matches 50% of the first 6% that you save on a before-tax basis (after-tax savings are not matched). 
• New hires are eligible for healthcare and life/disability benefits on the first of the month after 30 days of employment.