Job Description

Company Overview:

DESTACO, a Stabilus Company, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance automation, workholding, and remote handling solutions. The company serves customers in variety of end-markets, including the automotive, life sciences, consumer goods, packaging, aerospace, and nuclear sectors.

Built on a legacy of over 100 years, DESTACO offers a comprehensive portfolio of products to engineer precise movement, placement and control solutions that drive productivity and uptime for manufacturers around the world. The DESTACO family of products consists of industry-leading brands such as DESTACO Manual and Power Clamps, Camco and Ferguson Indexers, Robohand Grippers and CRL Manipulators and Transfer Ports.

DESTACO is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and operates globally through ~800 employees across 13 locations.

With nearly 90 years of demonstrated expertise, The Stabilus Group is one of the world's leading providers of motion control solutions for customers across a broad spectrum of industries.

Stabilus, approaching 1.5B EUR in revenue, is headquartered in Koblenz, Germany and employs more than 7,000 team members across 34 locations in 18 countries. Stabilus SE is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and included in the MDAX index.

Position Summary:

The Plant Manager for DESTACO’s Wheeling, IL facility is responsible for leading a cross-functional plant staff, and for leading all activities relating to the manufacturing operations. S/he will lead a multifunctional staff and direct overall manufacturing activities for the plant including purchasing, materials management, maintenance, tooling, manufacturing engineering, production scheduling, planning, warehouse, quality assurance, and safety of plant operations. S/he will inspire the staff to achieve results in alignment with company and business strategy as well as operational objectives focused on safety, health and environment, quality/warranty, lead-time/delivery, productivity, resource/asset utilization (inventory, people development) and employee engagement. The Plant Manager will lead the implementation of a lean (continuous improvement) culture through visual management boards and Kaizen events and develop a safety culture that achieves organizational targets. He/she will oversee the organization to deliver operational excellence and achieve organizational strategy and goals.

The Plant Manager reports to the Vice President, Global Operations and Supply Chain and dotted-line to the Vice President and General Manager, Americas Region. This position is located in Wheeling, IL and requires some travel (up to 10% - 15%). Reporting to the position are direct managers (approximately 4), as well as direct labor for the plant. The position requires the ability to work and communicate closely with plant teams and across the regions with all levels of the organization, with customers and suppliers, and to work in teams worldwide.

Key Job Responsibilities included but not limited to:

• Fosters a culture of transparency, disciplined problem-solving, high-performance work teams, and continuous improvement. Strives to ensure the appropriate team, tools and processes are in place to support these desired cultural traits.
• Leads and promotes safety awareness with other key members of the team. Promotes accident prevention and employee involvement in regard to a safe work environment. Ensures employees have an understanding of the safety expectations of the organization.
• Leads and fosters the continuous improvement roadmap for plant management team. Leverages continuous improvement tools to drive continued operational improvements and ensures engagement of the entire plant management team through strong communication and clear direction.
• Responsible for all aspects of the plant including delivering on Sales, Cost, EBIT, Inventory, Productivity (Material and Conversion Cost) and other key goals.
• Directs overall manufacturing activities for the plant including purchasing, materials management, maintenance, tooling, manufacturing engineering, production scheduling, planning, warehouse and quality assurance to obtain optimum efficiency and safety of plant operations and in cooperation across the DESTACO manufacturing network.
• Oversees all Continuous Improvement initiatives with the support and guidance necessary to assure manufacturing success for the facility and its team members, including:
• Application of Lean principles to optimize on-time delivery, lead-time reduction, set up time reduction, quick change over, improve work process flow, overall productivity improvements.
• Utilization of lean Kaizen events to manage the operation and deliver customer satisfaction and world class quality.
• Identification and implementation methods for improving worker efficiency and reducing waste (A3).
• Coaches, provides feedback to and develops the plant management team members. Motivates and manages the plant management team to achieve annual goals/objectives set at the individual and organizational level.
• Directs capital equipment requirements including efficient use of equipment, materials, and personnel required to produce products in the plant.

Leadership Competencies aligned with Stabilus and executed in DESTACO with appropriate expectations for the job level:

• Strategic Mindset: Has understanding of global industry or market; creates breakthrough strategies that alter the competitive dynamics in a market, and establishes a series of competitive advantages yielding profitability that exceeds expectations for the organization.
• Results-Driven: Produces results that exceed Dover’s strategic objectives via a combination of planning and implementation, while living the Stabilus Values.
• Change Leadership : Aligns an organization and its people to drive for improvement and adopt new, challenging directions. Energizes a whole organization to want to change in the same directions. Influences others in a mature and empowering manner.

Job Requirements:

Experience:

• Two (2) years’ of plant management experience a plus.
• Requires minimum of five (5) years’ of operational experience in industrial manufacturing (manufacturing engineering, machining and assembly area will be a real advantage).
• Successful track record of achieving growth and profitability targets in an operation, including reducing direct/indirect costs while increasing operational efficiency, productivity, and quality.
• Experience in managing a diverse manufacturing background, ideally having worked in a high-mix low-volume environment with both machining and assembly. Experience in a strong production scheduling background preferred.
• Expert level knowledge in general operations, lean manufacturing and safety processes.
• Experience managing a plant or Value Stream/Manufacturing/Operations Manager for a plant that machined, fabricated, and assembled industrial components.
• Experience and education in Lean Manufacturing, TPS, 5 S, Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping, and Theory of Constraints.
• Extensive experience with manufacturing process improvement, including budget management, facility enhancement and improvement, Total Cycle Time reduction principals, lead time reduction, workflow/layout enhancement program and capacity management planning, Target Costing.
• Diverse functional experience within operations including manufacturing, engineering, materials management, supply chain, quality, etc.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to build and lead a strong positive team environment
• Change agent who builds, leads and inspire a team, transforming a company culture at all levels
• Analytical thinker with a drive to create innovative solutions for sustainability
• Ability to manage high value customer contracts
• Extensive technical and business product knowledge globally
• Knowledge of machining and assembly best practices
• Strong business acumen and project management skills
• Excellent communicator including facilitation, verbal, and written skills
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational and managerial skills

Education and Certification Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required in Operations Management, Engineering or other related field

Travel Requirements:

Ability to travel up to 10-15% of the time

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