Take a personal stand.  Live your values.  Help transform health care.  Today!    (register and apply here)

No, not in Washington, D.C.  In northern Iowa.  Where what you’ll do isn’t just about adding value. It’s about truly making a critical difference by using your passion for Lean and your dedication to process excellence.  In a place where you can become the driving force for improving the quality of people’s lives. Saving those lives.  Every day. Why not take a closer look?

Why You Want this Position

• You relish an opportunity to combine your professional career objectives with meaningful work that also reflects your personal values and beliefs (respect for people).
• You are personally and professionally obsessed with safety, quality and excellence.
•  You want the excitement of working with talented, visionary teams in one of the most highly-respected professions, within an innovative health care organization that “gets it” about process excellence.
• You thrive in a fast-paced yet collegial environment, where your daily decisions make a direct, clearly visible impact on the operational effectiveness of your organization, and beyond.
• Your mother tells you she always wished you’d gone to medical school…

Introduction

Our client is a faith-based, not-for-profit community health care system that offers comprehensive health care services for people residing throughout northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. Their mission is to continue the healing ministry of the Church, promoting the well-being of people in the communities they serve by living the values of Compassion, Respect, Excellence, Stewardship, and Concern for those who are poor. Our client adds value in the communities it serves by striving to provide each individual with the best personalized care and healing experience in the nation. 

Our client launched its Lean Process Excellence journey approximately three years ago. Slowly at first, and now more quickly and deeply with each passing day, the Process Excellence team is converting the skeptics, broadening the buy-in, and demonstrating measurable results with their systemic approach to Lean transformation.  The CEO is 100% onboard, as are key directors and community leaders (mayor, city council members).  It is, indeed, a partnership with a broad group of committed stakeholders who are passionate about delivering better health care outcomes in a compassionate way.   

And at the moment, there are simply too many transformational opportunities just waiting to be addressed. Hence the need for this Senior Continuous Improvement Specialist.  

The position will be based in a comfortable, warm and welcoming community in central northern Iowa, about equidistant from Minneapolis, MN and Des Moines, IA.  It reports to the Director of Process Excellence and is considered a highly-collaborative individual contributor role.  It is also a highly visible (CEO level) position, one with exceptional growth potential in an industry critical to America’s future.   

The Role

As a Lean Senior Continuous Improvement Specialist  on the Process Excellence Team, you will assist in guiding our client’s Lean/TPS initiatives.  You will be internal coach and mentor to a wide cross-section of medical/clinical and support staff at every point within the organization. From Hoshin planning and deployment events, to nursing station and laboratory value stream mapping and problem-solving activities, you will be there.

What You Bring to the Table

• You have demonstrated deep-dive, hands-on Gemba problem solving and coaching expertise, as well as 30k-foot strategic-level Lean Hoshin perspective and sophistication.
• You offer a proven track record driving operational excellence and continuous improvement initiatives, focused on safety, quality, customer satisfaction and cost, utilizing Lean Thinking (Toyota Production System) methodologies.
• You have successfully managed something (plant, focus factory, operational group, etc.) where you also drove a Lean transformation resulting in sustained improvement and positive culture change.
• You have outstanding communications skills.  This enables you to interact with senior management executives and influence their decision-making, as well as to effectively partner with the other exceptionally talented people broadly across this organization. 

Travel  -  Generally limited to local communities within the hospital network. Unusual to be away from home overnight, except for Lean conferences, benchmarking visits, and maybe a trip to the Shingo Prize Awards Conference. 

Compensation  -  Competitive, based on your qualifications;  consisting of base salary, sign-on bonus, partial relocation assistance.

Connect with Us    -  Please connect with me in whatever way is most convenient for you. We share no information about you with anyone outside our firm until we’ve agreed on this with you. If you don’t have a resume, that’s fine. Let’s talk first. 

Adam Zak, Principal  -  Adam Zak Executive Search

Amazing Amazon Kindle

Why You Want this Position   (and here's where you can respond...)

• You crave the excitement of working with the visionary team which created the hottest consumer electronics gadget of the century. And, there’s more to come! 
• You are obsessed with excellence and quality. This company is already attaining a level of world-class quality metrics that other consumer electronics makers would die for. Your mission: take your passion for quality and make it even better!
• You thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial start-up environment where your daily decisions make a direct, clearly visible impact on the operational and financial performance of the company. You relentlessly pursue your personal and professional expectations for performance and results.
• You hunger for meaningful work with an exceptionally talented team, where it’s all about clear and open communication, genuine collaboration, and exceeding customer expectations  - across the whole business.     

Introduction

Our client creates highly engaging and innovative consumer-centric electronic product solutions. The business has grown rapidly in size, scale and scope but still retains, at heart, the start-up mentality which has fueled its wild success. This outsized growth rate requires our client to massively scale-up many of the systems, process and procedures (and their functional leadership) so vital to support the company’s continued advancement into new products and global markets.  Hence this new position, Director, Product Quality. 

The position will be based in the Silicon Valley, California metro area and will report remotely to the company’s Vice President, Global Supply Chain, who is based in Hong Kong.  All product design, development and support functions are performed in California, while manufacturing is currently done on a contract basis in Shenzhen, China. Our client is the wholly-owned subsidiary of highly successful and profitable Fortune 500 parent company, which is also located on the West Coast.  

The Role

Define, lead and take ownership of the product quality organization.  Develop world-class quality thinking and the programs, systems, principles and processes through which quality manifests itself throughout the company.  The results of this effort will be threefold:  exceed customer expectations in every way; reduce total warranty costs across all product lines, and; build the culture and supporting structures to ensure continuous improvement in both.  

What Your Bring to the Table

• You have demonstrated both deep-dive, hands-on experience in shop-floor quality problem solving, and 30k-foot strategic-level quality issues perspective and sophistication.
• You have demonstrated the ability to rapidly and scientifically assess and deal with day-to-day quality correction, while simultaneously anticipating, developing and implementing the quality philosophies, infrastructure, and practices critical to the company’s future success.
• You offer a proven track record driving operational excellence and continuous improvement initiatives, focused on product quality, utilizing Lean Manufacturing (Toyota Production System) and Six Sigma methodologies.
• You have outstanding communications skills.  This enables you to interact with senior management executives and influence their decision-making, as well as to effectively partner with other exceptionally talented people broadly across the organization.
• You have recently worked in a high-volume 3C (computer, communication, consumer), fast-moving product lifecycle  electronics organization and have extensive on-the-ground experience in mainland China. 
• Chances are your resume will include the names of other word-class consumer electronics companies such as Apple, Palm, Philips, Sony, Nintendo, Nokia, Cisco and more.  

Travel  -  Because even the best video communications technology has its limitations, the Director, Product Quality should expect to travel frequently, at times on very short notice, to China.

Compensation  -  Excellent base salary, sign-on bonus and restricted stock units (RSUs).  Equity awards consist of stock in our client’s parent company and are historically a major, continuing preferred form of executive compensation. 

Connect with Us  -  Please connect with me in whatever way is most convenient for you. We share no information about you with anyone outside our firm until we’ve agreed on this with you.

Adam Zak, Principal,  Adam Zak Executive Search    +1 (847) 304-5301 direct

 resume@LeanRecruiter.com      az@LeanRecruiter.com

Follow Adam at   http://Twitter.com/LeanThinker    Our primary Web site  http://LeanRecruiter.com

Premier Financial Services Organization

Chicago North-Suburban

Lean Solutions Implementation, Sr. Manager - PDF

The Company

Our client, a $6 billion+  financial services organization, is best known for issuing its own-brand of credit cards which are used by more than 50 million members at some 4 million merchant locations worldwide. The company also has a payment-processing network, owns an EFT ATM network, and in 2006 entered the debit card arena, allowing banks to offer house-branded debit cards. More recently, our client forged reciprocity alliances with card issuers in Japan and China, and just a short while ago agreed to acquire Diners Club International from Citigroup, a business which will add significantly to its international network.

In an unprecedented move, and as part of its strong belief in actually listening to the “voice of the customer”, our client in 2006 announced it would no longer require retailers to charge customers for using credit or debit cards (common practice among competitors).

Spun off from a major diversified investment banking group in 2007, the company has launched a major growth and improvement initiative across its domestic and global operations.  In late 2007 the company committed to and launched itself on a global continuous improvement journey based on LEAN and principles of the Toyota Production System and Six Sigma.  Which brings us to the creation of this new role, that of Lean Solutions Manager.

Background

According to a recent report by McKinsey & Co., financial services “organizations that focus on operational excellence are more likely than others to please their customers, to combine scale with flexibility in product design and delivery, and to manage productivity as a source of competitive advantage.”   Rapid globalization, continued deregulation, and the rising use of eCommerce are just some of the trends adding to the challenges of today's financial service companies. Never before have speed, efficiency, and quality been more required to do business.  

Our client clearly recognizes the advantages of “Lean Operations”. In early 2007 our client’s COO and CFO committed to driving a Lean transformation, and the COO personally took on the role of Champion for this dramatic culture change.  This is based on a collaborative approach to engaging business unit heads across all functional and profit centers within the organization. 

Extensive introductory Lean training efforts began with the assistance of an outside Lean consulting group, and by late 2007 key executives and business unit leaders had become acclimated to thinking Lean.  This training is now continuing at the VP level throughout the organization.

And, again in late 2007, our client recruited a new Vice President of Lean from the outside and established a Lean/Kaizen Promotion/Project Office (KPO) dedicated to the tactics of spreading Lean throughout the organization.

The Position

This position was created with one key purpose in mind: to execute Lean initiative(s) on a day-to-day basis.  If you’re the Lean expert we seek you’ll know exactly what this involves. You will work with Initiative team members (including Lean experts, unit business experts, technology resources, etc.), collaborating with your team members to understand customer needs, map current states, design future states, define metrics, gather and analyze data, develop and promote solutions and, ultimately, produce significant business results across the board.

Is this what you like to do?  Do you have a passion for LEAN? Does this sound like the kind of commitment and dedication  to Lean you want from the organization where you work?  Should we talk?

Details

Position will report directly to the Vice President, Lean, and will be based in the Chicago north-suburban area.  In addition to working directly with Lean Solution teams, this Lean Manager will also participate in development of training materials and will personally teach skills, tools and processes to frontline team members, managers, etc., across the global organization. Extensive collaboration with human resources, training and communications teams as well. Expect travel requirements of approximately 2-3 days per week on a fairly regular basis.

Requirements

• Demonstrated hands-on Lean/Six Sigma leadership experience (at least 5-7 years) within leading Fortune 500 corporation or top-tier Lean/Six Sigma management consulting firm (or similar).
• Ideally, financial services industry experience – strong preference.
• Excellent analytical, organizational/planning, communications and interpersonal skills.
• Collaborative and persuasive problem-solving talent; ability to pull, not push, lean solutions.
• Process and results focus and orientation; a “get-it-done” attitude.
• BS/BA degree, MBA/MA a plus
• Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent.

 Compensation

Highly competitive base salary, performance bonus, excellent benefits package, and relocation assistance as appropriate.

Contact

Adam Zak, Principal,  or  Sheila Cunningham, Director

Adam Zak Executive Search

Executive Recruiting for the Lean Enterprise

POB 129, Barrington, IL 60011-0129  USA

Direct +1 847 304 5301  Main +1 847 304 5300

resume@LeanRecruiter.com          

www.LeanRecruiter.com

$1 Billion+ (Delicious) Fast-Moving Consumer Products ,  Central Iowa HQ Location   

Director, Lean Continuous Improvement - PDF

Our client’s product line spans the broad frozen treats spectrum. Best known for its premium brands of ice cream and frozen novelties, the company sells its retail products in convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, and vending machines. Its foodservice division produces ice cream and specialty desserts for restaurants, schools, and ice cream shops.

Already strong across the Midwest, our client has designs on growing into national brand. With state-of-the-art production facilities, and cited by industry experts as one of the most technically advanced, the company manufactures and packages over 2,000 products in almost every size, shape, style, and flavor imaginable.   Also, in keeping with leading taste and technology trends, our client produces an awesome-tasting line of Splenda-sweetened ice cream. So much to enjoy!

Why Our Client is Different – and Why YOU Should Be Here!

Successful people and organizations hold certain beliefs or values about themselves. One of our client’s most visible and critical values is the belief in work/life balance of team members, an important consideration in today’s hectic world where attention to personal issues and family responsibilities is often sacrificed for corporate objectives. In addition, our client puts a premium on innovation and results rather than bureaucracy. This kind of focus on people and innovation has allowed the company to build a loyal, dynamic and highly productive group of associates at all levels of the organization, resulting in continuing benefits from the successful pioneering efforts of these valued associates.

Critical Mission

Our client’s new Director, Continuous Improvement (Director CI) will take full responsibility for developing an effective CI program which provides tools, techniques and resources to support the organization’s efforts to significantly improve Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost.               

Specific Responsibilities

·        Provide the organization with standard CI tools and techniques for analysis, quantification, prioritization and realization of sustained performance improvements in the areas of Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost.

·        Refine CI program design (i.e., philosophy and approach) as needed to ensure alignment with company’s business strategy and accelerated results that are sustained over time.

·        Oversee the professional development of CI team members and refine the capability building process as needed to provide distinctive CI expertise that fully supports the organization’s improvement efforts.

·        Partner with Operations/Supply Chain leaders to develop annual CI Objectives, Strategies and Plans (OSP’s) and then to create revised quarterly plans based on the results and business needs.

·        Ensure proper communication methods are utilized to create a shared CI mindset across the organization and reinforce basic CI principles, highlight Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) versus goals, share best practices and celebrate individual/team successes.

·        Counsel organization leaders (e.g., product development, sales, marketing, etc…) on developing effective CI program within their business area by creating a tailored approach that adapts CI tools/techniques to fit each function’s operation.

·        Lead improvement projects and/or activities each year that deliver significant sustained annual savings

Requirements

·        Bachelor of Science (preferably technical field, e.g., engineering), MBA optional.

·        Experience applying improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, 6 Sigma, TPM, etc…) to different operating environments (e.g., continuous flow process, warehouses, suppliers, “back” office, etc…)

·        Expertise in leading the design, launch and roll-out of a corporate improvement program.

·        Ability to build effective CI teams with distinctive CI capabilities.

·        Ability to orchestrate change across the supply chain and within a multi-site plant network.

·        Strong expertise in Lean Manufacturing  (Toyota Production System) and/or Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).

·        Demonstrated skills as effective problem solver, strong communicator (oral & written), advanced operations analyst (e.g., labor, equipment, etc…)

·        Ability to positively influence and motivate others, effective coach/mentor to others, capable of building effective teams.

Compensation

Competitive base salary, performance bonus, benefits and relocation assistance as appropriate.

Marvin Windows & Doors

Four-Season Outdoor Paradise

Warroad, MN

Adam Zak helps connect exceptionally skilled Lean executives with companies that are truly committed to long-term Lean operations success. Adam's hands-on approach to Lean executive recruiting helps his clients drive and sustain their Lean transformation, while helping executives find a new corporate home where they can create a direct, meaningful impact with their LEAN skills and expertise.

But sometimes, it's not just about your skill at managing a certain number of people, your comfort level in a specific sized organization, or the depth and breadth of your LEAN expertise that's important. Lifestyle and family values considerations are critical to long-term success, and small-town living is not for everyone.   And our client, Marvin Windows and Doors, would like this to be a successful match for you and for them, for the long term.

I’m conducting an executive search for an exceptionally talented Vice President, Operations, someone who can lead a business of over 2000 team members, 7 direct reports (2 plant managers, components & assembly; materials director; director technical services; quality manager; CI manager; manufacturing services manager), and manufacturing volume of $300 million+.  Someone who is a LEAN Leader and understands how to drive continuous improvement in a LEAN Enterprise.

Our client is one of the top building products manufacturers in North America.  The company is privately held and managed by a family with roots going back many score years in this northern Minnesota community. Position reports to SVP Operations and is responsible for well over half of the company’s North American production volume, a critical role at the very least.  VP Operations holds full responsibility for all manufacturing and manufacturing support activities and results, including business planning and execution, people development, quality, LEAN continuous improvement, customer relationships and local, regional and community relations.

Our ideal candidate will demonstrate a seasoned and stable career growth path with sustained performance over time in ever more challenging manufacturing and operations environments.  And, more importantly than any one professional qualification, we seek an individual committed to building a career for the long-term with one of the most recognized and people-focused brand name companies in North American manufacturing and service today.

Please contact Sheila Cunningham at:

Adam Zak Executive Search

Executive Recruiting for the Sustainable Lean Enterprise

POB 129, Barrington, IL 60011-0129  USA

Direct +1 847 304 5301 

resume@LeanRecruiter.com

www.LeanRecruiter.com