Senior Lean Leader

Job Description

Essential Responsibilities:

• The Business Lean Leader will serve as a facilitator, educator, advocate, consultant and accountability partner to the Business teams to drive the understanding and application FLIGHT DECK to drive better results.   FLIGHT DECK is the proprietary, Lean-based management system that GE Aerospace has developed to continuously improve the business.   It incorporates Standard Work, Value Stream Management, Kaizen with Lean techniques and Daily Management into an operating cadence where problem solving and action planning are employed to transform outcomes; all centered on Respect for the People that create value for our customers.  
• Collaborate with the leadership team to assess the critical value streams, processes and practices as compared to lean company benchmarks, both internal and external, establish a transformation plan based on the prioritized gaps as context for the application of kaizen events.
• Be an active participant and contribute hands-on to the lean efforts across the organization.
• Design and build organizational capacity and self-sufficiency with the FLIGHT DECK fundamentals needed to transform the key value streams through kaizen events.
• Assist the leadership team in establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and implementing a robust daily management system to drive continuous improvement.
• Assist teams in establishing daily, weekly and monthly operating cadences per the FLIGHT DECK fundamentals.
• Develop a culture of problem solving at all levels of the organization and proficiency with problem solving techniques appropriate for each level.
• Establish a kaizen event rhythm and leverage that activity to develop lean proficiency for all employees; creating internal capabilities to facilitate kaizens and sustain continuous process improvement without external support.
• Participate in talent reviews and the hiring process, to advise leaders on the lean development needs of the team and ensure lean proficiency is considered in the hiring decision for all positions.

Qualifications / Requirements:

• Ten-plus years of experience leading operations in mature lean companies.

• Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems and transforming results and process through the application of Lean techniques.

• Lean practitioner, capable of facilitating kaizen events and coaching the core tools such as Daily Management, structured Problem Solving, Value Stream Management, Standard Work and Transactional Process Improvement.   Experience in transforming process from traditional “batch and queue” to “flow and pull” experience preferred.

• Experience driving business-wide transformation preferably in a major turn-around. The ideal candidate has been through complex change; bringing a will to win with strong followership.

• Proven to be effective driving outcomes in large, matrixed organizations – understands how to navigate geographies, cultures, relationships, etc.

• Change agent, able to make the case for lean and demonstrate immediate impact.

• Highly collaborative, comfortable with conflict and debate normally associated with change.

• Critical thinker with the ability to bring others along, even those with conflicting priorities.

• Impactful communicator from the shop floor to board room.

Desired Characteristics: 

• Strong oral and written communication skills. Ability to document, plan, market, and execute programs.
• Humble: respectful, receptive, agile, eager to learn
• Transparent: shares critical information, speaks with candor, contributes constructively
• Focused: quick learner, strategically prioritizes work, committed
• Leadership ability: strong communicator, decision-maker, collaborative
• Problem solver: analytical-minded, challenges existing processes, critical thinker

Additional Information