CI Manager

JOB TITLE: Continuous Improvement Manager

LOCATION: Heredia, Costa Rica

ROLE DESCRIPTION:

The Continuous Improvement Manager manages the plant’s continuous improvement (CI) effort.  This person is responsible for championing, developing and sustaining a culture of continuous improvement throughout the plant.  The CI program Manager is a champion of CI principles, a practitioner of CI and related methodologies, and a coach and trainer to the plant leadership team, supervision, and all plant employees. 

This person should be able to analyze and measure the effectiveness of existing business processes and develop sustainable, repeatable and quantifiable business process improvements. This person should researches best business practices within and outside the organization to establish benchmark data. The CI program Manager collects and analyzes process data to initiate, develop and recommend business practices and procedures that focus on enhanced safety, increased productivity, and reduced cost. 

DUTIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Leads and manages project teams (ie. Kaizens) to develop and execute comprehensive initiatives, both short and long term, focusing on business model innovation and/or process improvement.  
• Analyzes and measures the effectiveness of existing business processes and develops sustainable, repeatable and quantifiable business process improvements.  
• Adapts departmental plans and policies and priorities to address resource and operational challenges.  
• Leads business consulting engagements resulting in process improvement and reengineering.  
• Manages the optimization of business unit systems as required to improve customer experience.  
• Applies quantitative and qualitative analyses to assess, monitor and evaluate performance of services and/or programs.  
• Prepares and presents project plans, reports and recommendations to management.  
• Collaborates with external agencies and resources to identify and integrate best practices.  
• Develop, execute (lead) and monitor a site wide program continuous improvement culture program. 

  INTERPERSONAL SKILLS: 

Influencing, communication and negotiation are key skills that will help lead to success in working with other team members.  The person should possess high leadership skills with demonstrated application of the acquired knowledge in the field. 

COMMUNICATIONS : 

Oral:                    

Excellent verbal skills are required to clearly communicate goals and concepts to all levels of employees, customer engineers and vendors.   

Written:               

Excellent written skills are required to issue specific work instructions, present ideas, concepts, and solutions to all levels of employees, customers and vendors through PowerPoint presentations, emails, Excel & Mini-Tab graphs & charts, Word reports, etc.  

SCHEDULING AND PLANNING: 

This person is expected to be an expert on scheduling and planning and thus should be capable to teach others in this area.  

REQUIREMENTS: 

Bachelor’s degree on engineering or related fields. MBA is a plus 

English B2+ 

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE:  

At least 6 years of demonstrated continuous improvement experience. 3 years project management experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience required. Project management, change management and business process analysis experience required. Knowledge of continuous improvement principles, methodologies, and practices  

Black Belt, RedX Master, PPM or equivalent certifications are highly preferred. 

OTHER SKILLS: 

Business process analysis skills Project and resource management skills. Ability to manage multiple priorities concurrently. Written and verbal communication skills, including delivering presentations. Skill with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint). Ability to influence business partners to execute recommended solutions/improvement.   

Proficient in use of personal computer and skill in using AI tools (Copilot/ChatGPT) MS Project, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Word.