ABB Brazil Quality and OpEx Manager

Reporting to: Country Manager

Mission Statement:

Shared accountability with the Country Management Team for delivery of overall country objectives and targets.

The Quality and Operational Excellence (QOE) Manager shall develop a Quality / Operational Excellence Strategy for the business that is aligned with the realities of the market place and customers’ expectations, and the Company’s business needs.

In conjunction with local division leaders, define and implement short, medium and long term actions to improve safety, operating efficiency, quality and productivity in the entire value chain, to improve customer satisfaction and reduce operating costs in a safe working environment across all facilities in the Country.

Supports the businesses in leading and executing OPEX priorities and plans and developing a sustainable continuous improvement culture. QOE Manager  is a member of the COMPANY Leadership team leading the deployment of COMPANY OPEX priorities and plans.

Dimensions:

• 3 manufacturing units in 3 locations generating   zzz MUSD annual revenues with 4.000 employees.


• Responsible for Country Cost Take out Program with OPEX saving of xx MUSD in 2 years.


• Shared responsibilities for Country Cost take out Program within SCM, Glofo and G&A of yy MUSD in 2 years


• Direct subordinates: x leading teams of y employees


• Projects scope covering entire Country value chain including Customers & Suppliers.

Main Accountabilities:

• Understand the various Group & Divisional Q&OPEX Strategies, promote and support their local deployment to accelerate the rate of operational improvement, and resulting cost savings, across the value chain.


• Work with local Divisional Q&OPEX leaders to set coherent and aligned Q&OPEX priorities and targets across all Country operations, monitor progress and act on deviations from targets.


• Promote the Group 4Q systematic OPEX approach to continuously improve business practices and performance.


• Promote Q&OPEX Benchmarking and best practice spreading across all Country operations to develop a drive towards excellence in operational performance.


• Initiate, write and issue Country Quality & OPEX Instructions & Guidelines to drive standardization and spread best practices.


• Support the local Divisional Q&OPEX leaders to organize and define responsibilities & competencies for the Q&OPEX resources across the Country. Ensure, with support of HR, that the Q&OPEX team, in the country, is sustainably staffed, developed and directed to enable effective leadership, support and coaching on improvement projects and to provide a career development for future operational leaders.


• Shared accountability with the Country Management Team for delivery of overall Country objectives and targets.


• Shared accountability with the Group & Division Q&OPEX counterparts to ensure coherence of OPEX approach, sharing of best practices and achievement of Country OPEX results

Challenges:

• Stimulating valuable improvement projects in a declining market when improvements may lead to job losses, or in a growing market where resources are scarce.


• Improving operational performance in the areas of on time delivery, productivity, project management, quality and other key hot spots


• Increase capital turnover


• Support further develop of the Global Footprint in Country


• Increase the activities in Low cost countries through operations and/or sourcing


• Supporting improvements in Operational Health and Safety in close coordination with Divisional and Group colleagues.


• Secure existing and future OPEX competences within the Country


• Quality and OPEX Goals: Supports business managers to continuously improve operational performance with primary goals of:

- Customer quality 100%

- Customer on time delivery 100%

- Supplier quality 100%

- Supplier on time delivery 100%

- Achieve cost savings targets

• Customer Satisfaction: Supports business units in expeditious resolution of  issues on customer orders and issues cited in NPS feedback and CCRP


• Quality and Operational Excellence Strategy:  Collaborates with business managers to develop Quality and OPEX strategy and agenda aligned with the realities of the market place and the Company’s business needs.


• Continuous Improvement: Collaborates with business managers and OPEX managers in mapping business processes, identifying key business issues, supporting implementation of process improvement initiatives, and driving a continuous improvement culture.


• Supplier Performance Improvement: Collaborates with SCM and businesses to improve suppliers’ quality and on time delivery performance. Supports deployment of relevant KPIs.


• Project Management: Collaborates with business and operations managers in leading Project Management (PM) improvement initiatives focused on (1) Project Manager training and PM certification, (2) PM competency assessment and personal development plans, (3)  strengthening the Project Review process, and (4) strengthening the Project Risk Management process.


• Cost Savings: Works with businesses to identify cost savings initiatives and supports execution of cost savings improvement initiatives. Track savings in SMT dB.


• COPQ: Gathers COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality) information from various data bases, performs root causes analyses, and prioritizes improvement initiatives; tracks and reviews status regularly with Senior Management.


• Training & People Development: Continuously leads development of Quality and Operational Excellence organizational capabilities. Organizes and leads OPEX training program for all businesses. Provides leadership and mentoring to OPEX and PM leaders in local business units as appropriate. 


• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in large and diverse networks across all Divisions inside the country, and together with colleagues in Divisional and Group roles to bring balance between need for local knowledge and presence with need for Divisional and Group standardisation and best practice spreading.

Knowledge, Skills, Experience:

• University degree: Master of Science/MBA equivalent.


• Extensive experience from operations (10-15years).


• ODG or other internal consulting experience.


• Understanding of different cultures, networking approach & excellent ability to guide, coach and mentor others.


• Experiences from leading major improvement/restructuring projects.


• Broad & deep knowledge of theories, tools and practices in business improvement & project & change management


• Fluent written and spoken English matched with excellent communication and negotiation skills.


• Strong analytical and systemic problem solving skills.


• Clear passion to develop and change, self and others.


• High personal integrity.

Personal attributes:

            Ethics and personal integrity – unquestioned behavior / zero tolerance

            Accountability – sets and meets stretch goals

            Bias for action – sense of urgency

            Change mindset – impatient with the status quo

            Teamwork – One Company; boundary-less behavior

            Cost fanaticism – drive for simplicity and growth

            People development – promote learning

Has a strong “service attitude” recognizing that the primary mission of an OPEX leader’s  role is to provide a value-added service to business unit managers, develop a continuous improvement culture, and help deliver tangible, bottom-line results.

Personal Aptitude: Ability to understand abstract concepts and translate them into easy-to-understand processes. Demonstrated ability to lead development of Quality and OPEX strategy and agenda aligned with the realities of the market place and the Company’s business needs.

Demonstrate capabilities with tangible results in the following areas:

Business acumen

Technical knowledge

Analytical skills

Problem solving skills

Project management skills

Interpersonal skills

Quality Training:  In addition to formal University education (technical / business), the ideal OPEX candidate will have formal training, demonstrated understanding, and hands-on application experience with a broad array of OPEX tools and processes such as:

Basic quality tools (Pareto, Histograms, Ishikawa diagrams, control charts, scatter plots, stratification)

Statistical Process Control (LCL, UCL)

Process Capability (Cp, Cpk)

Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)

Supply Chain Management

Project Management

Lean/Six Sigma

Six Sigma (DMAIC: define, measure, analyze, improve, control)

Six Sigma tools (regression analysis, design of experiments, factorial experiments, DPMO)

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)

Demand Flow Technology (DFT)

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

Kaizen events

Culture Change

Customer Complaint Resolution Process (CCRP)

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Business experience:  A solid experience base in manufacturing, operations, supply management, and project related businesses is beneficial.

The ability to effectively work with and lead a ‘virtual team’ environment and the ability to influence others in getting things accomplished is a critically important competence.  

Demonstrated ability to deliver tangible results:  An effective OPEX Manager has a proven track record of leading fundamental change in the business, developing a culture of continuous improvement, and delivering significant, tangible ($) bottom line results in various business situations.