Position: Continuous Improvement (CI) Leader
Reports To: General Manager
Direct Reports: No Direct Reports (influences through coaching and facilitation)
Summary
HPG is Precinmac’s Airfoils Center of Excellence, producing highly complex precision aerospace/defense components. To support HPG’s growth and evolving operating system, we are hiring a Continuous Improvement Leader who is deeply passionate about coaching, building front‑line capability, and fostering a culture where employees lead problem solving, not just participate in it.
Our culture is anchored in Trust, Gratitude, Action, Growth, and Excellence - values reinforced throughout TPW and recognized throughout the company. This role is essential in helping HPG translate those values into daily behaviors on the shop floor.
Job Responsibilities:
- Facilitate Kaizen events, diagnostics, value stream mapping, and “Just Do It” improvements where employees generate the ideas and lead execution.
- Build leader and team‑member capability through daily coaching, teaching structured problem-solving, and modeling desired CI behaviors - aligned with TPW’s “leaders as coaches” expectations.
- Create an environment where front-line employees lead problem solving, enabling them to design future-state processes and own solutions (a documented need and success pattern across Precinmac sites).
- Strengthen HPG’s daily tiered management and visual systems so employees can monitor performance, identify issues, and drive countermeasures themselves.
- Drive consistency in management operating systems (MOS), coaching leaders to adopt TPW standards and empower team-based improvements.
- Implement and sustain OE tools - 5S, Standard Work, Visual Management, Flow Dynamics, Pull Manufacturing, TPM - by coaching employees to use them, not deploying them top-down.
- Lead CI initiatives using Lean Six Sigma and the TPW Business System, helping HPG improve flow, machining stability, inspection throughput, changeover, and first-pass quality.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to evaluate data, validate cost-benefit analysis, and ensure improvements are measurable and sustained.
- Support supervisors and leads with skill-building in questioning, facilitation, accountability, and collaborative improvement - advancing the leadership commitments outlined in TPW (e.g., “empower ownership,” “involve people in problem solving”).
- Reinforce behaviors where employees take ownership, define gaps, and participate in creating structured action plans - mirroring TPW’s employee-centered problem-solving framework and KPI routines.
- Promote a culture where people feel safe to raise issues, make suggestions, and learn from mistakes - consistent with Precinmac’s values and engagement priorities.
- May perform other duties as assigned by my management
Requirements
- Proven experience coaching hourly and salaried teams in Lean, problem solving, and daily management.
- Strong facilitation ability - able to connect, inspire, and help employees uncover and solve root causes independently.
- Experience in precision machining or aerospace/defense environments is an asset given HPG’s airfoil and complex geometry portfolio.
- Commitment to Precinmac’s values - modeling Trust, Gratitude, Action, Growth, and Excellence in daily interactions.
- Clear, confident communication with a hands-on approach that builds credibility on the floor.
- Strong communication skills. Ability to communicate well (verbal and written) with all levels of the organization, including senior leadership
- Has led and/or coached prior continuous improvement projects. Considered a strong coach on continuous improvement concepts
- Experience in leading complex projects that require strong leadership, initiative, and change management would be an asset
- Experience with change management, leader coaching, and culture-based improvement strongly preferred
Qualification Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in engineering, business, operations or related discipline.
- 5+ years of experience leading continuous improvement initiatives
- Six Sigma certification, Black Belt Preferred, but not a requirement
