Lean Supervisor

Role Purpose

The Lean/PEX Supervisor is responsible for driving continuous improvement, lean manufacturing execution, and operational excellence initiatives across the Optical Communications manufacturing environment. This role partners closely with production, engineering, quality, supply chain, maintenance, and leadership teams to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity performance.The Lean/PEX Supervisor will lead the deployment and sustainment of lean principles, daily management systems, problem-solving methodologies, waste reduction initiatives, and value stream improvements to support a fast-paced, high-volume manufacturing operation serving strategic data center customers.This role is critical in ensuring our manufacturing processes are capable, scalable, and responsive to the demands of hyperscale data center infrastructure, where speed, reliability, quality, and execution excellence are essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation and sustainment of lean manufacturing principles across the plant, including 5S, standard work, visual management, flow, pull systems, waste elimination, and continuous improvement routines.
• Facilitate kaizen events, rapid improvement workshops, value stream mapping sessions, and cross-functional problem-solving activities.
• Identify improvement opportunities in productivity, cycle time, labor efficiency, material flow, inventory reduction, space utilization, and process stability.
• Develop and maintain a strong continuous improvement culture by coaching frontline leaders, supervisors, and team members on lean tools and behaviors.
• Drive adherence to daily management systems and tiered accountability processes to ensure performance issues are escalated and resolved effectively
• Support manufacturing teams in achieving operational targets related to safety, quality, delivery, and cost.
• Monitor key production and process metrics, identify trends, and lead corrective actions to close performance gaps.
• Partner with operations leaders to establish and sustain KPI dashboards, visual performance boards, and accountability mechanisms.
• Ensure lean initiatives are aligned with business priorities, customer demand, and site operational objectives.
• Lead root cause analysis and structured problem-solving using methods such as A3, 5 Whys, fishbone, Pareto analysis, Six Sigma and corrective action tracking.
• Supervise, coach, and develop lean specialists, technicians, or assigned improvement team members, as applicable.
• Build engagement and accountability for improvement ownership at all levels of the organization.
• Promote a culture of safety, respect, teamwork, and disciplined execution.

Experiences/Education - Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing, Business, or related field.
• Minimum 3–5 years of experience in manufacturing, continuous improvement, lean, operational excellence, or production leadership.
• Experience applying lean manufacturing tools in a production environment.
• Experience leading teams, projects, kaizen events, or cross-functional improvement initiatives.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root cause analysis skills.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and influencing skills across all levels of the organization.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.

Experiences/Education - Desired

• Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in fiber optic, telecommunications, cable manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, or high-volume industrial manufacturing.
• Experience supporting operations serving hyperscale or mission-critical customers.
• Lean certification, Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, or equivalent continuous improvement training.
• Knowledge of value stream mapping, standard work, SMED, TPM, OEE improvement, visual management, and capacity optimization.
• Experience with ERP/MES systems and manufacturing data analysis tools.
• Demonstrated success in leading change in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
  
  Critical Skills and Competencies
• Lean manufacturing leadership
• Continuous improvement mindset
• Structured problem solving
• Root cause analysis
• Coaching and team development
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Project management
• Data-driven decision making
• Change managemnt
• Strong sense of urgency and customer focuse
• Ability to work effectively in a dynamic, high-demand production environment