Vice President of Manufacturing

About M&D

For the past 80 years, M&D has led the aftermarket in remanufacturing innovation to address technological advancements and changing customer needs. In the past few decades, we have expanded beyond our remanufacturing roots to develop close (and sometimes exclusive) partnerships with the world’s leading OEMs and manufacturers.

Those partnerships with key suppliers like Bosch, Garrett, Federal Mogul, Cummins, Stanadyne, Holset, BorgWarner, Delphi, Yanmar, Mitsubishi, Denso and others have been critical in honing our remanufacturing capabilities and expanding our parts offering to include new, no core options in fuel injectors and fuel pumps, diesel engine cylinder heads, blocks, crankshafts and connecting rods. M&D also stocks a complete assortment of turbos (new and remanufactured), inframe overhaul kits, filtration and aftertreatment parts including DPFs, DOCs, EGRs, sensors and other engine parts.

Our strong remanufacturing roots combined with our 41 branch locations, a nationwide outside sales team of 25 and our close OEM & Manufacturer partnerships make us unique in the industry – no one understands diesel engine failure analysis and parts better than M&D . WE FUEL UPTIME .

Position Summary

The Vice President, Manufacturing will report to the COO and oversee a handful of production/reman locations. Although successful and highly profitable, the new Vice President will not be stepping into a cohesive manufacturing strategy or efficient operational footprint. Therefore, he/she will be responsible for providing strategic and tactical leadership to all aspects of the manufacturing/reman operations - creating and implementing “the game plan” for an efficient operational footprint to support distributed branch locations. As a member of the senior management team, the Vice President, Manufacturing will contribute to strategic business planning, formulate capital expenditure plans, and drive operational best practices (Lean) into all aspects of the business. The scope will include quality, inventory management, Lean manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing engineering, including assuring that best practices, such as ISO certification, are instilled in all aspects of production.

The Vice President, Manufacturing will play a leading role in developing the strategy and execution plans required to fulfill the mandate of management and the Board of Directors – a mandate to grow the business by winning share, driving operational excellence to improve customer delivery and satisfaction, improving pricing and margin, and capitalizing on a strong legacy brand in the market. This will include developing the annual and three-year capital plans, preparing and presenting operating budgets, and managing inventory costs.

Specific Responsibilities

• Work with site Manufacturing Managers and the Vice President of Supply Chain (global sourcing, inventory management, and logistics and warehousing practices) to create forward-thinking improvements. Foster best practices between sales, marketing, branch leaders, and manufacturing to provide better visibility to sales forecasts to improve production planning and order-to-delivery timelines to exceed branch and customer expectations.
• Direct and evaluate existing manufacturing capabilities and recommend new investment in capital equipment. Oversee the continued efficiency of the manufacturing process by ensuring that the company has the hardware and software technology to support a competitive advantage in manufacturing – flexibility and speed to market.
• Work with supply chain organization to maximize inventory management and asset utilization as part of an overall recognition of the importance of Return on Inventory.
• Establish key performance indicators for production, materials, and maintenance areas and assure communication through visual boards and team shift meetings.
• Lead, teach, and implement enterprise-wide Lean practices and other contemporary best operational excellence programs across the entire business to enhance productivity, quality, working capital utilization, and manufacturing profitability. Maximize synergies between manufacturing operations and demand flow and production planning to reduce cost, eliminate redundancies, and improve processes and product flow. Instill these operating philosophies in all aspects of the operations.
• Drive a culture of safety within the company’s operations to improve working conditions, where required, to reduce injuries, minimize downtime, reduce workers’ compensation costs, and improve worker morale.
• Work with HR to assure legal compliance with environmental health and safety programs, affirmative action programs, EEO regulations, FMLA, ADA, OSHA, and other federal regulations. Ensure operations-wide compliance with corporate, state, and federal regulations.
• Maintain employee relations practices necessary to establish a positive employer-employee relationship and promote a high level of morale.
• Retain, recruit, and develop strong executive bench strength to meet the future needs of the company including succession candidates for the top positions.
• Provide active participation and guidance to operations to ensure the workforce is capable and motivated, working with maximum efficiency and effectiveness to contribute to the business.

Requirements

THE PERSON

Education

• An undergraduate degree is required, ideally in an operations or engineering discipline. An MBA, or advanced industrial engineering or supply chain degree, is highly desired. Advanced certification in operations disciplines (Lean Certification/ISO) would be an added plus.

Experience

• Potential candidates must have led a remanufacturing/manufacturing organization through a transformation that has included scaling, growing, and optimizing a production footprint - instilling a Lean culture, process disciplines, and sound manufacturing controls. He/she must be a hands-on leader and teacher who analyzes and acts quickly, develops and mentors, is acutely aware of his/her capabilities, and who operates with leadership, peers, and subordinates with absolute transparency. Other experience will include:
• A track record of successive promotion and recognition over at least 10 years of professional experience. It is essential that in this experience base candidates have led and executed a successful manufacturing organization across multiple sites.
• It is also expected that the successful candidate will have responsibility for multiple plant operations, ideally in transportation-related production.
• Experience managing, or starting up, an operation in Mexico would be a plus.
• Experience leading a manufacturing operation producing highly engineered products.
• Experience managing a non-union workforce and building a solid and professional relationship with supervisory leadership.
• Experience working closely with supply chain management, including purchasing, logistics, materials management, and outsourcing.
• Prior experience in continuous improvement, total quality management, and Lean manufacturing.
• PE experience would be important, but not essential.

Geographic Experience

• The successful candidate will have substantial experience in North America and be willing to travel extensively.

Competencies

• Have strong business acumen in general business practices, as well as knowledge of an organization’s functioning. Candidates should also have strong EQ as well to function effectively.
• Have substantial experience in manufacturing processes, manufacturing systems, industrial engineering, product development manufacturability, quality systems, competitive sourcing, inventory control, logistics, and distribution management.
• Collaborate and build trusting internal relationships. Must be able to build relationships required to enable teamwork which might require modifying personal style. Ability as a leader to focus on the needs of others and listen effectively to ensure meaningful outcomes of group endeavors.
• Take a multi-faceted approach to problem-solving. Candidates will be champions of organization-wide learning and sharing of information that fosters novel solutions to issues and challenges.
• Provide the vision to inspire innovative thinking and lead the definition of vision and strategy. Communicates a compelling and inspired vision – gains buy-in.
• Act with a sense of urgency and lead with courage – energized by tough challenges.
• A recognized reputation for inspirational leadership and getting things done.
• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and is self-directed.
• Industry knowledge, relationships, and market presence.
• A strong focus on industry benchmarking, metrics, data, and financial results.
• Strong communication skills – both written and oral. A high-energy, proactive, dynamic, and committed leader who instills passion in both internal and external audiences.
• As absolute attention to detail – unquestioned integrity.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk, working on a computer.
• Ability to lift and carry up to 50 lbs.
• Office environment.
• Shop environment that can include exposure to loud noises, extreme temperatures, dirt, and dust.
• Prolonged periods of driving in vehicle.

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) of this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments.

M&D provides equal employment opportunity to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability, military status, and genetic information.