Accelerated Operations Development Program

This program is designed for new college graduates who have high level technical skills & abilities along with manufacturing experience. Those selected for this program will set standards for manufacturing excellence and develop new processes and technologies. Participants will work and train at an accelerated pace and will be required to travel and relocate as required.

Rotation 1 – One year orientation in Operations Center of Excellence (Novi/Auburn Hills, MI)

Training

8D/Six Sigma/Kepner -Tregoe, Products & Processes, Financial reporting, CFT project reporting and implementation

 

Multiple location participation in:

Kaizan, Lean, 5S, SMED, and SLAM events

 

Expectations

·         Building knowledge and experience in operations and manufacturing.

·         Building knowledge of the company, processes, and customers

·         Building presentation skills and reporting to different levels of management

·         Building team leadership skills for projects in operations and manufacturing

·         Ability to solve a range of standard problems and suggest possible solutions using standard procedures

 

Rotation 2 – One year Plant assignment (to be placed at one of our US plants)

This rotation will include a 6 month rotation in plant functional areas and then 6 months as a supervisor on the plant floor.

Responsibilities to include:

·         Ensures the plant demonstrates continuous improvement in the area of quality (meeting customer requirements and World Class standards).

·         Ensures that customer needs are met in the areas of production, new products, and service builds, while maintaining and improving customer relationships through regular visits/contacts, and timely responses to special issues.

·         Ensures continuous improvement is maintained in plant operational efficiency through effective labor utilization, scrap reduction, machine design improvement, and improved material utilization.

·         Monitor plants performance to financial objectives and ensure corrective action is taken as required

·         Facilitate/Coordinate/Participate on departmental team projects aimed at generating Lean/CI techniques, cost reductions, and process performance improvements.

·         Conduct Kaizen events in pilot areas and other specific plant functions.

·         Assists Business Unit Managers and individual Lean/Continuous Improvement Initiatives.

·         Participate on and lead teams aimed at the resolution of quality issues and concerns.

·         Support production control, material control, material planning departments in improvement projects relating to scheduling inventory management and raw material flow and tracking.

·         Interface with plant engineering on projects addressing staffing, manpower, time and capacity issues.

·         Conduct cost saving meeting designed to reduce scrap & other costs.

·         Ensures Housekeeping and Health & Safety Standard are maintained.

·         Complies with policies and procedures pertaining to facility or divisional adopted standards such as TS 16949 and ISO 14001.

 

Expectations:

·         Uses best practices and knowledge of internal/external business issues to improve processes.

·         Solves complex problems and can take a new perspective using existing solutions

·         Works more independently and earns the respect of the plant staff

 

Rotation 3 – One year Program Management or Launch (to be placed at a plant or a corporate office)

This rotation will include either managing a small program out of the corporate office, or managing the launch of a small program out of a US plant.

Launch Management responsibilities to include:

·         Leads a cross functional plant based program team. This coordination will include the following team members: Tooling Engineer(s), Process Engineer(s), Quality Engineer(s), Operations Supervisor, and Manufacturing Engineer and Materials / Logistics analyst.

·         Is responsible to lead his / her team to execute all plant tasks and deliverables for new product launches including tool release, purchase and installation and commission of all tooling and equipment, run at rate, hiring and training, all PPAP’s, supplier readiness reviews and meeting all customer requirements and MRDs.

·         Represents his / her team as the lead manufacturing member of the Program Team. In this role he/she will interface with the Program Manager, Program Engineer, Program Buyer, Account Manager, and Cost Analyst.

·         Meeting program timing requirements for the total program, but with special focus on plant tasks and deliverables.

·         Gap analysis and roadmaps for plant financial targets including material, scrap, production cycle time, and capital investment. Responsible to meet all operational financial targets.

·         Provides operations support for product builds, testing, process optimization, run at rate events, variation studies.

Program Management responsibilities to include:

Responsible for the overall management of assigned customer product development programs including components, systems, and full platforms. Interfaces with all levels of internal and customer management on all aspects of planning, scheduling, organizing, directing and controlling the program. Leads the Program Team to meet timing, quality, finance, and product requirements for Cooper and customer systems and processes.

·         Leadership of the Program Team. Representing the team in a professional manner to the customer and management.

·         Motivates the PT to meet commitments and holds the team accountable.

·         Program planning in all regards including program timeline.

·         Clarifying roles and responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of the team.

·         Follow the industry best practices including Program Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) to ensure world class program management.

·         Utilizes available Program Management tools such as risk management and lessons learned to successfully launch programs.

·         Managing and running Program Team meetings.

·         Managing relevant program documentation and processes including Statement of Work, Open Issues List, Timeline, Monthly Project Reports and CLauS.

·         Supports the Manufacturing Team (Plant Program Manager and the Launch Team) in production builds, team meetings, plant based customer reviews, and critical production preparation activities.

·         Ensures appropriate program team members support launch efforts.

·         Achieves all internal and external financial targets.  

·         Ensures successful completion of the DVP&R and PVP&R on time.

·         Ensures that the drawing, prototype and production tooling schedules are managed to support builds and customer MRDs.

·         Manages the product change process and scope change process.

·         Fosters an effective customer relationship to maintain Cooper Standard and personal credibility.

·         Escalates future risks and clearly identifies to management specific tasks, deliverables and support needed to mitigate future risks.

·         Adheres to all customer quality systems and processes.

 

Expectations:

·         Has developed a specialized depth of expertise in some areas of operations

·         Recommends best practices to others

·         Solves complex problems by identifying innovative solutions

·         Comfortable and successful at leading functional teams and projects

 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial or Manufacturing Engineering, Business with a minor in a technical field, Operations, or Logistics
• 2+ years of previous experience in a manufacturing environment (preferably automotive)
• Experience leading projects successfully
• Ability and willingness to do frequent travel and relocate multiple times (company paid)