Lean Manager

Lean Manager – Transformation Office

We are building a Transformation Office to change how our factories run. Not through posters or one-off 6S drives, but through a shop-floor operating system that our own leaders can run and sustain. We are looking for a Lean Manager who spends more time on the shop floor than in a meeting room.

THE ROLE

• Reports to: Chief Transformation Officer

• Base: Mumbai, with 20–30% travel across our production sites

• Scope: cross-functional improvement leader. Department heads own daily results; you build the capability that improves them.

Success is measured by verified operational improvement, and by how well our leaders and teams sustain the methods without depending on you.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Assess the end-to-end flow

• Map value streams from material receipt through production, QC, packing and dispatch, including information and decision flows

• Observe real work across products, materials, customers, shifts and sites before drawing conclusions

• Find constraints, hand-off failures, variation, rework loops and gaps between documented and actual practice

Find and quantify waste

• Identify the eight wastes and translate them into time, capacity, lead time, WIP, quality, cost, space and gold or material loss

• Separate symptoms from root causes, and never default to calling a performance gap an operator problem

Get to the truth in the data

• Verify definitions, sources, manual entries and reconciliations before trusting production data

• Compare reported performance against direct observation, source records and physical WIP

• Analyse output vs plan, earned vs direct hours, cycle and lead time, WIP ageing, first-pass yield, rework, scrap, downtime and schedule adherence

Deliver improvement

• Build current- and future-state value-stream maps with process owners and turn the gaps into prioritised plans

• Lead Kaizen events and problem-solving using PDCA, A3, 5 Why, Pareto and root-cause methods

• Improve flow, line balance, workplace design, changeover, mistake-proofing and pull, with before-and-after measures signed off by the owner

Build daily management and a visual factory

• Design Tier 1, 2 and 3 board standards that fit our different products, materials and cells

• Coach supervisors and managers to run short, fact-based Tier meetings focused on abnormalities, owners, dates and escalation

• Develop standard work and leader standard work, and run layered audits on the quality of meetings, data and action closure

Embed 6S and workplace discipline

• Set 6S standards for production, maintenance, stores and offices, with safety built into every assessment

• Make 6S improve safety, quality, search time and control, rather than a one-time cleaning campaign

Build capability that outlasts you

• Train operators, supervisors, engineers and managers in the Lean methods relevant to their work

• Develop and coach site Lean champions until they lead independently

• Run a Kaizen idea system with quick feedback and recognition, and audit gains at three and six months

Connect to the wider transformation

• Work with the PMO to turn larger cross-functional opportunities into governed projects

• Stabilise and measure processes before automation, and verify results after

• Partner with Quality, Engineering, Planning, HR, Finance, IT and EHS, and give the CTO a factual view of systemic barriers to flow

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

Must have

• Bachelor's degree in industrial, mechanical, production or manufacturing engineering, or a related discipline

• 8+ years of relevant experience, including at least 5 years leading measurable Lean or continuous-improvement work in manufacturing

• Strong shop-floor experience in high-mix, labour-intensive or precision production

• A track record of leading cross-functional Kaizen and coaching supervisors

• Practical command of Lean methods, proven through results

• Hands-on skill in VSM, takt and capacity analysis, line balancing, Kanban, SMED, Poka-yoke and basic Theory of Constraints

• Strong Excel and PowerPoint; working knowledge of Power BI or a statistical tool

• Clear communication in English

Good to have

• Postgraduate qualification in operations or industrial engineering

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or a recognised Lean or IE certification

• Experience building daily management and Lean capability from an early maturity level

• Multi-site or matrix organisation experience; leadership of a small CI team or champion network

• Exposure to jewellery, diamonds, watches, luxury goods or precision finishing (not mandatory)

• Hindi or Gujarati, for shop-floor coaching

WHO WILL THRIVE HERE

Someone who is curious about how work is actually done, respects operators and experts while challenging accepted practice, coaches for ownership rather than dependence, and can explain Lean in plain language. You will need patience to test causes, urgency to remove known barriers, and the judgement to work across senior leaders and long-established site practices.

If you want to build a Lean system from the ground up in a business where precision is everything, we would like to hear from you. Apply through this post.