Head of Manufacturing

Mission of the position

The Head of Manufacturing is responsible for leading manufacturing activities for CAF Rolling Stock to execute develop and execute a strategy to deliver high quality product, to the required time, cost, quality objectives and customer requirements in-line with; project, business and relative contractual requirements. This is a pivotal role in the success of the Manufacturing facility.

You will take a lead role in developing strategy and deploying resources, taking full ownership and accountability for the delivery of the plan using a range of strategies and support processes to enable your team to deliver on their requirements. You will embed a continuous improvement culture (utilizing appropriate CAF methodologies including KAIZEN), encouraging and enabling employees to perform and improve their work processes to reach our common objective.

Safety is paramount in our business, and this must be driven from the Management team; so you will take personal accountability for ensuring safety standards are never compromised when working to ensure delivery.

Driving ownership for quality build; you will work closely with the team and with the Group stakeholders in Spain (CAF SA) to ensure performance against your Key Performance Indicators; engaging the workforce and developing strong relationships with the customer, key stakeholders in CAF SA, the trade union and your leadership team and peers to deliver this.

You will be flexible in your approach; demonstrating the need to be close to the detail and understand the root cause of specific issues; whilst developing and delivering a strategy for operational delivery; managing many stakeholders and drawing on the resources of the team around you.

Functions and responsibilities

• Fully accountable for achievement of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) within the scope of the manufacturing. These will include the number of vehicles to plan, productivity, product quality, safety, 5S and cost.
• Establish, develop and monitor the delivery of the short, medium and long-term production plan.
• Drive CI activity and initiatives, harnessing the CAF methodology across the site to create a culture of continuous improvement. Develop and implement strategies and processes to ensure continuous improvements in performance, safety, quality, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
• Responsible for ensuring quality standards are met and where defects are identified, provide resolution and mitigate future recurrence.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with key stakeholders, understanding customer needs and anticipating customer requirements.
• Work in a strong matrix organisation.
• Lead, direct and ensure systems are in place to monitor adherence to operational standards, quality accreditation, rail operating procedures, health and safety, and all other relevant legal/compliance requirements.
• Interact with other teams and key suppliers to ensure on time delivery of material and services to ensure delivery to contractual requirements.
• Set your annual budget, including short to medium-range objectives and criteria for monitoring progress and measuring success.  Accountable for departmental budgetary control in Manufacturing.
• Develop a high-performance culture with strong employee engagement and ensure the effective use of people management policies and tools within your team.
• Conduct sufficient analysis to fully understand the root cause of any underperformance to define and deliver a credible improvement plan, managing key internal stakeholder’s expectations.
• Set and manage performance targets for direct reports, ensuring best practice is achieved.
• Ensure a pro-active Health & Safety culture and embed understanding across the business.
• Develop robust plans to support business change, new product introduction and Group initiatives.
• Manage and be accountable for the manufacturing activity at all Depot sites as required.
• Accountable for the operational introduction of new products through the NPI process.
• Develop positive relationship with trade union and other engagement forums, taking a proactive role to enhance employee experience, develop our organisational culture and enhance employee satisfaction (as measured in the engagement survey).
• Participate in coordination-meetings with the HQ when required and in the definition of the strategies of the Site Programs.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience cont.

Required professional experience

Technical and/or practical knowledge valued