Regional Operations Manager

Regional Operations Manager

The Regional Operations Manager directs and manages multiple sites with overall responsibility and accountability for the safety, health, environmental performance, cost, quality, reliability, capital utilization, communications and public relations, and personnel development for site operations. He/she provides leadership directly or indirectly for Site Leadership Teams with overall responsibility for developing, maintaining, and executing a site functional plan which supports the objectives of the supported business groups and which also supports corporate site management expectations relative to EHS, maintenance and reliability.

Key Responsibilities:

• Carry out business organization functional and regional strategies and initiatives identified in company business plans.
• Share business and market intelligence with business organizations and company management to create value for the company.
• Establish and continually improve a customer visit process which supports regional business and sales objectives by demonstrating overall capability (management systems, quality, delivery, reliability, etc.)
• Provide feedback to business units and company management on opportunities for improvement.
• Provide guidance and direction for Site Leadership Teams (SLT) in development, linkage and deployment of functional plans.
• Effectively communicate across functional, geographic, business and technical lines to influence value creating opportunities.
• Actively participate and contribute to the company Operations Leadership Team (OLT) in setting policies, practices, long term direction, and development of managers and supervisors.
• Manage resources, financial and human, to obtain optimum business results through continual improvement and allocation of people and capital resources.
• Ensure that all sites' functions use appropriate benchmarking processes to identify performance gaps, goals and improvement opportunities.
• Administer company policies and processes throughout all functions at multiple sites. This includes providing geographic management for people associated with functions at the sites such as EHS, HR, Finance, Engineering, and Technology.
• Lead the development, communication, and enforcement of Environmental, Health, and Safety policies and procedures (MOC process, Authorized Safe Practice Manual, Site Emergency Action Plans, Lock Out / Tag Out process).
• Ensure all applicable EHS regulatory and insurance requirements are met.
• Manage interface communications with the company insurance carrier and state/federal government agencies.
• Participate or provide guidance for the Site Safety Committees to insure proper and consistent safety emphasis and timely follow-up on needed safety improvements.
• Set goals and establish expectations for performance related to injuries, incidents, housekeeping inspections, spills, environmental releases, etc., as required to link with corporate and industry benchmark standards and insure that necessary resources are in place to deploy plans.
• Drive the use of the Incident Review process to ensure root cause identification, corrective action, preventative action and sharing of learnings.
• Ensure that appropriate advance planning is done to anticipate regulatory changes and ensure that operations will be prepared for future compliance.
• Ensuring that appropriate diligence is applied in developing the sites' environmental permit applications.
• Ensure that safety and environmental compliance take priority over production pressures.
• Routinely monitor HSE measures and prompt intervention to address performance trends or performance below expectations.
• Maintain adequate audit systems to ensure compliance with all applicable HSE procedures, policies and regulatory programs.
• Ensure that emergency preparedness is maintained at the sites.
• Ensure security measures for the sites meet the Company standard and/or intent.
• Develop and maintain effective cost management systems for all functions at the sites to facilitate cost management, identification and tracking of cost reduction programs / projects, and business organization reporting requirements.
• Routinely monitor costs versus budget and ensure that assignable causes for variances are documented and communicated. Develop intervention plans as appropriate.
• Understand the major markets and customer needs from a manufacturing perspective for each business segment served.
• Ensure that appropriate goals and tracking systems are in place for raw material and finished goods inventory management, product yields, MRO, indirect inventory value and unit cost for each product.
• Prepare and/or review operating budgets and standards for all manufacturing related functions at the sites.
• Develop and maintain a staffing plan to drive continual improvement in productivity and resource effectiveness of all functions at the sites.
• Ensure that there are effective indirect purchasing systems in concert with Procurement which leverage supplier stocking, payment terms and negotiation to minimize cost while supporting effective maintenance planning and execution processes.
• Identify and communicate opportunities to management where business strategies might be altered to increase manufacturing effectiveness and overall shareholder value.
• Promote the use of information technology tools and process control technology to maximize benefits of these tools for the sites.
• Ensure the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in management of the sites.
• Provide and promote recognition and reinforcement of good performance results.
• Foster teamwork across the sites and the company.
• Ensure alignment of the sites with business and site management priorities thru development/implementation of site functional plans which supports the annual business plan and the Manufacturing Quality Management Plan (Site One Pager).
• Adjust priorities and plans as needed through the year as business conditions change.
• Promote best practices sharing across all functions both within the sites and across the corporation.
• In addition to corporate metrics, establish meaningful leading and lagging performance measures and utilize benchmarking and gap analysis to identify key initiatives and major improvement opportunities.
• Develop an understanding of key customers and critical quality performance characteristics of site products.
• Host/participate in customer visits to the sites as needed. Develop relationships with key customers.
• Ensure that appropriate procedures, practices and policies are in place to consistently produce products that meet sales specifications and customer fitness for use.
• Maintain procedures and practices required to maintain ISO:9001 certification.
• Develop and maintain an effective customer complaint handling process to provide timely corrective and preventive actions.
• Develop and maintain laboratory procedures and processes to provide process control strategies and analytical tools required to resolve process and shipment quality problems.
• Develop and maintain a quality program with tools, projects, resources and tracking systems in place that support minimization of non-conforming product and reduction of product variability.
• Promote the use of root cause failure analysis.
• Ensure customer service levels meet customer satisfaction and business strategies.
• Set clear expectations and direction for all personnel at the sites.
• Identify and request human resources required to execute the sites' functional plans.
• Develop and apply coaching skills to maximize effectiveness of individuals and teams across all functions at the sites.
• Ensure work performance and training of area personnel meet required job expectations.
• Drive implementation of Development and Coaching process across all functions at the sites.
• Ensure that technology experts are developed to support the ongoing success of the sites.
• Develop comprehensive training programs for the sites which provide the skills required to execute functional plan strategy and meet career development needs required to retain employees.
• Develop and implement hiring and recruiting plans as required to meet functional plan objectives.
• Ensure interaction with other organizations to promote the selection of the best available candidates to fill job openings both within and outside the sites.
• Maintain contact with support organizations to ensure appropriate resourcing for site initiatives.
• Support the development of personnel in supporting organizations through cross fertilization and broadening assignments across organizational lines.
• Understand the capabilities of all key leaders and potential future leaders and develop and implement personnel succession plans that assure the company realizes maximum value from resource expenditure.
• Ensure fair and consistent application of the disciplinary process across all site functions.
• Actively work to improve employee job satisfaction and employee survey responses.
• Ensure good communication of appropriate company/business information to all employees at the sites.
• Champion company positions, policies and strategies at the sites and ensure that employees understand their role in support of company strategies.
• Serve as a role model for company values and principles.
• Ensure that appropriate production goals are met according to the production schedules and site functional plans.
• Establish and maintain an effective maintenance process at the sites (work requests, purchase orders, parts information, vendor services, work planning, troubleshooting and safety permitting) utilizing site maintenance, Procurement and outsourced resources.
• Ensure that key performance measures are in place to monitor effectiveness of maintenance processes and improvement projects.
• Develop and maintain cost effective preventative maintenance programs which increase equipment on-stream time and meet regulatory and insurance requirements.
• Develop and maintain Operations routine job system to insure maximum equipment reliability and routine checking of status and operability of critical safety systems.
• Develop, maintain and enforce the use of appropriate chemical process management systems (DCS/PLC alarm management system, alarm limits, manufacturing information system data and limits) required to achieve safe, stable and reliable operations.
• Evaluate plant capacity versus forecast demand and develop plans to adjust capacity as needed.
• Communica