Continuous Improvement Manager
Methode Electronics · Rolling Meadows, IL
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Lean / CI
- Base pay
- $108k–$162k
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 8+ years
- Certification
- Black Belt preferred
- Industry
- Automotive
- Posted
- 3 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management continuous improvement role at Methode Electronics (automotive) in Rolling Meadows, IL. Lead 5S and workplace organization; partner with EHS to embed safety and ergonomics into improvement work.
- They ask for
- 8+ years · degree required · Black Belt preferred
- Tools it names
- Lean, Six Sigma, Black Belt, Kaizen, 5S, Value stream mapping
- Base pay
- $108k–$162k
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
Your game plan for this job
Most people just hit Apply. Do these first and you show up with someone on the inside.
- 1
Find 2–3 people on the Lean / CI team at this site
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply most.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
Ask about the work, not for a referral. We write it for you.
- 3
Have a 15-minute chat
Good questions for this role:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is CI run from the plant floor or from a corporate OpEx group?
- Which metrics does leadership actually watch: OEE, scrap, cost per unit?
- The posting mentions a Black Belt. Does the company sponsor certification?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply, ideally with a referral
Ask if they'd refer you or introduce you to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link and tell them the day you apply.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
About the role
Required Qualifications
- ✓This facility is subject to ITAR regulations. Applicants must qualify as a “U.S. Person” under ITAR (22 CFR § 120.62), meaning a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other qualifying protected individual. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.
- ✓Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Operations Management, or a closely related discipline.
- ✓8+ years of manufacturing experience, including 3+ years leading continuous-improvement or operational-excellence programs, ideally in a metal-fabrication, machining, or electromechanical assembly environment.
- ✓Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (or equivalent demonstrated expertise) with a track record of measurable, sustained throughput, quality, and cost results.
- ✓Deep working knowledge of lean tools and systems: value-stream mapping, standard work, SMED, 5S, visual and tiered management, kaizen, and structured problem-solving.
- ✓Strong analytical skills; fluent in ERP-based manufacturing data and comfortable building the analyses that drive decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
- ✓Experience in a high-mix, low-volume or job-shop operation.
- ✓Busbar, power-distribution, or copper/aluminum fabrication background; familiarity with plating and other special processes.
- ✓AS9100 and/or NADCAP experience.
- ✓Epicor (or comparable ERP) and MES implementation experience.
- ✓Experience with strategy deployment (hoshin kanri) and building a CI function or lean operating system from the ground up.
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Key
CI Strategy & Lean Operating System
- •Own the site continuous-improvement roadmap; align the improvement pipeline to business priorities through strategy deployment and annual/quarterly planning with the leadership team.
- •Design, deploy, and sustain the lean operating system: tiered daily management, visual management, standard work, leader standard work, and gemba routines.
- •Define and maintain the plant KPI framework (safety, quality, delivery, cost, throughput, on-time delivery, first-pass yield, cost of poor quality) and ensure metrics drive action at every tier.
Improvement Execution
- •Plan, facilitate, and follow up on kaizen events, value-stream mapping, and rapid improvement workshops across the busbar value stream and supporting functions.
- •Lead structured problem-solving (DMAIC, A3, 8D) on the site’s highest-impact losses; focus early effort on the binding constraints to flow.
- •Drive HMLV-appropriate flow improvements: setup and changeover reduction (SMED), WIP and queue-time reduction, cell design, pull/replenishment, and scheduling discipline.
- •Use Epicor labor, move, and job data to quantify active-vs-queue time, identify waste, and validate that improvements hold.
- •Extend lean practices beyond production into quoting, order entry, planning, purchasing, and quality processes (transactional lean).
Financial Accountability
- •Build business cases for improvement initiatives; track and report validated hard and soft savings in partnership with Finance.
- •Partner with Engineering on capital, automation, and MES/analytics projects to ensure they solve the right problems and deliver expected returns.
People & Capability
- •Build CI capability across the organization: deliver lean and problem-solving training.
- •Coach supervisors and managers to lead improvement in their own areas; foster an engaged culture where operators identify and solve problems.
Quality, Safety & Compliance
- •Integrate CI with AS9100 and NADCAP requirements; ensure process changes are properly controlled, documented, and validated, and support audits and corrective actions.
- •Lead 5S and workplace organization; partner with EHS to embed safety and ergonomics into improvement work.
Core Competencies
- •Bias for action and floor presence — leads improvement where the work happens.
- •Systems thinking: builds routines and structures that make gains stick.
- •Data-driven decision-making balanced with practical, job-shop pragmatism.
- •Coaching and change leadership — builds capability in others rather than dependence on the CI function.
- •Collaboration and influence across operations, engineering, quality, supply chain, and finance.
- •Ownership and follow-through on outcomes, not just activity.
Work Environment
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Frequent hand motion and repetitive tasks including using a computer for typing. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will occasionally do immediate reaching and overhead reaching to perform various duties, frequent standing for varied amounts of time to perform various duties, frequent walking for varied amounts of time to perform various duties. Squat or bend to perform various duties. Occasionally climb stairs.