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American Bath Group is a North American bathware organization committed to improving people's lives and building a better bathware industry. Its operating culture is grounded in hands-on problem solving, accountability, continuous learning, and the belief that there is always a better way to serve customers and strengthen the business.

The Opportunity

The Plymouth plant has continuous-improvement activity, operating data, visual boards, and local problem-solving efforts, but these elements do not yet function as one consistent, leader-owned management system. Standard work is unevenly trained and audited, reporting is fragmented, and recurring losses in labor productivity, equipment reliability, quality, scrap, rework, and material use continue to constrain capacity and margin.

The CI Manager will bring these pieces together. This leader will build a practical operating rhythm that helps supervisors and plant leaders see problems earlier, assign ownership clearly, close actions reliably, and connect improvement work to measurable operating and financial value.

THE MANDATE

Build and embed a sustainable, leader-owned continuous-improvement operating system at Plymouth that delivers measurable productivity, reliability, cost, quality, and waste improvement, then standardizes proven practices across the regional network.

Success in Year One

Success will be visible in both business performance and leadership behavior. The right person will deliver near-term operating value while installing the routines, standards, governance, and problem-solving capability that prevent the plant from depending on the CI Manager as its permanent problem solver.

Timing

Required progress

First 30 days

Establish approved baselines, KPI definitions, Year One targets, ownership, and the initial CI governance rhythm.

By Month 6

Install auditable leader standard work, one tiered daily-management structure, practical A3 discipline, a prioritized CI pipeline, and Finance-aligned savings validation.

By Month 12

Deliver approved improvement targets across productivity, reliability, cost, quality, and waste; demonstrate sustained leader ownership; document proven Plymouth methods for regional replication.

The Mandate

Architect one integrated CI operating system connecting leader standard work, tiered daily management, visual management, A3 problem solving, project governance, action closure, audit discipline, escalation, and Finance-validated savings.

Work at the gemba and personally lead selected high-value improvements in labor productivity, equipment reliability, cost per unit, quality, waste, scrap, and rework so the operating system proves value in practice.

Develop supervisors and plant leaders to own daily execution, structured problem solving, and sustainment rather than transferring operating accountability to CI.

Simplify disconnected data and reporting into a common operating rhythm with clear priorities, owners, due dates, action closure, and escalation.

Document what works at Plymouth and support regional replication only after local adoption, stability, and sustainment have been demonstrated.

Year One Critical Outcomes

Leader standard work. Define it for all in-scope supervisor and plant-leadership roles; train leaders, establish routine execution, and make adherence auditable.

Tiered daily management. Establish one Plymouth tier structure with shared KPI logic, practical visual standards, owner and due-date discipline, and a working escalation path.

A3 problem solving. Put one practical A3 method into active use on prioritized recurring failures and coach leaders to frame problems, test causes, and sustain countermeasures.

Project governance. Create a prioritized CI pipeline aligned to plant objectives, with named owners, expected value, timing, risk, implementation status, and clear decisions on what not to pursue.

Savings validation. Implement an operating and financial validation process so claimed value is tied to agreed definitions and verified with Finance.

Leader ownership. Enable plant leaders to run the daily-management routines, close actions, and sustain improvements independently while the CI Manager coaches, audits, governs, and escalates.

Measured plant improvement. Establish first-30-day baselines and approved targets, then deliver agreed Year One movement in productivity, uptime, cost per unit, quality, waste, scrap, and rework.

Why This Role Is Hard

This is a meaningful build in a plant that is not in acute crisis. The challenge is to create urgency without manufacturing chaos, deliver visible results without becoming a shadow operations leader, and install discipline without adding bureaucracy.

Build and improve at the same time. The role must produce immediate value while creating the management system that makes future improvement repeatable.

Lead without formal authority. There are no direct reports. Accountability must be created through evidence, routines, coaching, due dates, audits, and appropriate escalation.

Earn credibility on the floor. Plymouth is a hands-on, manual, labor-intensive manufacturing environment where practical gemba presence matters.

Work with imperfect infrastructure. Data and reporting are fragmented; progress cannot wait for ideal systems or extensive resources.

Protect the sequence. Regional standardization is part of the opportunity, but only after Plymouth methods are proven, adopted, and sustained.

Leadership Profile

The strongest candidate will combine the thinking of an architect with the credibility of a hands-on builder and operator. This person can diagnose a low-maturity environment, design the minimum practical system, prove it at the gemba, and transfer ownership to the leaders who run the plant every day.

System architect. Connects daily management, problem solving, governance, audits, escalation, and value tracking into one operating model rather than deploying isolated tools.

Hands-on builder. Observes work directly, tests causes, creates usable standards, and personally leads selected improvements where authorship is necessary.

Leader developer. Coaches supervisors and managers until they can lead routines and solve problems independently.

Constructive challenger. Uses facts and operating mechanisms to address resistance while preserving plant ownership.

Practical simplifier. Turns complex or incomplete reporting into a small number of clear decisions, actions, owners, and measures.

Value translator. Connects CI activity to productivity, uptime, capacity, cost, quality, waste, and Finance-validated savings.

Experience Requirements

Required

Personal authorship of leader standard work and tiered daily management in a manufacturing environment, including implementation, audit, correction, and sustainment.

A Lean or continuous-improvement transformation - or repair of a weak operating system - that delivered measurable operational and financial results.

Demonstrated success developing frontline supervisors and managers to lead structured problem solving and daily improvement independently.

Experience building or materially redesigning a sustainable management system, not only participating in events or maintaining an inherited mature system.

Credibility in a hands-on plant environment and the ability to improve performance with limited resources and imperfect data.

Cross-functional influence across Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Finance, and plant leadership without relying on direct authority.

Ability to work onsite in Plymouth and support minimum-quarterly regional travel.

Preferred Accelerators

Experience in industrial products, plastics, composites, steel, construction products, bathware, or another manual, labor-intensive manufacturing environment.

Multi-site deployment, benchmarking, or replication of a proven operating standard across facilities.

Practical application of A3, 5S, visual management, OEE or uptime improvement, cost-per-unit reduction, waste reduction, project governance, and savings validation.

FRP, thermoforming, mold, process, or bathware experience.

Lean, Six Sigma, or Black Belt credentials supported by direct system authorship and sustained business results.

Why the Right Candidate Will Be Excited

A real build mandate. This is an opportunity to create the operating architecture, not simply inherit a mature CI program or run a calendar of events.

Visible business impact. The work directly affects plant capacity, reliability, cost, quality, waste, margin, and customer confidence.

Leadership leverage. Success means building the capability of supervisors and plant leaders so improvement becomes part of how the facility operates.

A path to broader influence. Once Plymouth demonstrates adoption and sustainment, proven practices can shape common standards across the regional network.

Support for meaningful change. The role works with engaged plant and regional leaders while retaining the autonomy to challenge long-standing methods and establish stronger discipline.

Why This Role Matters

Plymouth does not need more disconnected improvement activity. It needs one management system that converts recurring loss into governed action, develops leaders who can sustain the work, and makes operational value visible. The CI Manager will help the plant create more reliable performance today while building a repeatable model for stronger execution across the regional network.

BUILD A BETTER OPERATING SYSTEM. BUILD CAPABILITY THAT LASTS.