Associate Director Productivity

Location: The Woodlands, TX

Responsible for the Center of Excellence and the development of the Productivity Program aligned with the business to improve operation efficiency.

Partners with stakeholders at various levels of senior Engineers and Operations Directors/Managers to align and drive initiatives for helium rare gases distribution centers, refineries, and global distribution assets. Facilitates collaboration amongst process contributors. Leverages process owner expertise to identify improvement opportunities. Steers productivity efforts towards operating profit improvement projects. Demonstrates expertise in productivity methodology and philosophy. Ensures region-wide project control plan compliance and Power Steering utilization. Leads monthly Helium Rare Gas productivity meetings to facilitate ongoing project progress and identification of new projects. Achieves productivity financial goals by skillfully implementing productivity projects.

Principal Responsibilities:

• Establish and implement productivity targets.

• Understands and contributes to the overall strategic direction of the Global Helium Rare Gases business. Blended objective 50% Strategic Planning, 50% Tactical Project Execution.

• Implements action plans to meet the needs of the business and key stakeholders; drives bottom-line focus with productivity team and plants.

• Partners with business controllers to analyze and validate impact of productivity on the process.

• Manages productivity project queue, prioritizing the implementation of the highest impact projects in the shortest schedule first.

• Ensures region-wide project control plan compliance and Power Steering utilization.

• Solves complex problems. Identifies innovative solutions to systemic issues for rare gases projects as they interact with the Air Separation operations in the different geographies.

• Monitor HeRG plants performance and identify opportunities for improvement

• Provide technical support to operations as needed.

• Monitor and provide guidance and direction around the process safety within operations

• Perform site assessments to identify process safety gaps

• Lead technical SME’s providing guidance and direction

• Troubleshoot technical issues looking for production improvement or cost reduction

• Develop Standards and procedures regarding best practices

• Perform site assessments to measure operational performance, identifying opportunities for improvement and optimizing the current operation

• Provide technical support to other operating business regarding HeRG production process and best practices

• Lead the Project Management team and ensure projects are on schedule and on budget

• Perform site assessments as needed for project scope definition, execution quoting by vendors, project execution and start-up

• Lead the execution of small projects within operations

• Promote a Liaison between HeRG, LE and Operations

• Provide guidance and direction to the project management team

• Lead the Digital team, providing prioritization, business process knowledge and support

• Develop the digital program to improve the HeRG business process by developing tools and reports needed by organization

• Collaborates with Master Black-Belts to implement Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology, maximize replication opportunities with all Value Stream Leads (Production, Business, and Distribution), and identify and implement best practices.

• Engages resources outside regions to re-emphasize Lean Six Sigma learnings; and suggest improvement opportunities for applications and processes used by belts in project execution.

• Leads monthly Helium Rare Gas productivity meetings to update status of ongoing projects.

• Productivity Champion for the business. Partners with other Productivity Champions during Global Calls to share and identify opportunities for project replication.

• Establishes a strong leadership presence with the productivity team as well as with key stakeholders.

• Facilitates idea generation through collaborative efforts (e.g. brainstorming, lean events, and stakeholder engagement).