Vice President Operations - Saskatoon, SK, Canada - Crestline Coach Ltd.

Description

This is a great opportunity for someone with your experience and background to play a critical role in our client company's success. We are an executive search practice involved in the recruitment of top leadership talent in key leadership roles for our clients. This role will be attractive to an experienced leader who has breadth of operational leadership experiences including abilities beyond functional accountabilities such as aftermarket, sales, continuous improvement and/or product development (etc.). Preferably proven experiences in a mid sized company, privately run and growth oriented.

Our client is an industry leader and Canadian organization, a trusted, recognizable brand with known excellence related to life saving specialty vehicles with high quality products sold all over the world and known for their ability to provide high quality ambulances with no comprises on the road to safety. Part of the Demers-Braun-Crestline-Medix family of companies, Crestline is a global leader in ambulance and specialty vehicle manufacturing and a Canadian distributor of small to mid-sized commercial buses. Like the Demers, Braun, and Medix brands, Crestline is driven by world class safety and innovation, and built to stand up to the most demanding performance and durability standards. Crestline exceeds and inspires today's industry standards. The organization espouses strong values oriented to being customer centric with firm commitment to excellence. The organizations' mission is to make life better, one relationship and one vehicle at a time. They are committed to being a partner of choice, dedicated to safety and innovation, delivering an exceptional customer experience through empowered employees.

The Demers, Braun and Crestline ambulance brands were combined in 2018 creating the second largest North American ambulance design and manufacturing company platform and is backed by private equity partners Clearspring Capital and Caisse de Depot. The Medix Brand was added to portfolio in 2021. Committed to safety and driven by innovation the group provides a comprehensive line of Type I, II and III ambulances designed to meet the needs of the North American EMS marketplace and is a leading distributor of commercial buses to the Canadian municipal and retail market segments.

Our client is seeking a Vice President, Operations which is a significant operational executive role that is responsible for providing leadership and direction of the Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Lean & Quality teams while ensuring alignment of functional priorities with the strategic and financial objectives of the company. This is a significant leadership opportunity with the ability to make a positive leadership contribution to an innovative organization. The organization is in an enviable position being within healthcare and related sectors with constant/consistent product demand that also saves lives.

As a key member of the site senior leadership team, this individual is an active participant in the formulation and execution of a product development roadmap and manufacturing strategy which supports the company's strategic and operational goals. As a key member of leadership, the VP Operations will maintain continuous and strategic collaboration with leaders across a number of functional areas including HR, Product Engineering, Sales, Finance, etc. This role will be based in Saskatoon, SK (or surrounding area). Our client is open to providing relocation assistance.

Overview of Role

Reporting to the President, Canada, the Vice President, Operations will be responsible for driving operational execution throughout the organization in line with the business strategy. This role will be responsible for all aspects of operations, including manufacturing, supply chain, inventory management, planning & scheduling, manufacturing engineering, quality control and environmental health & safety. Will be a member of the Site Leadership Team responsible for the Saskatoon site performance. The role will lead direct reports in the areas of Supply Chain & Logistics, Quality, Health & Safety, Manufacturing, Planning and Project Management, overseeing multiple product lines and functions with 220+ employees.

This role will offer transformational leadership to pursue excellence and adapt to a changing market, a growing customer base, an aggressive labour market and to help grow the employees and leaders. This is within a high paced enviable business environment that has products/vehicles that are oriented to saving lives.

SCOPE

Key Leadership Actions

• Effective people leadership and development through an eye for attraction and retention, as well as ability to achieve employee engagement across all levels of the operation.
• This position requires both strategic and tactical delivery for establishing and executing on operational plans which a) reduce product labour and material costs, (b) optimize working capital invested in inventory and work in-process, (c) achieve product quality objectives, and (d) support customer satisfaction and profitable business growth through cost effective management of capacity and lead times.

Organizational Structure, Capabilities and Capacity

• Establish and maintain high performance and cost-effective manufacturing, supply chain and a quality organization and third-party relationships.
• Prioritize the safety, health and well-being of this role and the team.

Supply Chain Management

• Provide direction and support to supply chain leadership in the development of strategies and operating plans that support the company's material and logistics procurement and cost targets, inventory control, and continuity of supply requirements, etc.

Manufacturing, Quality and Continuous Improvement

• Provide support to the Manufacturing Manager to ensure all manufacturing operation activities required to meet production demands, achieve cost targets, establish continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide support to the Lean and Quality Manager to establish a high-quality, continuous improvement culture that applies problem solving tools with value stream mapping/Lean techniques.

Strategic Planning, Budgeting and Financial Management

• Actively participate in the development of the overall company budget, key initiatives and the ongoing monitoring and development of corrective actions based on the performance achieved.

Key Skills & Qualifications

Candidates must have a blend of expertise outlined in the candidate profile and will include all, or a good portion, of the following related to exceptional strategic business acumen along with operational depth:

• 15 to 20 years of relevant experience in an operational field related to manufacturing, in addition to a minimum of 10 years experience in a progressive operational leadership role with strategic business depth.
• A proven people leader with excellent knowledge of the manufacturing industry. Must have core competencies related to flow-based production and tact-time related integration environments that are also focused on high quality custom products.
• Knowledgeable of Lean Manufacturing and production practices and applications. Related specialty vehicle manufacturing/production integration experience is a distinct asset. Other related sectors such as specialty trucks/automotive/agricultural/military/mining and/or capital equipment or related manufacturing environments will also be considered.
• Proven leadership and ability to mobilize multiple functional teams with the ability to inspire.
• Know how to support all facets of supply chain management for the operations.
• Full profit and loss accountability expertise with a minimum of 5 years of experience to effectively manage financial and operational objectives.
• Academic foundation preferred is a university degree in a relevant field as industrial engineering, production engineering, operations management. MBA preferred.

Personal Profile

• Impactful grounded executive leader. Demonstrates values that align with the organization's corporate culture: Be Customer-Centric, Inspire Leadership, Show Integrity, Embody Family Spirit, and Pursue Excellence.
• Transformational leadership to drive change in a fast-paced environment, while maintaining the culture and employee engagement. Evolutionary style towards transformational leadership for sustained returns during times of strong backlog of client needs and overall product demand.
• Leadership and team-building skills: conflict management; effective team building; coaching and development; managing performance; time management; decision making and problem solving.
• Should understand how the product development process works and is mechanically inclined to port their skills to improve product development initiatives within a leadership framework.
• Must have a valid passport with ability to travel within North America.

We will consider individuals with varied experience levels and across a host of industries. Please also be assured that further information will be provided in the way of a macro position profile (this version is abridged). Please call or write to me in the strictest of confidence. We also appreciate all applicants' investment of time; however, only high potential match candidates will be contacted.

MTCG & ASSOCIATES INC. (

Stephanie Brooks, CHRL

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