Director, Operational Excellence

Cardinal Health Canada, with over 1,400 employees nationwide, is an essential link in the Canadian healthcare supply chain, providing over 70,000 products to healthcare facilities and medical professionals across the country.

We are currently seeking a Director, Operational Excellence to join our leadership team. Reporting to the Vice-President, Operations & Supply Chain, Canada, the role is responsible for identifying and executing against performance improvement opportunities, enabling successful transformations across the region, and using contemporary process improvement techniques while building people capabilities.

The Director will execute the strategic goals for operational excellence within the North Region including the selection and development of resources, managing the project pipeline, and ensuring ongoing communication on progress against goals.  Leading a team of professional regional analysts (3 direct reports), the Director works closely with Operations & Supply Chain leaders to develop and meet key performance indicators (KPI’s) and implement procedures to achieve efficiency targets. The role interacts with internal leaders and external stakeholders and persuades others into agreement of making significant impactful changes to ways of executing, measuring and reporting.  

This role supports the Operations Leadership team in leading performance improvement projects according to business priorities and in driving the continuous improvement culture across all distribution centers (9 in Canada and 2 in the U.S.). Other key responsibilities include leading the automation strategy and enhancements across all sites, tiered accountability program, productivity tracking, kaizen and root cause analysis support, Operational Excellence training and compliance, and project management.

For more information on what it is like to work for us, please watch this video: Cardinal Health - Wings.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, develop and coach the team of regional analysts

• Assess current business performance and opportunities to deploy and balance operational excellence resources and projects

• Track and trend budget, productivity and efficiency targets to ensure year over year improvements

• Partner with the global Center of Excellence on large scale initiatives, KPI tracking and best practice sharing

• Assess, develop and refine key performance indicators and implement procedures to achieve efficiency and cost savings targets

• Act as a change agent to bring about significant improvement in safety, quality, service and cost, meeting stakeholder commitments and driving the culture of continuous improvement

• Drive the understanding and application of Lean principles, systems, and tools across distribution sites, transportation and Supply Chain functions

• Conduct special data analysis projects as requested by Operations Leadership team

• Lead teams to address business process problems and design new processes to achieve results. Facilitate problem-solving sessions and support action plans

• Mentor and train Kaizen leaders and support cross-functional or large-scale Kaizen events

• Lead the automation strategy for our Distribution Centers and support other complex or large scope projects and initiatives

What is expected of you at this level:

• Be a strategic thinker and identify solutions that ensure lean principles are implemented within the larger Operations, Transportation and Supply Chain team

• Balance authoritative and persuasive skills with a change management mindset to develop and ensure new best practices and processes are implemented cross-functionally

• Lead discussion and implementation of strategic improvement opportunities centered around return on investment (ROI)

• Understand and assess financial methodologies with short and long-range cost reduction strategies

• Apply and coach advanced lean methods to improve processes and track results

• Demonstrate significant experience in managing cross-functional improvement projects with lean six sigma tools and understanding of Cardinal Health’s business strategy

• Partner with multiple cross functional teams, business practitioners, and/or senior leaders and take actions to synthesize findings, implement improvement recommendations, and lead initiatives

• Act as a key business leader in the development of functional strategy and recommend policies, processes and tools to achieve goals and drive cultural change

• Persuade others into agreement in sensitive situations while maintaining positive relationships

• Demonstrate strong communication skills and the ability to connect with and influence internal and external stakeholders

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field, advanced degree preferred

• 12 years of experience in Supply Chain, Operations, Manufacturing, Engineering or related field

• 7 years of experience in Kaizen/Lean/Six Sigma/Continuous Improvement strategy, implementations, recommendations

• Certification as a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt, recommended

• 5 years of project and process management experience

• 5 years of people management experience

• Advanced proficiency in English (French an asset); strong communication skills with ability to build relationships across all levels of the organization (hourly distribution employees to senior leaders)

• Strong financial acumen and analytical skills

• Change agent with ability to drive continuous improvement culture

• Travel <25%

Cardinal Health is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities.

Cardinal Health is committed to accommodating applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Our Human Resources team is responsible for working with applicants requesting accommodation at any stage of the hiring process.

#LI-Hybrid

Candidates who are back-to-work, people with disabilities, without a college degree, and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Cardinal Health supports an inclusive workplace that values diversity of thought, experience and background. We celebrate the power of our differences to create better solutions for our customers by ensuring employees can be their authentic selves each day. Cardinal Health is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, pregnancy, veteran status, marital status, creed, status with regard to public assistance, genetic status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.