Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company which provides a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries. The Group believes it is the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and for supporting clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the key emerging players in specialty clinical diagnostic testing in Europe and the USA.

SUMMARY OF ROLE AND OBJECTIVES

Support the further development and implementation of Lean in Eurofins, by driving Lean projects, coaching and supporting local Lean teams and by further developing the “Eurofins Lean Academy”. The focus of Eurofins Lean projects is on sustainable change, not only on quick wins. While Lean Program Leaders use a clearly defined methodology that is adapted to the service industry, the focus is on systematic problem solving and coaching, and not on dogmatic implementation of all classical Lean tools or on just optimizing specific pain points. Strong project and change management skills are required for successful Lean implementation in a decentralized organization such as Eurofins.

ROLE & OBJECTIVES:

·      Support the further development of the “Eurofins Lean Academy”. This methodology and training program is a practical collection of methods, tools and best practices specifically adapted to the testing laboratory world. It covers all relevant topics, from how to analyse a lab, identify and quantify improvement opportunities to finally define and implement appropriate solutions to increase quality, reduce turn-around-time and save cost.
The Lean Program Leader will, with support of the Permanent Improvement Programmes team and other Eurofins experts, own and develop or refine parts of the methodology, create new training modules, provide training, review proposals from colleagues and lead/ participate in workshops to challenge and further complete the methodology.

·      Support the dissemination of the “Eurofins Lean Academy” through coaching in projects, delivering of trainings, organization of onboarding events to visit sites, organizing knowledge sharing calls with a wider Lean expert network and contributing to specific Lean communications as newsletters.

·      Launch and run Lean projects. Based on the defined methodology, a Lean Program Leader structures and launches, and for more complex projects also co-runs, the Lean projects jointly with the local Lean Project Manager. To ensure impact, the Lean Program Leader always participates in the structuring, the diagnostic, the generation of the project plan, and in most cases, the implementation of the pilot phase.

At start of the project, the Lean Program Leader will, together with the lab Lean project manager, run the day-to-day project management of these pilots, including team management, creation and tracking/ monitoring of project plans, escalation of challenges, managing interfaces with local teams, identifying and testing solutions to identified operational issues, documenting overall impact, etc.

Over time, when the local resources are more mature and grow in autonomy, the corporate Lean Program Leader ensures all elements are in place to ensure sustainable results (including standardization, 5S, performance management, problem solving, a proper governance) and progressively reduces his active involvement, typically leading to ongoing distant support on a regular but infrequent basis.

·      Support mature lean projects and coach experienced Local Lean Project Managers. Some Labs have experienced Lean Project Managers, which do not need intensive support to run their projects. They still benefit from periodic coaching on the issues they might encounter. The Lean Program Leader supports and coaches these local managers, and ensures systematic interaction and sharing of experiences and best practices. This link to local operations also supports the further development of the common Lean methodology and best practice documentation of the Lean Academy.
Participates in the selection of local Lean project managers, by supporting local HR departments in assessing the Lean knowledge and experience of candidates and participating in the recruitment decision process.

·      Define best practices. The Lean Program Leader will ensure that all identified and successfully tested practices are documented so they can be shared with other labs, using standardised templates.

·      Support or lead other Permanent Improvement Programmes initiatives. Depending on the workload and team composition, a Lean Program Leader might also support or lead other initiatives of the Permanent Improvement Programmes group. He is expected to be a flexible team member of the “consulting pool” that can be assigned to different projects or initiatives, depending on the overall situation.

• Engineering or economy degree
• Total professional experience > 5 years, at least 3 of which working on lean or operational excellence projects 
• Extensive formal and on-the-job training of Lean/ operational excellence concepts and at least 3 years of implementation experience
• English must. For the European role, French and German nice to have
• Strong change management skills required.
• Good interpersonal skills (team management, written and oral communication, presentation skills) are at least as important as the functional skills, as the operational excellence program is all about changing the way people work. 

The job can be located in any city in Europe - preferably close to current Eurofins Site with an easy access to airport.