IKEA Industry, part of the Supply organisation inside Inter IKEA Group, is the world’s largest producer of wooden furniture and is an integrated part of the IKEA value chain. Industry has 38 production units across 21 sites in 8 countries, with about 15 500 co-workers. Every year, Industry produces around 100 million pieces of furniture for IKEA customers.

We are a diverse group of people working together, sharing the humanistic IKEA values. The values are the foundation of our work. By living them, we form the unique IKEA culture where team spirit and togetherness are key. In a constantly growing IKEA, every individual is taken care of, respected, acknowledged and included. People are themselves and respecting the uniqueness of every individual makes IKEA better.

We are now looking for an IKEA Industry Operational Excellence Manager!  

Industry is in the middle of an exciting journey where we have integrated into Supply to further optimise the IKEA value chain with the purpose to make IKEA more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable for the many.

Today the Operational Excellence function includes Supply Chain, IKEA Production System (IPS) which is our take on lean, Business processes, Quality and Maintenance. The role of the function is both to secure best possible execution within the areas of responsibility and to support, challenge and strengthen the units in how we are operating our business. The Operational excellence function plays an important role to constantly try to do things a little bit better tomorrow than today, with the ambition to increase the speed of our internal improvement work. Different tools and standards are used to support to do the work as efficiently as possible, reaching the best possible performance.

Who are you?

We believe that you share and are a true role model for the IKEA values and that you have a passion to develop both business and people. You lead with a holistic view, always acting with the best interest of the customer, total IKEA value chain and the operational business in mind.  Your leadership is based on a strong belief in involving people and delegate responsibility as close as possible to the value creation.

To be successful in this role you have experience from leading senior leaders and developing both business and people within a global organisation, in combination with industrial knowledge and/or supply chain competence. You naturally build networks and connect organisations, teams and people, with the ambition to always become better. In addition to this you also have a strong business drive and are result oriented and for you it is natural to lead and live in change. It is important that you have a solid interest in and passion for IKEA Production System,. Your desire to find new opportunities, to make things happen, to create togetherness, belonging and trust within cross-functional and remote team is strong. You have excellent strategic skills as well as great communication skills which allows you to interact naturally on all levels in the organisation.

Your main responsibilities:

• Responsible and accountable for Operational excellence function in IKEA Industry
• Participate in the strategic development of Industry with an extra focus on the operational excellence area
• As the part of the IKEA Industry management team actively contribute to the business success for the whole organisation.
• Prepare and secure succession within the area of Operational excellence and with an overall responsibility for building a process for continuous development within the area.
• Together with your team and colleagues contribute to reaching the ambitions of the Industry direction to ensure the business contributes to affordability, accessibility and sustainability for the IKEA customer. 
• Build and develop professional, trustful, efficient and long-term relationships with stakeholders in different parts of the organisation as well as with relevant external partners, based on a shared business model, trust and transparency.
• Secure that Industry contributes to the development of external IKEA home furnishing suppliers by sharing knowledge and ways of working, mainly via IPS with the purpose to further strengthen the IKEA competitiveness on the market.
• Drive a strong people agenda by leading, developing, coaching and empowering co-workers and teams.

You will report to the IKEA Industry Manager and you will be leading the Operational Excellence organisation. The position is located at the Industry office in Malmö.

We look forward to receiving your application latest on March 6, 2023.