AFL manufactures industry-leading fiber optic cable, connectivity and accessories and provides engineering and installation services for some of the largest telecom customers in the world. Our company was founded in 1984 with a single fiber optic cable and today, we manufacture thousands of products, generate an excess of $1B in revenue, and employ more than 7,000 associates worldwide. At AFL, we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset. We hire and train each individual, investing in them to ensure success in their careers. With a commitment to professional development and growth, let us connect you to your next career opportunity.
Job Summary
The Tactical Operations Lead is a dynamic liaison through all aspects of the operation able to assist with material flow between critical bottleneck processes. They ensure components are staged for upcoming jobs, drive to resolution to downtime, assist with setup/startup, and cover operational processing gaps. This role supports a Zero Defect mindset coupled with improvement of operational efficiencies through tactical efforts that make gains in performance KPIs.
Responsibilities
- Schedule Compliance
- Facilitate material flow from upstream processes to ensure compliance to production schedule.
- Notify supervisor, department manager, process technician and/or process engineer to resolve issues in advance.
- Expedite critical orders that are behind due to prior schedule compliance issues.
- Participate in production planning meetings and execute on actions necessary to meet delivery of open sales orders.
- Ensure authorized rework is completed.
- Uptime
- Have knowledge of operator cross training matrix to reassign operators as needed to meet the daily schedule (staffing unplanned absences, providing assistance for abnormal conditions, performing rework, etc.).
- Operate lines as needed to support break relief, quality checks, process monitoring, call outs, vacation, etc.
- Ensure material prep work is completed in advance of next runs for each line (example: dryers filled, aramid & compound kitted, take-up reels, have materials delivered from warehouse).
- Identify and communicate instances where there is excessive or non-scheduled consumption of line time (slow changeovers, reduced line speed, maintenance or process engineering downtime, etc.).
- Resolve administrative barriers such as Oracle transaction issues, set-up document, and routing/BoM discrepancies.
- Escalate issues that are not able to be resolved with the direct assistance of the responsible support function (IT, process engineering, maintenance, materials, or other support groups).
- Operating Efficiency & Material Utilization:
- Ensure team is operating to established procedures and process requirements. Empowered to stop a line in the event of a quality upset.
- Facilitate teamwork to reduce setup and changeover times.
- Assign and verify that partials, shorts, and fallout (raw materials and/or sub-assemblies) are being consumed.
- Ensure materials and tooling are pre-staged by operator for the next run.
- Identify and support problem solving when there is excessive consumption of materials (problems with centering, material processing, etc.).
- Identify chronic issues that require second level support impacting efficiency and material utilization (over/understated planning assumptions, excess startup start-up allowances, etc.).
- Assist in the oversight and compliance to 6S standards within the operation.
- General Requirements
- Assist on-shift supervisor with operator-to-operator shift end hand-off to ensure clear communication to the on-coming supervisor and tactical operations lead.
- Execute other assignments from supervisor/manager.
- Adheres to and promotes the environmental, health & safety policies of AFL
- Required to maintain and grow certifications to contribute to production goals.
Personal Qualities
- Safety oriented with a solid understanding of cable manufacturing processes and a bias towards quality.
- Strong interpersonal and communication (listening, verbal, and written) skills; comfortable presenting information in a team setting; able to interact at all levels of the organization.
- Comfortable using basic math to analyze problems and make recommendations or decisions.
- Solid organization and time-management skills with the ability to set and achieve daily objectives with limited supervision. Biased towards action and results in order to achieve goals.
- Strong work ethic and exhibits behaviors that are a good example for others .
- Self-directed with little need for direct oversight on a continuous basis.
- Desire to grow into positions of increasing responsibility based on results and capabilities.
- Promotes a Zero Defect Culture
Qualifications
- High School Diploma or GED
- Must be a Certified Tech III or IV
- Currently certified in 2 distinct cable manufacturing disciplines (ex. Cabling and Sheathing) – preferred
- Minimum of 2+ years of manufacturing experience
- Understanding of manufacturing safety standards
- Oracle, QTS, and ETQ systems knowledge required
- Proficient user of Microsoft Office, Access, Word, and Excel
- Commitment to EHS Management Systems to include: general safety rules, PPE, hazard hound recognition, behavioral based safety, incident reporting requirements, and 6S
- Practical understanding of EHS and quality systems
Working Conditions
- Manufacturing floor environment
Business Requirements
- Responsibilities that are specific in nature to a particular business unit.
