Israel Opex Leader
Operational Excellence Manager - Israel
About the Company Netafim is a global company, part of the "Orbia" group, an international corporation with approximately 23,000 employees worldwide. The company is engaged in the development and manufacture of drip irrigation and advanced irrigation solutions for the agricultural industry, and is considered the world's leading irrigation company. Beyond development and manufacturing, Netafim establishes fields, orchards, and greenhouses, provides services to farmers, and actively markets its products to more than 100 countries around the world. Today, Netafim has 19 factories and 2 recycling plants worldwide, including in Israel, and more than 33 subsidiaries. In Israel, three production sites operate: Hatzerim, Migdal, and Yifat. Additionally, the company headquarters is located in the center of the country, and another high-tech site operates in Yehiam. Netafim employs approximately 5,000 employees worldwide, including about 1,000 employees in Israel.
Main Mission Responsibility for leading the Operational Excellence field in Netafim's three production sites in Israel (Yifat, Migdal, and Hatzerim), while implementing a culture of continuous improvement, leading cross-organizational efficiency projects, and improving factory performance in the areas of safety, quality, supply, cost, and productivity. The role includes ongoing work with global Operational Excellence, factory managements, production, quality, engineering, and supply chain managers, alongside leading performance improvement programs and creating standardization between the sites.
Key Areas of Responsibility Leading the Operational Excellence program
- Leading the implementation of the OPEX strategy in Israel's factories in accordance with global directions of action
- Leading and implementing Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, 5S methodologies
- Building and leading annual work plans to promote Operational Excellence goals
- Ensuring standardization and sharing Best Practices between the factories
Leading improvement projects
- Identifying opportunities for improving operational and business processes
- Leading Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), GEMBA, A3 Problem Solving events
- Managing and guiding cross-functional improvement teams until measurable business results are achieved
- Leading savings, efficiency, and operational metric improvement projects as required
Developing organizational capabilities
- Training, support, and mentoring of managers and employees in the fields of Operational Excellence
- Building knowledge communities and an OPEX leaders network in the factories
- Strengthening employee engagement and leading organizational culture initiatives that support continuous improvement
- Leading professional forums on operational excellence topics
- Supporting organizational transformation processes and improving the excellence culture
Measurement and Control
- Defining success metrics and OPEX goals
- Monitoring operational KPI's and presenting trends to factory and regional managements
- Leading audits, maturity surveys, and action plans for performance improvement
- Preparing presentations and reports for management in Israel and for global Operational Excellence
Job Requirements
- Willingness to travel between the three sites: Migdal, Yifat, and Hatzerim
- Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering and Management / Engineering / another relevant field
- At least 5 years of experience in operational, engineering, or Operational Excellence roles
- At least 10 years of work experience in the manufacturing industry
- Proven experience in leading process improvement projects and implementing Lean methodologies
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt / Black Belt certification - a significant advantage
- Ability to lead processes and influence without direct managerial authority
- High analytical abilities and data-driven work
- Good ability for independent work alongside teamwork
- High proficiency in English
- Proficiency in AI tools and Office </body>