Lean Six Search Group
Specialties · Manufacturing & Tech Operations

No product,
no business.

Manufacturing and operational excellence are the foundation of countless companies and the engines that propel them forward. We settle for nothing less than exceptional talent.

The discipline

What this
function owns.

Your business is building products. Our business is building teams to build those products. We find the talent who help streamline operations, save you money, and genuinely make the world a better place. Driving improvements in your process is critical to success. It all starts with people. This is at the heart of our company and we know the right leaders to take your business to the next level.

Manufacturing and technical operations leaders are accountable for what the company actually delivers: cost, quality, safety, and uptime. We place plant directors, ops VPs, EHS heads, and production-quality leaders who hold all four in tension and still ship.

Sub-specialties

Where we search,
in this function.

01

Environmental, Health & Safety

The safety, environmental, and regulatory posture that protects people, planet, and licence to operate.

What good looks like
  • Drives a genuine safety culture, not just zero-incident metrics
  • Owns environmental compliance as strategic, not reactive
  • Builds EHS into the operating model, not bolted on
  • Treats audits and regulators as partners, not threats
02

Maintenance

Asset reliability, planned and unplanned maintenance, and the conversion of run-to-failure thinking into a predictive operating model.

What good looks like
  • Owns asset reliability as a P&L lever, not a cost centre
  • Builds reliability-centred maintenance practices that stick
  • Implements condition-based and predictive techniques pragmatically
  • Manages maintenance spend against actual asset risk profile
03

Production Quality

In-process quality, root-cause discipline, and the systems that prevent defects from reaching the customer.

What good looks like
  • Owns quality KPIs at every stage of the value chain
  • Drives root-cause analysis as a discipline, not a ritual
  • Manages supplier quality as an extension of internal quality
  • Builds the quality muscle of the wider organization
04

Operational Excellence

Lean and Six Sigma execution, continuous improvement at scale, and the cultural shift that makes improvement sustainable.

What good looks like
  • Drives continuous improvement as a business model, not a programme
  • Builds capability across the workforce, not just a CI team
  • Measures op-ex against business outcomes, not certifications
  • Aligns CI roadmap with the operational strategy
05

Plant Management

End-to-end plant accountability across safety, quality, output, cost, people, and the operating cadence that holds it all together.

What good looks like
  • Owns the plant P&L as a true general manager
  • Balances safety, quality, output, cost, and people in real time
  • Builds the leadership bench, not just delivers their own results
  • Translates corporate strategy into shop-floor reality
The operators

The operators we place in Manufacturing & Tech Ops.

Manufacturing leaders carry plant P&Ls and the people who deliver them. The senior operators we place have run multi-site operations through transformation, led EHS recoveries after incidents, and built operational excellence programmes that outlast the leader who started them.

Seniority bandPlant Manager · Director · VP · COO
Accountable for
  • 01Safety, quality, output, and cost at site or network level
  • 02Plant P&L ownership and operational performance
  • 03EHS posture and regulatory standing
  • 04Operational excellence and continuous improvement
  • 05Leadership bench across the operation
Recent placements

Leaders we’ve
recently placed.

Recent searches in manufacturing & techops. Titles and industries are public; the names sit confidentially with the client and the placed leader.

  • 01

    Senior Operations Director

    Medical DevicesUSA
  • 02

    Quality Control Director

    TransportationUSA
  • 03

    Global R&D Manager

    Food and BeveragesUAE
  • 04

    VP Manufacturing

    PharmaceuticalsUSA
  • 05

    Global EHS Director

    Q-CommerceLuxembourg
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