Regional Manager - Manufacturing Excellence

Sika was first established in Malaysia in 1989 and full operations commenced in 1991 through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sika Kimia Sdn Bhd, with the completion of its local head office and production plant in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Since then, the company has gained a leading position in the country with the acceptance and endorsement of its products for construction and industrial applications by local and international proponents. In the Construction sector, our business activities cover the full spectrum of project types ranging from infrastructural development to buildings, from institutional facilities to manufacturing plants. We service our direct customers – concrete producers, contractors and distributors – and stay close to them through our central sales & marketing office in Petaling Jaya and a network of sales offices in Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. In 2014 our presence in the Malaysian construction continued to grow when our Ipoh Plant was built and running to meet customer demands. In Malaysia, our Industry Division is the clear market leader in the automotive glass replacement sector (AGR) and the “Sikaflex” brand is instantly recognized as a mark for quality, reliability and performance. In the automotive OEM sector, we are the approved supplier to top German car markets such as Mercedes Benz and BMW. Meanwhile, Sika leads the field in total bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protection solutions for bus, truck and rail vehicle manufacturing, and for the assembly of appliances, industrial equipment and building components. Sika Kimia Sdn Bhd currently employs more than 340 people in Sales & Marketing, Technical Service, Finance, HR & Administration, Laboratory, Production, Purchasing, Customer Service and Warehouse.

Job Description

• • Build a cultural change to the shopfloor to functional heads level through – Training, team building and improvement projects to learn LEAN culture.
  • Develop and implement a structured audit system across APAC factories, focusing on compliance with key manufacturing excellence standards like LEAN, VSM, 5S, and OEE.
  • Use periodic audits to uncover inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and non-value-added activities, highlighting gaps between current operations and industry best practices to drive continuous improvement.
  • Create detailed audit reports that summarize findings, highlight areas for improvement, propose actionable recommendations, conduct root cause analysis for major inefficiencies, and provide feedback and support to local teams in implementing corrective actions.
  • Prioritize audit findings based on impact and complexity, collaborate with plant managers to develop targeted action plans, and incorporate continuous improvement methodologies like Kaizen or DMAIC to address key gaps.
  • Use audit results to tailor training programs, facilitate LEAN-focused workshops, and launch improvement projects with a structured approach using tools such as Gemba walks and PDCA cycles.
  • Set up a KPI-based dashboard to monitor progress on audit findings, tracking key metrics like productivity, downtime reduction, and energy savings, with regular reporting to ensure timely issue resolution.
  • Conduct monthly or quarterly reviews with plant managers to assess corrective actions, escalate delays, and use visual management tools to ensure transparency and accountability in improvement efforts
  • Identify significant gaps between standard (state of the art) manufacturing and local Operations practices to create and guide for continuous improvement. Define the manufacturing road map for all APAC countries
  • Implement automation to achieve efficiencies but also to create attractive work environment
  • Reduce non-value-added processes e.g. moving quality inspection methods into the production process (inline testing)
  • Develop a region wide Manufacturing Excellence Management System including standards and related auditing activities to ensure compliance with requirements.
  • Support of the local R&D and Operations team to integrate new production technologies and to improve existing manufacturing processes
  • Transfer production know how and new technologies from Group or Regional level into the National factories