| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Operations |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | Vice President Operations |
| Direct reports | Business Excellence Executive |
| Experience | 8 to 12 years, including at least 4 years in business excellence, quality or improvement roles |
Business Excellence Manager job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Business Excellence Manager
Department: Operations
Reports to: Vice President Operations
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Business Excellence Manager runs the company's improvement system: the excellence framework, annual strategy deployment, performance scorecards and a portfolio of improvement projects. In India the role often prepares the company for business excellence assessments based on models such as the CII-EXIM Bank model or TQM frameworks, and trains teams in Lean and Six Sigma. A good BE manager makes improvement a routine management habit rather than a once-a-year award exercise.
Key responsibilities
- Run the annual strategy deployment process that turns company goals into department objectives, measures and targets.
- Maintain the balanced scorecard or management dashboard, and chair the monthly review of department performance.
- Lead self-assessments against the chosen excellence model, find the gaps and agree improvement plans with department heads.
- Prepare the application and evidence for external business excellence assessments, and coordinate the assessors' site visits.
- Build the improvement pipeline of Kaizen, Lean and Six Sigma projects, and select projects by expected impact.
- Train and certify employees as Yellow Belts and Green Belts, and mentor their projects through to completion.
- Audit whether completed improvements are sustained after six months, and reopen those that have slipped.
- Run the suggestion scheme and improvement competitions, making sure good ideas get implemented and not only recognised.
- Benchmark key processes against other units or companies through visits, industry forums and published practices.
- Report business excellence progress and maturity to the leadership team every quarter.
Requirements
- Engineering or management graduate
- Six Sigma Black Belt from a recognised body
- Trained assessor for a business excellence model is an advantage
- 8 to 12 years, including at least 4 years in business excellence, quality or improvement roles
KRAs and KPIs for a Business Excellence Manager
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Strategy deployment | Every department has approved objectives and measures by the end of April |
| Assessment maturity | Self-assessment score improves in each annual assessment cycle |
| Improvement savings | Verified savings from improvement projects at or above the annual target |
| Capability building | Annual Green Belt certification target met, with every certified belt completing a project |
| Sustenance | At least 90 percent of completed improvements still in place at the six-month audit |
| Review discipline | Monthly performance reviews held in every department with actions recorded |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Minitab, MS Excel and Power BI, Balanced scorecard template, Improvement project tracker, Value stream mapping templates.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Head of Strategy, General Manager Operations, Head of Quality
Interview questions for a Business Excellence Manager
- How would you deploy a company goal of 15 percent cost reduction down to department measures?
- Tell me about an improvement that did not last. What did you change in your approach afterwards?
- How do you decide which improvement projects deserve a Black Belt?
- How do you prepare differently for a self-assessment and an external assessment?
- A department head sees business excellence as extra paperwork. How do you win them over?
- How do you verify the savings a project team claims?
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What does a business excellence manager do?
A business excellence manager runs the company's system for getting better every year. That includes strategy deployment, department scorecards, monthly reviews, self-assessments against an excellence model, Lean and Six Sigma training and a pipeline of improvement projects with verified savings. The role reports to a senior operations or strategy leader.
What is the difference between business excellence and quality management?
Quality management focuses on meeting product or service standards and running the quality system, such as ISO audits and inspections. Business excellence is wider: it covers strategy deployment, leadership, people, processes and results across the whole company, and uses quality tools as only one part of a larger improvement framework.
Which certification is useful for a business excellence career?
A Six Sigma Black Belt from a recognised body is the most common requirement for manager roles. Training as an assessor for a business excellence model, Lean practitioner courses and Kaizen facilitation experience add weight. Many BE managers start with a Green Belt and earn the Black Belt through completed projects.