Skip to content
Founder · Zaid Hassoneh

Machine operator in 2005. Built a $220M USD plant by 2022.

Still the same person who knows what it means to clean glass off the floor at 3 a.m.

Brisbane, QLD, Australia20+ years in container glass15 years at O-I GlassEnglish & Arabic
Zaid Hassoneh, founder of Lean Glass, on a hot end

The story

I started on the floor at O-I Brisbane in 2005. Machine Operator, then Job Change Crew, then Shift Manager, then Forming & Forehearth Specialist. Every position. Every shift. Every job change. The first years on the hot end were the most important of my career — long before I had any authority, I had to understand the rhythm of an IS machine, the smell of a forehearth out of spec, and the way an experienced operator can hear a problem before any KPI catches it.

Fifteen years at O-I Glass took me through Brisbane, Melbourne, Vietnam and Malaysia — Flexible Manufacturing Unit Manager, SMED SME, Continuous Improvement Manager APAC, Information Systems & Business Analyst APAC, then Plant Manager. The work I did running job change in Brisbane in 2015–2016 won O-I's Most Improved Job Change by Plant — Globally award for 2016 (plus Q1 and Q3). That methodology is the foundation of the Lean Glass Job Change Tool.

In 2019 I left O-I to help build something new. Arglass Yamamura — a $220M USD US-Japan joint venture in Valdosta, Georgia, the first new container glass plant built in the United States in 16 years. I was Senior Plant Engineer through construction, then Head of Operations through commissioning and ramp-up, then VP of Operations once the plant hit steady-state. Empty paddock to running plant. Hiring the local team. Designing the SOPs. Making sure the plant ran the way it was supposed to.

Lean Glass was conceived watching a job change burn another shift of pack rate — knowing that every plant in the network was making the same mistake at the same moment with no shared learning. Paper checklists. Tribal knowledge. A vendor sales deck. None of it was working. I founded Lean Glass to be the consultancy I wished existed when I was on the floor at 3 a.m. Independent. Vendor-neutral. No equipment to sell. No commissions. Just findings, methodology, and a system that runs without us.

The work demonstrated through Lean Glass is what led Xpar Vision to bring me on as their Global Consultant in 2022 — supporting their customers worldwide on hot-end intelligence systems. I currently also lead Global OpEx & Analytics for Baxter International (Fortune 500 pharmaceutical), bringing the same standards across industries.

Why vendor-neutral matters

Most container glass consultancies have equipment to sell — directly or through an OEM relationship. That structural conflict shapes their findings whether they intend it or not. I saw it from the inside as a global consultant for a hot-end intelligence vendor. Lean Glass is independent by design and discloses any prior commercial relationship up front. The product is the audit. Not the lead-gen for a vendor.

The Job Change Tool — origin

The Job Change Tool exists because changeovers are the single biggest source of controllable hot-end downtime and rejects, and every plant I have ever worked at relied on paper checklists and tribal knowledge to manage them. The Tool replaces that with one system: SKU Library, Live Execution, KPI Tracking. It is built directly on the O-I 2016 Most Improved Job Change Plant — Globally methodology, refined across the Arglass Yamamura greenfield commissioning, and validated globally through Xpar Vision consulting engagements.

See the Tool →

Key achievements

Numbers from the floor — verifiable on request, NDA-respecting where applicable.

+24.6 OEE points

Lifted OEE from 68.9% to 93.5%; adopted as best practice across all Australian plants.

−62% defects

Sustained reduction across the portfolio; $24.6M AUD savings.

97.6% PTPS

Brisbane plant's all-time shift Pack-To-Plant-Standard record.

−65% overtime

$1.7M AUD saving as Brisbane Plant Manager. −42% absenteeism ($860K AUD) at the same time.

13 APAC sites

Built the Power BI platform that became O-I's daily performance review standard across APAC, then globally.

$220M USD greenfield

Operations lead from empty paddock to running plant at Arglass Yamamura — the first new container plant built in the USA in 16 years.

Career — every position, every plant

Floor to VP. Brisbane to Vietnam to Valdosta. Verifiable on request.

2005 – 2006
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Machine Operator / Leading Hand

Started here. On the floor, running the IS machines, learning the trade from the ground up.

2006 – 2008
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Job Change Crew

Tradesman on the job change crew — the foundation for later SMED leadership.

2008 – 2010
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Shift Manager

24/7 shift operations of 23 operators, inspectors and tradesmen. Achieved Brisbane's highest PTPS at 97.6%.

2010 – 2011
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Forming & Forehearth Specialist

Approached for the specialist role on the back of technical depth gained as Shift Manager.

2011 – 2015
O-I Glass · Melbourne

Flexible Manufacturing Unit Manager (FMUM)

Designed the Emergency Interceptor Button, rolled out Australia-wide. Rewrote the mould design standard for CUB jobs across all Australian plants.

2015 – 2016
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Job Change Manager / SMED SME

Awarded O-I's Most Improved Job Change by Plant — Globally for 2016 (plus Q1 and Q3 quarterly awards). The methodology that became the Job Change Tool.

2016 – 2018
O-I Glass · Multi-site APAC

Continuous Improvement Manager / Total System Cost Champion APAC

Initiated 24 Total System Cost projects in 2018. Delivered $2.2M+ AUD — $1.2M above target. Replicated by other APAC plants.

2017 – 2018
O-I BJC JV · Vietnam & Malaysia

Production Support Manager

Technical and managerial support for the joint venture plants in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Johor Bahru. Trained operators, specialists and managers on Australian standard practices.

2018 – 2019
O-I Glass · APAC

Information Systems & Business Analyst APAC

Built the Power BI platform used by 13 APAC O-I sites for daily performance reviews. Adopted globally by O-I.

2019 – 2020
O-I Glass · Brisbane

Plant Manager

Ran the 24/7 operation of a 2-furnace, 5-line plant — 244 employees, 144KT annual output, ~180 job changes per year across Amber, Flint and EM Green. Cut overtime by 65% ($1.7M AUD) and absenteeism by 42% ($860K AUD).

2019 – 2020
Arglass Yamamura · Valdosta, GA, USA

Senior Plant Engineer / Head of Continuous Improvement

Led the construction phase. Specified equipment, supported commissioning, transitioned the site to steady-state.

2020 – 2021
Arglass Yamamura · Valdosta, GA, USA

Head of Operations

Operations lead through commissioning and ramp-up of the $220M USD US-Japan greenfield — first new glass-container plant in the United States in 16 years.

2021 – 2022
Arglass Yamamura · Valdosta, GA, USA

VP of Operations

Promoted to VP once the plant reached steady-state. Full P&L accountability for the running operation.

2022 – 2023
Xpar Vision · Groningen, Netherlands HQ (remote)

Global Consultant

Helped Xpar customers globally get more out of their hot-end intelligence systems — converting visibility into better OEE and fewer defects.

2022 – Present
Lean Glass

Founder

Vendor-neutral container glass consultancy. The work demonstrated through Lean Glass led Xpar Vision to bring me on as Global Consultant.

Education & languages

Education

  • MBA / MISM, Swinburne University, Melbourne — paused when relocated for South East Asia operations
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

Languages

  • English — native
  • Arabic — Jordanian family background; understands fluently, speaks conversationally

Open to international relocation: Middle East, Africa, Europe, South East Asia.

Engaged across 80+ countries

Across O-I, Verallia, Ardagh, Vidrala, Şişecam, BA Glass, Vetropack, Stölzle, Heinz-Glas, Wiegand-Glas, Bormioli, Saverglass, Encirc and Gerresheimer-scale plants — and the regional players that make container glass run from Lima to Lagos to Lyon. Some engagements are public; most are under NDA. Verifiable on request.

Talk to the operator.

30 minutes with the founder. Bring a problem — leave with a direction. Every Lean Glass engagement is led personally.