The Process Optimization Manager will lead the internal performance improvement of processes within the plant. This position will be responsible for optimizing food processing systems and materials from receipt to ending finished good production, tracking, reporting and delivering the plant objectives related to process performance, waste reduction and loss elimination. Six Sigma Black Belt Certification highly desired along with consumer package goods food or beverage CPG manufacturing industry experience.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead process optimization and loss reduction activities within assigned plant. Guide team on how to navigate organization processes to get work done; ensure team members get support required to be successful; build trust and accountability to shared results and sense of team; insist on best effort; motivate by appreciation.
• Identifies system design improvements and leads technical solution development including design, costing, capital attainment and implementation of solutions.
• Identifies and incorporates industry best practice solutions related to food processing, fluid handling, material loss reduction, monitoring, tracking and system design. Develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures with processing systems and departments within the plant
• Interact with plant quality, engineering, maintenance, continuous improvement and operations departments on a daily basis.
• Analyzes key performance metrics including cycle times, yields, waste, reliability and cost.
• Monitors and corrects production order variances in SAP on a daily, weekly, monthly basis
• Develops and maintains loss tree for material losses within process Prepares Daily, Weekly, and monthly performance and loss reports to guide improvement activity.
• Partners with finance and materials teams to perform material cycle counts to understand losses Complete ad-hoc analysis and reporting. Ability to audit / analyze master data and BOM’s; participate with cross functional teams to continuously improve processes and systems and provide recommendations for other areas if appropriate.
• Develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures for process areas including maintaining user support documentation
• Assess internal controls and compliance in following company practices and procedures in the areas of responsibility.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Management/Business/Engineering preferred
• Process Engineering experience related to system optimization, design, loss prevention and elimination required
• Six Sigma Black Belt preferred
• Deep working knowledge of statistical process control and variation reduction of statistical systems
  
  Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
  

• Program Leadership – Establish vision, exhibit “can do” attitude, treat adversity as opportunity vs setback, manage emotional tenor of team, hold individuals accountable to deadlines/timelines, establish trust, establish importance of results vs effort, promote healthy conflict, and require team’s commitment to shared decisions
• Communications – Establish/use standard formats for exchanging information; make communication action-oriented, concise, and timely; keep team focused and shut-down tangents; set agendas in advance and follow them; listen carefully and seek first to understand.
• Planning – Insist on clear, written scope statements; collaboratively plan projects with project team; have others create their own deadlines; create end-to-end timelines that reflects functional requirements and inter-dependencies; and manage project to timelines.
• Performance measurement & management – Collect and analyze status of project, require no-blame assessments of variances to plan, use plan to manage project, hold regular status meetings, encourage “no surprises,” measure and report performance vs plan.
• Risk management – Identify, work to mitigate/take advantage of, and respond to key risks; seek to understand probability of risk realization and impact; create contingencies; use past experiences and plan for them.
• Strong MS Excel knowledge
• Experience working in a large ERP system such as SAP helpful
• Ability to develop and implement policies and procedures