Area Operational Excellence Manager

Agropur•Le Sueur, MN

3d•Onsite

About The Position

We are looking for an Area Operational Excellence Manager in Le Sueur, MN. The mission of the Area Operational Excellence Manager will be to implement various continuous improvement and Focus Improvements (FI) initiatives to achieve manufacturing excellence. Primarily, the incumbent will manage, and support assigned plants to execute the Agropur Operating System (AOS); the person will be an important leader in plants coaching assigned responsibility of new integrated working methods, tools, and processes. The person will act as a key coach to their assigned plants and act as servant leader to guide senior management plant members in specific program activities, systems and tools.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or other relevant field required. Equivalent combination of education and/or experience may be considered.
Minimum five (5) years of experience in manufacturing (continuous improvement, production, maintenance) focused on performance management required.
Understand union culture and experience working with an unionized environment.
Experience in implementing change management strategies required.
Knowledge of problem-solving processes: A3, RCA, PDCA, etc. required.

Nice To Haves

Preferred lean/six sigma accreditation.

Responsibilities

Implements a Lean philosophy using the Agropur Operating System: Loss tree analysis, Daily Management System (DMS) tools, unified problem solving, SMED, etc.
Coach and act as a servant leader to all elements related to the implementation of the Agropur Operating System to their assigned plants; be mindful to a change management approach that is in line with Agropur’s values.
Support onsite in implementing the plant management’s strategic plan by working closely with union partners and managers, while developing the teams and resources required to meet autonomy and accountability objectives.
Work in cooperation with the Director, Operational Improvement (Corporate) to develop area cluster strategies based on the site’s financial and operational evaluations; thus allowing to identify and FI projects manage initiatives in line with plants strategic plan and SQCDME scorecard.
Facilitate work sessions onsite to support activities in line with Agropur Operating System; including the ability to facilitate kaizens when required.
Facilitate creation of 90 Days actions plan with assigned Plants directors to address Losses based on data to ensure SQCDME goals, as well as supporting the OGSM governance with plants’ managers.
Helps to maintain the requirements for food quality, safety and defense.
Level of interactions with various business partners (internal and external) at Senior level plant management.