Continuous Improvement Specialist

JONES DAIRY FARM.•Fort Atkinson, WI

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Continuous Improvement Specialist supports the Continuous Improvement Manager by leading and supporting projects that improve safety, quality, throughput, cost, and reduce waste across manufacturing operations. This position spends significant time on the production floor using Lean, Six Sigma, root cause analysis, standard work, and data-driven problem solving to eliminate waste, strengthen the Management Operating System, and help sustain improvements day-to-day.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a related field.
2+ years of manufacturing experience.
Prior exposure to Lean or continuous improvement tools such as kaizen, 5S, value stream mapping, standard work, or root cause analysis.
Strong computer skills with a high-level proficiency in MS office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
Solid basic statistics and comfort working with numbers.

Nice To Haves

Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Green Belt, or other continuous improvement training.
Food manufacturing experience.
Demonstrated experience leading or co-leading improvement projects with documented results in uptime, waste reduction, changeover reduction, labor efficiency, yield, or cost savings.
Power BI, Ignition, Redzone, Maximo, Sage, or similar system experience.

Responsibilities

Lead and/or support continuous improvement projects on key production lines and value streams to improve safety, quality, throughput, uptime, yield, labor efficiency, and waste reduction.
Pull, review, and analyze data from Power BI, Redzone, Maximo, Sage, and other plant systems to identify loss drivers and validate improvement opportunities.
Build and maintain basic reports and visuals, including Pareto charts, run charts, and simple dashboards, for use in daily, weekly, and monthly operational reviews.
Support standard setting through time studies, observations, rate validation, changeover reviews, and analysis of waste, giveaway, inedible, and other operational targets.
Spend significant time on the production floor observing processes, talking with operators, supervisors, and mechanics, and validating actual work practices against assumed work practices.
Create and update standard work, SOPs, visual work instructions, checklists, one-point lessons, and other documentation needed to sustain improvements.
Train and coach team members on basic continuous improvement tools such as 5S, 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, standard work, and root cause analysis.
Track continuous improvement actions from meetings and projects, follow up with owners and management, and help maintain momentum through completion.
Quantify project benefits, including labor, yield, uptime, material usage, waste reduction, and cost savings, and maintain a simple project pipeline and benefits tracker.
Effectively communicate and collaborate with all levels of the organization.
Accept special projects and complete them promptly.
Must be able to work 10-hour days and 6 to 7-day weeks as needed.