Process Improvement Manager

Blue Diamond Growers•Turlock, CA

3d•$103,000 - $133,700

About The Position

The Process Improvement Manager leads continuous improvement projects, margin enhancement initiatives, and plant capital projects to improve plant operations in partnership with Global Supply. The role manages commissioning and startup of new production lines, products, and processes, ensuring staffing, policies, and procedures are in place for safe and efficient startup within schedule and budget. As a member of the Site Leadership Team, the manager helps ensure the site and its projects meet Safety, Quality, Service, Performance, and People metrics.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Business Administration.
Seven years of production or operations experience in a manufacturing environment.
Knowledge of manufacturing engineering processes.
Demonstrated problem-solving skills, including organizing unstructured data and input for analysis and proactively solving problems.
Demonstrated loss analysis and process improvement skills with practical, hands-on application.
Ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization and communicate a common vision to cross-functional stakeholders.
Ability to manage and influence teams without formal authority and foster collaboration across organizational boundaries.
Proficiency with word processing, spreadsheet, and relational database software.
Experience working under and meeting tight deadlines.
Experience and confidence using continuous improvement tools.

Nice To Haves

Operations Manager experience.
Food industry or similar high-turn-environment experience.
Knowledge of food processing quality and safety requirements.
Attention to detail when working with large volumes of data.
Experience working through and, in some instances, leading change.

Responsibilities

Lead planning, commissioning, and startup of new production lines, products, and processes for the site.
Partner and communicate with stakeholders at all organizational levels, including frontline Team Members.
Lead and plan the work needed to achieve innovation, renovation, and brand changes at the site.
Ensure project timelines and budgets are understood, communicated, and followed, including appropriate standards, procedures, staffing, and training.
Partner with the Operations Business Manager to ensure site teams manage and execute projects according to established project standards.
Participate in engineering design and reviews for operations capital projects.
Execute the margin enhancement process at the site.
Establish cross-functional teams and projects to achieve site margin enhancement targets, facilitate idea-generation sessions, maintain a pipeline for future years, and track monthly results.
Lead and deliver at least $2 million per year in margin enhancement projects.
Serve as the site's problem-solving champion and coach.
Lead site continuous improvement initiatives, partnering with the Site Leadership Team to maintain appropriate measures, reviews, problem solving, standards, and routines.
Implement advanced continuous improvement tools, such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and SMED, in partnership with the Global Supply Process Improvement Manager and other site Process Improvement Managers.
Share best practices with Process Improvement/Start-Up Managers at other Blue Diamond Grower plants and support standardization across sites.
Identify best practices that can be reapplied to improve systems and processes.
Build effective relationships and engage Team Members at all organizational levels to support change management and project implementation.
Develop communication plans to keep key stakeholders informed of project status.
Drive a Zero Harm culture in associated work.
Ensure effective change management methodologies are followed.