Operational Excellence Specialist

Job Category:

Manufacturing/Operations

Job Family:

Process Excellence

Work Shift:

Job Description:

Operational Excellence Specialist

Deliver the efforts of Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement and Lean Manufacturing initiatives at the line level.

Drive Continuous Improvement and process standardization efforts in plant operations through:

1) Engaging with production floor partners and other cross functional groups, to identify and escalate problems.

2) Identifying and completing projects through the application of Lean and DMAIC problem solving methods.

3) Measuring and communicating improvement opportunities to plant leaders and partners.

4) Monitoring and sustaining improvements by updating, creating, or maintaining standard operating procedures (SOPs).

What you'll do:


* Identify and escalate problems by spending majority of time engaged with production floor partners


* Coordinate and facilitate team-based improvement activities such as Kaizen Events, problem solving circles (PSCs) and Gemba


* Deliver small improvement projects by engaging with cross functional work teams and utilizing Lean and DMAIC principles


* Develop forms, Visual Work Instructions, standard operating procedures, 5-S material, and other training material to support continuous improvement activities.  All must comply with plant and organizational requirements.


* Develop measurement tools which show compliance/non-compliance with plant standards as established by the program and communicate these to Ops Leadership, Plant Partners and Plant Leadership.


* Monitor and coordinate the control and sustainment of process improvement efforts, related to Ops Excellence activities.


* Provide guidance on Lean Tools, 5-S, Root Cause Analysis, TPS, Takt Time Analysis, Poke Yoke, Kanban, Waste (Muda) Reduction, etc.


* Maintain and monitor plant partner training and documentation related to operations excellence.


* Partner with other Operational Excellence team members to realize plant and company initiatives.

Together with the leadership team, ensures compliance with Food Safety and Food Quality Plans, in addition to customer requirements.

Interprets and communicates customer requirements to plant production and/or support groups.

Establishes and Audits PCPs, CCPs and Standard Operating Procedures to define and monitor processes, to ensure customer requirements are met.

Reviews incidents during which the procedures are not met and determines appropriate corrective action for partners failing to follow standard procedures.

What you need to succeed:


* High School Diploma/GED


* 0-5 years of production experience


* The Operational Excellence Specialist will be required to be certified as a Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) or Lean Six Sigma Green Belt by the American Society of Quality (ASQ) no later than three (3) years following the assignment into this job.


* Ability to identify waste in a proce...