Director of Plant Operations

Job Title
Director of Plant Operations
Job ID
27706881
Description
Director of Plant Operations
We are looking for a Director of Plant Operations who is highly motivated to help build a fast-growing dairy/beverage manufacturing facility. The ideal candidate will have a dairy or beverage manufacturing background and the desire to scale up the operation over the next several years. The Director of Plant Operations will be responsible for leading Production Planner, Production Supervisors, Production Leads, and indirect associates to meet departmental and overall company budgets and goals. Responsible for developing manufacturing strategies to reduce downtime and shrink and improve product flow, utilizing lean value stream mapping to identify needed kaizen activities. The Director of Plant Operations will report directly to the General Manager.

Location: Central New Jersey near Pennsylvania

Job Responsibilities:
  • Creates and sustains a strong safety culture with a high level of accountability. Ensure assigned departments comply with all environmental, health and safety policies and procedures. Identifies and eliminates hazards.
  • Develop and track operational, compliance and other performance KPI’s, while creating and implementing continuous improvement projects and best practices for their areas with minimal oversight.
  • Engages new business opportunities with a positive can-do leadership approach, and shares this positive outlook with their peers and team.
  • Works with Maintenance to troubleshoot equipment failure and repeat downtime events, while identifying solutions that reduce downtime in a cost-effective manner.
  • Responsible for ensuring customer orders/requirements are met with effective production schedules. Works with the Production Planner to develop manufacturing schedules to meet planning commitments, and ensures resources are available and prepared to meet these commitments.
  • Responsible for working with the finance department to establish and maintain annual department budgets to maximize plant profitability. Maintains adequate plant staffing and controls labor and other overhead costs.
  • Works to understand, document, develop, and improve best practices that supports consistent manufacturing performance.
  • Directly and indirectly supervise a staff of managers and hourly employees in various operational areas. Develop a strategy that maintains staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees; developing employee growth opportunities.
  • Supports SQF program by maintaining food safety and food quality through job tasks in relation to GMPs, HACCP, sanitation, etc.
  • Maintains a safe and healthy work environment by following standards and procedures; complying with legal codes and regulations.

Required Skills/Qualifications:
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or other technical discipline or equivalent work experience.
  • 5+ years of experience in a manufacturing environment, with a minimum of 3 years in a supervisory role
  • Dairy strongly preferred, high-speed beverage manufacturing considered
  • Strong leadership skills with a track record of developing a team and driving a culture of accountability
  • Proficient in creating and monitoring an annual budget, while developing cost-reduction initiatives
  • Exceptional communication skills and ability to interact confidently and professionally with various levels of management as well as, Auditors, State, Federal, and other regulatory agencies.
  • Familiarity with lean tools, six sigma, kaizen, and other continuous improvement methods
  • High level of proficiency of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, ERP/MRP systems
  • Strong experience with developing KPIs and using them to drive business performance improvement.
  • Experience in a Continuous Improvement / Manufacturing Excellence / Operational Excellence role with demonstrated ability to drive efficiency improvement and cost-down projects to deliver significant results.



 
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