Director of Continuous Improvement

Sioux City, Iowa
Seaboard Triumph Foods
SUMMARY: The Director of Continuous Improvement will improve the overall client value and carry out activities to achieve the best results.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: This list is not intended to be all-inclusive and other duties may be assigned.

Lead team of CI specialist and train and guide the CI specialist for A3 and DMAIC projects.
Work with managers, supervisors, subordinates, and trainers to develop and initiate a program that will help close the gaps that have been identified, thus enhancing the productivity and quality standards.
Review the production areas for potential safety hazards and make sure that all safety practices are being followed while implementing the new processes.
Train the supervisors, trainers, and operators, and incorporate quality checks and balance the workflow to increase productivity.
Help prepare and maintain the detailed layouts, designs, develops, tests, and cost justifies for various tools, equipment, and machinery that may be required for various production processes.
Lead and deploy the best practices in the production organization by taking initiative to support continuous improvement in various production processes by reducing the tooling costs and improve the flow of material and review cycle times and/or labor utilization.
Work toward achieving the production goals and objectives of the organization.
Lead, facilitate, execute, and manage projects to reduce the costs significantly by implementing Lean/CI and Six Sigma tools and methodologies. Identify and recommend improvements by applying the relevant principles.
Develop methods to help reduce the cost without compromising on the people, safety, quality, and service standards to ensure increased efficiency and quality and make recommendations.
Evaluate various improvements that need to be done and create value analysis and look for ways to reduce the costs in the production and production support applications.
Confer with the senior management and other related personnel to create layouts, equipment designs, and other analysis/improvement plans and clarify and resolve any relevant issues.
Give directions to help in preparing the layouts, visual aids, and detailed drawings that will eventually assist in improving the production processes.
Achieve cost effective designs and carry out research, design, and development work of the production process that would include full production value stream- barn, kill, cut, packaging and warehouse methods, production flow, and production equipment.
Determine the root causes for those system inefficiencies and failures and make recommendations for changes in designs and the related processing methodologies.
Help identify the key areas for improving these standards and incorporate new techniques to enhance the existing operating standards.
Train and mentor new staff personnel and assist other team members.
Assist in preparing the documentation for the improved processes and ensure that the product designs manufactured are up to the standard levels.
Work with Research and Development to analyze data and set standards.
Identify the key areas for improving standards and incorporate new techniques to enhance the existing operating standards.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the work environment, knowledge, skill, and/or ability required or preferred. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, or related discipline plus 4 years of relevant experience. Must have Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Experience in leading team. Experience must include the following: time and motion studies, project engineering, product development, and project management. Must have experience with Lean implementation and Lean tools including SOP and FMEA. Must also have experience with AutoCAD and advanced Excel, and certification in SQL. Must have experience with statistical analysis using Excel and Minitab and design of experiments. Domestic U.S. travel required 5%.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, and/or governmental regulations. Ability to write reports and business correspondence. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from management, and employees. Must have the ability to influence and persuade others.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to read and interpret documents in the English language such as applications, training materials and procedure manuals. Must be able to effectively communicate with candidates, hiring managers and others within and outside of the organization.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to apply mathematical applications to practical situations. Must possess strong analytical and metric-based skills. Analytical skills required-experience with Minitab or similar analytical software preferred

REASONING ABILITY: Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical, diagram, written and/or verbal form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES: Strong personal computer skills and understanding of recruiting metrics and reports required. Must hold a valid driver’s license due to periodic business travel.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be required to move about the facility. The employee is required to sit; use hands to finger; handle; or feel/hold objects; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; speak, hear, taste, and smell. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vison, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. Individual must be able to effectively work in a normal production environment where temperatures and noise levels may vary. Generally the incumbent must be able to sit and use a computer for extended periods of time.