Plant Manager

Our Client is a privately owned, Canadian food manufacturing company and has been in business for over 30 years. Having grown from a humble location in Paris Ontario, they moved to larger, state of the art premises in Brantford to support their growth. The company offers a range of innovative products which are available through a growing list of retailers, including major retailers such as Loblaws and Costco.

Mandate:

Reporting to the President/Owner, the successful candidate in this role would provide overall leadership and strategic direction for manufacturing operations. This includes the management of manufacturing operations, warehousing, and maintenance. Expected to guide team and instill best practices to meet goals of production, quality, food safety, efficiencies, process compliance, and health and safety standards.

Direct Reports include:

1 Warehouse Lead

1 Maintenance Manager

3 Supervisors

1 QA Manager

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

· Operations - Actively manage all day-to-day operations for the facility and provide leadership that raises productivity and develops talent. Responsible for all operations departments, maintenance, quality assurance warehouse, and shipping while delivering against KPI’s around productivity, cost, labour, quality, yield, efficiency, reliability, safety and morale.

· Strategy - Provide strategic direction for the plant (i.e., capital expenditure, business planning, budget management, performance management/succession planning, culture, etc.).Develop systems to evaluate, score, and implement manufacturing business system process improvements. Demonstrate strategic thinking by developing plans, balancing immediate priorities with long-term goals, anticipating future conditions and circumstances, and aligning with department and corporate goals when implementing initiatives.

· Financial Management - Systematic pursuit of financial goals through effective planning and forecasting approaches, built on solid controls and clear financial accountabilities to annual business planning and budgeting. Initiate and plan cost reduction initiatives while ensuring quality and H&S targets are not compromised. Manage operational budget and actively participate in developing the Company’s projected (short & long term) growth. Work closely with Operations and Finance to develop capital improvement projects and manage its successful implementation with projected ROI’s and within budget.

People Leadership - Ensure teams are communicating by building an environment of collaboration, partnership, and trust, as well as holding others accountable. Oversee hiring, progressive discipline, termination, performance management, talent development in partnership with HR. Drive a culture of Health and Safety as a primary focus. Collaborate and partner with others through actively building positive and productive relationships, working to understand different viewpoints, and treating people of varying backgrounds and perspectives fairly. Build teams by selecting the right people, with the right skills, at the right time. Set clear goals and develop others to build new skills and capabilities. Provide support, resources, and constructive feedback to achieve objectives. Manage conflict within the department and between the department and others.

· Innovation - Support new product development and continuous improvement. Identify root causes of problems and develop solutions to make effective, timely decisions. Lead change by example through generating unique ideas and solutions, championing new initiatives, and overcoming resistance to change. Employing industry accepted Continuous improvments standards such as Kaizen, 5S, Lean and analytics to improve production and reduce downtime.

· Productivity - Experience leading long-term resource planning in a manufacturing environment. Improve production standards through time studies and other standard data development methods. Able to lead the development and successful implementation of complex projects in a manufacturing environment. Develop equipment preventative maintenance schedules and recommend the replacement of machines.

Experience, Qualifications, and Educational Requirements:

Food Manufacturing Experience:

Management, supervision and leadership in a food manufacturing facility or similar environment is a must have requirement.

Experience with roasting, milling/grinding and filling(Piston fillers or rotary fillers is a very good to have skill.)

· University degree/college diploma in mechanical or industrial engineering or manufacturing preferred

· Strong inventory, supply chain, and production management skills

· ERP systems (Great Plains) experience preferred

· Strong communication skills for interactions with vendors, customers, internal departments and cross functional teams

· Demonstrated experience with Kaizen, 5S, and Lean Manufacturing

· Extremely detail-oriented and analytical thinker

· Must be able to operate with a sense of urgency