Senior Operations Leader - Lean & Revenue Growth Specialist

Jeffrey Linkous

Panama City Beach, Florida *******.*******@*****.*** • linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-linkous

CAREER OVERVIEW

Results-oriented Senior Operations Leader with strong revenue and operational savvy with bottom-line focus in all aspects of operations. Strong record of leadership and achievement through strategy formulation, and institution of effective management and operating controls. Demonstrated ability to analyze critical business requirements, identify deficiencies and potential opportunities, and develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for enhancing competitiveness, increasing revenues, and improving product offerings. Respected decision-maker who delivers value added, quality results that increase trust and produces positive outcomes.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Plant budget creator and Owner • Labor Relations • Strategic Planning

• Leadership Team Development • Capital Project Management • Food processing

• Safety Culture Change Agent • Cost Reduction • Multi-Plant Support

• Business Development • Business Operations • Kaizen Team Champion

• Visual Management Champion • Cultural Health Driver • Lean / CI

• Revenue Enhancement • Customer Focus • GMP/BRC/SQF

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Within a strong team environment, took operations that had not performed well in safety culture and turned the culture around to become world class safety organizations.

Goal as all facilities has been making and increasing profitability assure long term viability of the company and therefore jobs

Utilized Lean manufacturing, Kaizen events, and Continuous Improvement strategies at all facilities. Held operations management teams at each site accountable for developing, implementing, and sustaining strategies.

Was able to cross over from packaging plants to food plants and still drive the deliverables needed to be successful in the organization

Learned more about food and specifically Cheese and dairy processing in a high speed and high-volume processing plant while helping instill training and direction to an inexperienced work force..

Running a high-volume food plant with great safety, low costs and uncompromised food safety. No recalls in my career and excellent BRC and SQF audits and programs.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

T. Marzetti foods-Sister Schubertt’s Home made rolls. Plant manager-May 2024 to present

Currently running a 200-person dough plant. This plant makes dinner rolls and sweet rolls sold and enjoyed around the southeast and Midwest. Plant was struggling when I entered with the team. We made 4-million-dollar improvement Year over year in the first year since I took over.

Plant has a excellent safety record with no more than 2 recordable incidents a year for many years

Plant volumes increased 26% in the last year and overall costs were down more than 12% per pound under my leadership.

The plant will increase 50% in the next 18 months therefore continuing to drive costs per pound or units down even more

Plant was AA+ BRC rating in their food safety program. The plant is receiving awards for outstanding Sanitation and great readings on its Micro testing for food safety.

The highest participation rate in Employee Survey last year with great results

The leadership meets for a short management meeting each day and works on a running “Action agenda” which all outstanding important issues are identified and prioritized until the items are done. Meeting never more than 30 minutes.

All folks know the goals, scores, and progress each month to help drive deliverables and KPI. Goals are shared with all managers, supervisors and even the folks on the floor.

B&G foods-Stoughton Wi Plant manager, May 2021 to April 2024

Ran a 100-person union food production plant in charge of all aspects of production, safety, quality, costs and maintenance in the facility. Right sizing the plant for value.

Plant safety record turned around in one year. Went from averaging over 6.0 TIR for many years to a current level under 1.0 TIR for the last year and working toward world class in 2023. Completed full 2024 with no recordables or LTA. No LTA since I have become plant manager.

Cost for overtime reduced from a high over 40% average to under 5%. Help create a work life balance

Plant above budget for cost budget many years is now well over a million favorable to budget in the current year. One of only two plants will be able to beat the budget in 2022 with all the challenges of Supply chain, Covid and PPV. We were under budget by more than 1 million in 2023.

Turning a negative beaten down culture to a culture of winning.

Lowest employee engagement survey scores to active and excited engagement teams with HR partnership we are winning.

Bringing some solid talent to the management and supervision ranks.

Active CI process began with saving projected to come to close to a million for the current year.

Worked through Covid-19 and related issues and help manage the process daily of risk management

Active visual management in the plant, so the team knows what good looks like

Introduced the concept of the perfect day, no accidents, no quality holds, and running at or better than rate.

Plant has world class SQF 99 score in 2023 and GMP even though it is an older facility.

The “first pass yield” is world class with low customer complaints. No recalls in my food plants in my food career.

Master Gallery Foods-Plymouth, WI 2019 to May 2021

Cheese processing plant with highest standards of HACCP and food safety. I preferred taking a job locally as we enjoyed the area and wanted to stay local. Over 500 employees 24/7 operation

Production manager:

Stabilize and energize a newer workforce to focus on tasks at hand including:

Low safety incidents through employee engagement

Training and cross training followed up every week with action register with lead people and a training team

Following through on all food safety and GMP issues as they occur and proactively

Plants successful GMP and BRC audits

Regular one on ones and employee reviews

Quickly learning the food and Cheese process to be able to take my skills and improve the plant

Help lead a team through a tough process of personal safety and food safety during a pandemic. We ensured that people wore proper PPE, and followed the COVID-19 and CDC guidelines

GEORGIA PACIFIC- Sheboygan, WI 2017 to 2019

Corrugated packaging plant producing corrugated packaging for food manufacturers and retail displays.

Director of Operations of two plant

Led team of 12 direct and 120 indirect reports in a 3-shift operation. Also ran a two-shift plant with about 80 employees while running the larger plant. Focused role on improving customer relationships through improved quality and service.

Increased productivity in all areas of the plant by 15% through the introduction of a 100-day challenge program (Kaizen events) designed to address facility issues on training and retaining staff.

Was the manager who kicked off Lean Culture, 5’s, and the Kaizen and continuous improvement. Promoted a engineer to be our first CI manager. Trained and developed teams to work on projects

Used the action registers with regular follow up meetings to make and track change.

Increased productivity on the main machine by 40% to become the highest performer in the company for 2019. Went from running 3 shifts to 2 shifts with our added reliability and speed saving money and giving sales more opportunities to sell more.

Took plant from worst safety record in the 30-plant system. Reduced recordable injuries from 11 in 2016 to 1 recordable in 2017 through employee-led safety teams and setting high expectations.

Cost of labor went down despite wage increases to remain competitive with similar employers.

Reduced turnover rate by 50%

Oversaw P & L, budgeting, and all key metrics. Took site from losing significant money to profitability

Coordinated the successful audits for AIB, ISO, and OSHA.

EDUCATION / PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

B.A. - Business Management; North Central College – Naperville, IL

SPC training / OSHA / HACCP / Lean Six Sigma

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