Multi-Site Food Manufacturing Ops Leader

JOHNAS MAURICE

Winter Park, FL · 321-***-**** · ******.*******@*****.*** · LinkedIn

Multi-Site Food Manufacturing Operational Excellence Strategic Growth Leader Servant leadership

Operations executive with more than two decades of experience leading complex manufacturing and supply chain networks across food production, CPG, and industrial sectors. Known for transforming underperforming facilities into high-performance operations by aligning people, processes, and systems around safety, quality, cost, delivery, and engagement.

Experienced in leading plant managers and cross-functional teams across production, maintenance, sanitation, warehousing, and distribution functions. Recognized for building strong leadership cultures rooted in accountability, servant leadership, and operational discipline. Track record of delivering measurable financial improvements through lean manufacturing practices, labor productivity initiatives, equipment reliability programs, and network optimization strategies.

Multi-Site Manufacturing Leadership Lean Manufacturing & Continuous Improvement Executive Leadership & Strategic Planning Lean Methodology Operational Turnarounds Corporate Governance Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance (GMP, HACCP, SQF) P&L Leadership & Margin Expansion Business Process Development Integrated Supply Chain Management ERP/WMS/TMS Management Leadership Development & Succession Planning Culture Transformation CAPEX Planning & Facility Expansion Enterprise Supply Chain Integration Digital Manufacturing & Operational Excellence Transformation Leadership

Achievements

Delivered $1.1M in annualized cost savings by leading a regional network optimization initiative transferring Jacksonville production demand to a lower-cost manufacturing facility in Georgia. Improved asset utilization, optimized logistics routing, and reduced landed cost by $2.00 per case across 60,000 monthly cases.

Strengthened quality management systems and operational discipline, reducing total audit findings 77% and repeat issues 50%, while achieving zero critical findings during the 2025 audit cycle and earning an A+ audit rating.

Reduced labor costs $496K annually by integrating production and distribution workflows and restructuring labor allocation across operations to improve productivity and reduce redundant labor functions.

Improved service reliability and operational execution, sustaining 96% OTIF performance across ten consecutive operational periods, reinforcing disciplined production scheduling and distribution coordination.

Improved operational cost efficiency, reducing Cost Per Piece from $2.34 to $2.25 through cost containment initiatives, improved labor productivity, and tighter operating expense controls.

Maintained variable cost per piece below budget by strengthening control over consumables, materials usage, and operational spend across production and distribution environments.

Improved equipment and workforce productivity by redesigning labor schedules into a four-day flex production model, reducing overtime 22% without impacting throughput or service levels.

Drove safety culture transformation, reducing recordable safety incidents 50% within eight operational periods, reinforcing proactive safety leadership and operational accountability.

Strengthened workforce stability, maintaining employee turnover below the 25% organizational target for ten consecutive periods while improving engagement through leadership development and operational transparency.

Maintained operational accuracy and product traceability, sustaining RMA accuracy above 98% YTD, exceeding the network target of 97%.

Implemented a performance-based delivery compensation model, aligning driver pay to delivered weight and productivity metrics, improving route transparency and labor productivity.

Implemented workforce optimization strategy at US Foods, reducing overtime 18% and improving cost-to-serve performance through improved labor planning and operational scheduling.

Scaled a controlled-environment agriculture manufacturing operation from $3M to $12M revenue in 12 months, later supporting expansion to seven additional production facilities while managing $145M in capital expansion projects.

Led enterprise SAP S/4HANA digital transformation, improving inventory accuracy from 42% variance to <1% across a multi-site warehouse and production network.

Directed $4.1M capital investment project that expanded facility capacity 35% while automating inbound material handling and improving operational throughput.

Papa John’s, Orlando, FL

Regional Director of Operations, East Oct 2025 - Current

Promoted to oversee Quality Control Center (QCC) operations across the Eastern U.S. including Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Responsible for regional operational performance across integrated food production and distribution facilities supporting 2000+ restaurants and delivering 8.1 million production pieces annually with $50M in total revenue. Provide enterprise leadership across production, maintenance, sanitation, warehouse, transportation, and facilities operations, ensuring consistent execution of safety, quality, cost, delivery, and engagement standards across the network. Lead 800+ associates with 7 direct reports including site directors and senior functional leaders, while driving operational alignment across the region.

Operational Performance: Drove network-level improvements by increasing OTIF performance by 12%, reducing transportation idle time 15%, and implementing standardized operational scorecards and performance cadences across facilities to improve accountability and execution consistency.

Operational Excellence & Digital Manufacturing: Spearheading Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) initiatives and leading enterprise deployment of the Dude Solutions CMMS platform, improving preventative maintenance execution, asset management visibility, and equipment reliability across the network.

Manufacturing Transformation: Serving as a key operational leader for the implementation of Proficy Smart Factory Cloud MES, supporting Papa John’s digital manufacturing transformation by enabling real-time production visibility, work order execution, quality enforcement, and performance analytics across production environments.

Leadership & Culture Development: Built a multi-layer leadership structure across facilities, strengthening succession pipelines, improving engagement scores, and reducing frontline turnover 22% year-over-year through a servant leadership approach focused on coaching, accountability, and frontline empowerment.

Customer & Operational Alignment: Partnered closely with field operations and supply chain teams to improve store satisfaction through better routing optimization, improved on-time delivery performance, and enhanced demand forecasting collaboration.

Innovation & Safety: Launched a straight-truck urban delivery pilot to improve delivery agility in dense markets while strengthening safety culture and reducing TRIR by 30% through proactive safety management systems and leadership engagement.

Leadership approach centers on servant leadership and operational clarity, empowering site leaders and frontline teams while establishing disciplined operational systems that enable consistent performance across the region.

Director of Operations, Oct 2024 – Oct 2025

Serve as operational head for an integrated manufacturing and distribution center supplying 300+ restaurant franchise units across Florida. Oversee dough production, quality transportation, warehouse operations, sanitation, and facilities maintenance. Own end-to-end operational P&L with direct accountability for executional cost, throughput, compliance, quality, and service.

Consolidated distribution into a single-shift model, reducing labor footprint and improving cost-per-piece metrics.

Turned around underperforming facility (QCCFL): Delivered $1.1M in savings in <6 months through shift consolidation, labor modeling, and contract reduction.

Led transfer of Jacksonville market to Georgia QCC, achieving $1.10/case cost savings ($176K annually).

Reallocated sanitation to a third-party model, saving $150K annually and improving compliance to MAP sanitation standards.

Realigned production and labor schedules to a four-day model, reducing overtime by 22% and maintaining throughput.

Launched performance tier boards and daily huddles across all departments, embedding cross-functional accountability through SQCDP metrics.

Integrated Samsara and new TMS for driver performance monitoring, improving routing efficiency and visibility.

Implemented inventory and receiving optimization plan that reduced detention costs and increased inventory accuracy by 30%.

Achieved a 77% reduction in quality audit findings, 50% decrease in repeat issues, and zero critical findings in 2025 audit cycle.

Partnered with corporate finance to recover forecast gaps, align spending with productivity KPIs, and support multi-period forecast trajectory.

US FOODS, Pittston, Pennsylvania

Vice President of Operations, 2023-2025

Directed operations for two high-volume distribution centers supporting food service customers across the Northeast. Led a workforce of 300 employees across warehousing, transportation, inventory management, and customer service operations.

Maintained full P&L responsibility and established operational strategies aligned with enterprise growth objectives.

Oversaw multi-site operations (2 DCs, 500+ employees) with full P&L responsibility

Surpassed safety targets (IFR 6.0 vs. 6.3 goal; auto chargeable 4.9 vs. 6.9).

Drove 5% YoY increase in units sold (2.8M vs. 2.5M) and achieved 93% YTD OTIF (goal: 85%).

Improved on-time delivery to 93% while increasing annual unit volume by 5%.

Reduced overtime by 18% through workforce optimization and improved labor planning.

Implemented operational scorecard and daily performance cadence to drive accountability across all departments.

Reduced product damage claims by 42% through cross-functional process improvements.

KALERA, INC., Orlando, Florida

Regional Director of Operations and Supply Chain, 2019-2023

Led operations for a national network of 12 climate-controlled food production facilities producing packaged ready-to-eat leafy greens. Directed plant managers and site leadership teams responsible for production, maintenance, quality, procurement, and distribution operations.

Scaled company revenue from $3M to $12M in 12 months during rapid expansion phase.

Managed $145M in capital expansion projects supporting facility construction and equipment installation.

Improved yield efficiency by 18% and increased production throughput from 70% to 88%.

Developed operational startup playbooks that reduced ramp-up time for new facilities by 30%.

Established centralized procurement strategy improving cost control and supply reliability.

REV AMBULANCE GROUP, INC., Orlando, Florida

Regional Director of Operations, 2015-2018

Oversaw and scaled all aspects of day-to-day operations within 24/7, multi-site warehouse and distribution centers. Headed team of 150 warehouse staff, ensuring lean operation of facilities. Set strategic direction aligned with enterprise goals, utilizing lean principles to foster continuous improvement. Led and mentored teams of value stream managers and supervisors, ensuring high quality products and efficient workflow management. Managed P&L responsibilities, optimized budget goals, and championed safety and environmental compliance. Collaborated with cross-functional senior leadership to implement and sustain strategic initiatives. Fostered bench of future leaders from internal talent through professional development.

Increased facility capacity 35% by guiding team through $4.1M facility CAPEX project to install four semi-automated receiving lines, new warehouse racking systems, and aftermarket parts division.

Decreased waste from 30% to 25% and reduced error rate to <1%. Established Lean and agile team, ensuring maximal adoption of Lean principles, tools, and methodologies.

Achieved 1.25 TRIR during FY2018 by establishing company’s first total recordable incident rate (TRIR) tracker, implementing rollout of new safety KPI across four facilities in US.

Implemented JIT principles, streamlining production cycles and increasing productivity by 89%.

Created performance-based, inclusive culture via role modeling, expectation setting, monitoring, and course correcting.

Enhanced on-site efficiency 70% by incorporating suite of process automation and improvement initiatives.

Reduced inventory variance from 42% to 1% by aligning inventory database with stored assets, developing a new MRP asset tracking database system (SAP HANA), and performing periodic reconciliations.

Improved order picker accuracy from 42% to 90% by introducing innovative programs for re-slotting and organizing products by velocity / usage and establishing daily cycle counting.

Took employee retention rate from 45% to 84%, stabilizing the workforce.

Led project to establish SAP S/4HANA, successfully guiding migration of acquired legacy systems to cloud.

Digitized warehouse and implemented clean core methodology for ECC to S/4HANA migration, unifying processes between SAP and legacy systems and driving serialization to engineer comprehensive transformation.

EARLIER EXPERIENCE

COMMUNICATIONS TEST DESIGN, INC., Orlando, Florida, Regional Director of Logistics, 2008-2015.

COUNTRY FRESH, INC., Orlando, Florida, Plant Manager, 2002-2008.

EDUCATION

CHARTER UNIVERSITY, 2024

Master of Business Administration

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, East Lansing, Michigan 2012

B.A., Finance

TECHNICAL SKILLS

ERP / MRP Systems: SAP HANA, Dynamics 365, Manhattan, People Soft, ME, Amazon AWS,

WMS /TMS Systems: SAP, Lytix, Samsara, Manhattan, AS400, Tandem, Blue Yonder, Sage, AS400, Oracle, RadNet, Retalix, Shipwell, Descartes, Omnitracs, Air Click, Selector Pro, vocalex, Kronos, Workday

CMMS Systems: Maximo, MaintainX, Dude Solutions

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