Continuous Improvement Manager

Aspire Bakeries is a North American baking company with a leadership position in specialty frozen baked goods. Formed from leading bakery companies, its innovative food portfolio includes breads, artisan breads, buns, cookies, donuts, muffins and pastries from beloved brands likeLa Brea Bakery,Otis Spunkmeyer, andOakrun Farm Bakery. With 13 bakeries in North America, we are committed to driving innovation, predicting upcoming consumer trends and flavors, and exceeding our customers' expectations. Aspire Bakeries champions the values of Integrity, Ownership, Customer Focus, Creativity and Care to help us deliver on People Safety, Food Safety, Quality and Collaboration.

Responsibilities:

• Leads the Aspire Operational Excellence (AOE) program in the Swedesboro bakery

• Ensures process controls are established and adhered to in order for operational consistency and efficiency while producing the highest possible level of product Quality and Food safety.
• Develop and implement digital solutions to aid data collection and accuracy as well as streamline operations paperwork.
• Reviews production and operating reports and resolves operational, manufacturing, and maintenance problems to ensure minimum costs and prevent operational delays. Responsible for achieving targets for Efficiency, waste, and direct costs.
• Leads root cause problem solving and identifies initiatives to resolve plant top losses
• Manage plant cost savings program through idea generation and tracking projects
• Develops or revises standard operational and working practices and observes workers to ensure compliance with standards.
• Collaborates closely with Training team to prioritize content creation and ensure job based skills training is completed in alignment with key initiatives.
• Works closely with other departments in order to achieve organizational goals.

• Assists with reviews of specification sheets and Standard Operating Procedures.

• Implement use of Lean/Six Sigma tools and deployment plans across all departments as part of leading a continuous improvement culture.
• Develop team of continuous improvement/process focused roles to provide professional development and support the needs of the plant.
• Manages small scale equipment improvement projects to improve productivity.

Qualifications:

• Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree + 4-10 years in operations, continuous improvement project experience, training and development (or equivalent combination).
• Technical Systems: SAP knowledge, Microsoft Office proficiency (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Industry Experience: Safety, SQF or regulated environment (GMP, Food Safety)
• Process Improvement: Continuous Improvement, TPM, Lean Six-Sigma experience
• Core Skills: Excellent verbal/written communication, project management, multitasking with prioritization
• Work Style: Thrives under pressure in fast-paced environments, maintains confidentiality, demonstrates accuracy and quality focus
• The position requires high level of creativity, exceptional organization and project management skills.
• Must be able to coordinate all operational aspects of diverse project work and work productively with a wide range of people and job levels, both internally and externally to achieve objectives.

Preferred

• Bilingual English / Spanish preferred

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk and use hands to finger, handle, or feel. The employee is occasionally required to sit; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; talk or hear and taste or smell. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
• This position requires employee to have adequate communicating and observational skills, including seeing, speaking and hearing, due to the operation of various types of moving equipment used in the bakery. These requirements are for the safety of the employee and co-workers. These requirements are also necessary for collecting and distributing information to staff, and communicating with co-workers. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, depth perception and color vision.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to work near moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to wet or humid conditions (non-weather); extreme cold (non-weather) and extreme heat (non-weather), and to rapid changes in temperature. The employee must be able to tolerate a work environment that contains flour dust. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Salary Range: $120,000-$140,000

Aspire Bakeries is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.