Director, Continuous Improvement

Company Overview

Why Choose Us?

Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including foodservice, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.

Our Sustainability Commitment

The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.

Job Description

Job Summary:

The goal of this position is to demonstrate maximum efficiency from plant to plant within a Business Unit (BU). The Director of Continuous Improvement will be a key creator of the Continuous Improvement strategy for the BU. As our manufacturing technology, automation and optimization increase, we must transfer knowledge, network and leverage best practices across our manufacturing sites as we continue to develop a Lean Management System to run our facilities.

 

Reporting Relationship:

The Director of Continuous Improvement will report to the Vice President of Operations and work closely with the Vice President of Operational Excellence.

 

Responsibilities:

• Manage a CI Savings Budget across the Business Unit that represents an achievable value for delivering back to the business.
• Develop plans, schedules, and budgets for tactical projects to improve existing processes; ensure cost-benefit evaluation for all assigned projects are completed to define potential financial, business and industry impacts of initiatives.
• Support the business leaders in the development of intermediate and long-term CI strategies to assure delivery of the projected CI Saving Budget.
• Act as the subject matter expert in all core modules of our Operational Excellence program to assure sustained results, including assisting in training and plant acclimation to the process.
• Drive the improvement of processes and systems in the plants and implement programs that will have continuing long-term benefits.
• Continuously evaluate and measure program or initiative performance and progress against goals and serve as a change agent within the organization.
• Monitor existing processes to make sure they continue to perform at optimal levels of efficiency.
• Direct all CI activities to include Kaizen events in 5S, SMED, TPM, VSM, PDCA or equivalent, A3 Problem Solving.
• Ensure adherence to Lean Methodology, including Kaizen, 5S, Standard Work, Daily Management, Layered Audit Process and Business Plan development to eliminate waste.
• Advise and influence senior leadership on business transformation topics that include organizational effectiveness, performance results, and change management in the terms of complexity and impact on the business.
• Effectively lead, manage, develop, coach, and evaluate team members and associates at various levels of experience.
• Develop and deliver Lean Training at all levels of the organization while driving Operational Excellence standards.
• Confer with management, engineering, and other staff regarding manufacturing capabilities, production schedules, and other considerations to facilitate production process improvements

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a field related to Business, Engineering or Packaging Industry.
• Combined 10+ years of previous manufacturing experience with Operations and Continuous Improvement experience.
• Experience with Six Sigma and Lean processes strongly preferred.
• Previous experience with Automation and SAP strongly preferred.
• Project management skills are required; as they will often be required to work on several improvement projects simultaneously, with very disparate groups of people within the organization.
• Must have Microsoft Office experience with advanced Excel Skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 50%-70%

 

A reasonable estimate of the current range is $160K - $210K + bonus + benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. At Novolex, it is not typical for an i