Operations Unit Manager jobs in Appleton, WI

Position Title: Operations Manager

Location: Neenah, WI

This position is responsible for Providing leadership and management direction to the Neenah Converting Center operations to achieve targeted facility and Fine Paper objectives.  Priority focus on the safety and value of employees, while driving continual improvement in customer quality, asset efficiency, and cost management.  Also, conform to established policies, procedures, guidelines, budgets and/or specifications and applicable local, state, and federal codes and laws.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Support a culture of continuous improvement in Safety

• Accountable and responsible for safety successes/failures in the facility. 
• Ensure all state and federal requirements for employee safety knowledge and training are met annually.
• Utilize PTRA’s, daily risk reviews, LLE’s and JSA’s to drive proactive improvement.
  • Resource and ensure all audits of all asset-specific energy isolation procedures and every employee receives asset-specific refresher training annually.
  • Ensure formal Design Safety Reviews (DSRs) are completed with support of Maintenance prior to any major changes/modifications or capital installations are put into service. 
  • Ensure that all incident/hazard reports are reviewed daily and scored for risk potential.  

Ensure compliance with quality standards

• Accountable and responsible for quality policy and procedural successes and failures. 
• Ensure area owners perform quality inspection audits monthly and report on compliance gaps through the Electronic Incident Reporting system.
• Ensure corrective actions are developed for any quality inspection compliance gaps and entered into the Action Register.
• Ensure rework is tracked and reported monthly (pounds and time) and any rework over 1,500 lbs. requires an Electronic Incident Report within 24 hours, with follow-ups entered into Action Register.
• Ensure fact finding investigation for all workmanship customer complaints with follow-ups entered into Action Register.

Achieve short and long-term manufacturing cost advantage on the Neenah Converting assets

• Set and achieve goals for asset R/O, Yield, and Uptime while reinforcing continuous improvement.
• Develop and implement cost improvement plans and programs that ensure continuous year on year real cost reduction, measured in efficiency metrics such as WOV.
• Collaborate with planning to ensure the lowest cost system balance.
• Develop and maintain initiatives to ensure long term reliability of the Plant, Property and Equipment in paper manufacturing.
• Work closely with the Area Mill Manager, Finance Team and Continuous Improvement Manager in driving the development of a clear and comprehensive manufacturing cost reduction strategy.
• Relentlessly pursue lowest total manufacturing cost solutions by understanding key drivers, identifying improvement opportunities, and implementing applicable cost reduction solutions.
• Implement processes and initiatives aimed at increasing employee involvement and ownership, while promoting continuous improvement. 
• Develop specific annual strategies to improve maintenance spending and labor efficiency.

Support capital spending to sustain operations, support strategic initiatives and reduce costs while meeting financial expectations

• Lead facility Operations Team in developing, prioritizing, and managing the execution of cost savings initiatives for the facility.
• Achieve targeting cost savings results through urgent execution of organic and capital project execution.

Enhance organizational development

• Manage with a high level of balanced accountability for yourself, direct reports, and hourly workforce.
• Support Continuous Improvement efforts through the use of Impact at the NCC
• Ensure asset leadership resources are focused on strategic asset performance management and operational execution (not Supervisory or Administrative duties)
• Develop Supervisory leadership to execute on decision rights and own accountabilities for shift performance.
• Development direct reports and align skills (strategic thinking, project management, leadership) to drive high achievement and accountability through training and succession planning.
• Drive hourly employee development and engagement in key initiatives around safety and cost improvement.
• Participate in cross functional teams to share best practices and improve performance of all assets.

Qualifications:

• A four-year degree in engineering, management, paper science or related technical field is desired, or equivalent experience
• Prior related experience in a process-oriented converting/manufacturing environment and continuous improvement processes such as Lean and Six Sigma will be helpful
• A demonstrated track record of proven performance and ability to lead teams.
• Experience with customer interactions; ideally collaborating with others to help define needs, identify solutions, and resolve problems.
• Enjoys working with and collaborating with members of operations, marketing, sales, and cross functional groups
• Proficiency in MS Office, good communication skills, both verbal and digital and other data proficiency
• 3-5 years in continuous improvement and/or operational experience demonstrating aptitude in driving improvement preferred