Continuous Improvement Manager

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

• Reporting to the Site Manager, the role of Continuous Improvement (CI) Manager is to be the CI champion for the site. The CI Manager monitors and improves organisational processeses with the aim of making them as efficient as possible. 
• The CI Manager maps out all workflows, removes waste and low-value activities, and recommends solutions. Guided by formal kaizen methodologies, the CI Manager takes the lead implementing changes, acts as a leader, manage, and mentors across different areas of the organisation. 
• The CI Manager remains as close as possible from the sources of noise, and makes a focus on the frontline. He/she analyses why an issue is highlighted by the organisation and doesn't hesitate to verify the information by consulting throughout all departments with the aim of differentiating impressions from facts. He/she guarantees that improvement projects are based on data.  
• This role is also responsible for ensuring compliancy in terms of Regulations & QHSE during the transformation processes. 
• The CI Manager is key to creating momentum, and must implement a CI culture on site. He/she must include in all processes the CI tools that allow the teams to grow their accountability and autonomy in problem solving methodologies.  

Overall he/she leads and administrates the site master schedule that summarises all the improvement and saving opportunities.

Key responsibilities

• Promote the use of 8 step problem solving and PDCA to fix issues 
• Analyse business processes to find improvement opportunities.  
• Sponsor the compliancy with the Management of Change Procedures 
• Develop short- and long-term strategies for the organisation and incorporating 5S, 6sigma and other practices.  
• Coordinate and lead key projects for improvement across all levels of organisation. Collaborate with managers and team leads. 
• Monitor the progress to check if changes deliver desirable results. Generate regularly detailed update reports for management.  
• Ensuring the organisation makes continuous improvement an integral part of the site culture. Openly sharing their guidance and technical expertise and ensuring that learning resources are widely available. 

Qualifications and skills

• Proven experience of championing continuous improvement
• Effective co-ordination and management skills – deadline and results driven 
• Strong communication skills, with ability to escalate when necessary 
• Good team player; experience working cross functionally and proven ability to influence  
• Experience with implementation of a manufacturing execution system (MES) or ERP/MRP will be a plus.
• Fluent in English and French