Continuous Improvement Team Leader (LCO) - Taw Valley Creamery

Location: Devon, GB

Days based role- Monday-Friday 37.5 hours

Who are Arla Foods? At Arla, we do so much more than make some of the world’s favourite dairy products. We make healthy taste delicious, mornings worth getting up for & family dinners unforgettable. Cravendale, Anchor, Lurpak & Tickler – names like these make us a vital, natural part of modern life in over 100 countries around the world. We are part of a Cooperative with 4,000 UK & 19,000 global employees at the heart of everything that we do.

What is our Taw Valley site like? Taw Valley is situated in Devon, in the heart of one of the biggest milk pools in the UK. Our 24/7 site produces both branded & own cheddars including our award-winning Tickler and BOB. We are currently investing over 35m Euros in upgrading the site, both in process reliability & more environmentally friendly energy provisions. We are also looking at a huge growth investment opportunity which could transform the site in the next 3 years.

Competitive salary (salary discussed at application)

Annual Pay review

Employer pension matched up to 6% (12% total contributory)

4 x annual life salary assurance

Flexible Benefits- buy additional annual leave, reward gateway scheme- discounts with various retailers via my benefit platform.

People agenda commitment to training and development

Access to discounted Arla products

Most importantly- a cheese hamper at Christmas!

What will the role look like? Reporting to the Site Operations Manager, you will be responsible for leading and managing our Continuous Improvement (LCO) team. You will set day to day objectives for the team and deliver operational plans, whilst resolving issues and escalation points. You will work cross functionally with teams on site, as well as the wider UK and global site teams, to share best practices and ensure our Taw Valley Creamery is running to a best in class standard.

You will be responsible for:

• Ensuring the operating systems for the area are accurately managed, maintained and developed to enable responsive, data based management of the operation
• Ensuring all aspects of the operation are resourced and rostered to deliver output and quality objectives and provide legal compliance
• Contributing to an effective LCO (Line Centred Organisation) way of working
• Maintaining and developing a highly motivated team with a developing skillset for continuous improvement of team performance
• Managing own time and prioritising activities in conjunction with business plans
• Setting standards personally and monitoring team performance
• To be a key member of the Process Team and contribute in departmental activities
• To be a key member of the site LCO community and interact with relevant site activities
• Communicating with global specialist networks to seek best practice
• Communicating with relevant third parties and suppliers to ensure awareness of latest technologies and best practice
• Key contributor to site CI pipeline
• Working closely with other departments such as engineering and supply chain to ensure best practices are embedded
• Monitoring system faults across process and work with Supply Chain specialist to resolve
• Collecting relevant data and interpreting results
• Organise team workload on a daily basis ensuring clarity for team members (include coaching, assigning, follow up and feedback)
• To operate equipment as appropriate when required
• Seek continuous improvement to set and achieve departmental KPI’s and regularly update and communicate with the team and site
• Assist the engineering and department teams with problem solving and maintaining equipment and processes at the highest standard
• Update and maintain training and SOP planning and sign off.
• Drive the dialogue and barometer action planning within the department
• Provide cover at meetings and dialogue with the senior team and others
• To be contactable out of working hours if assistance and guidance is required occasionally by the team

Who are you? You’re a born leader: You thrive in manufacturing leadership environments and are able to galvanize a team to deliver results and reach goals. You’re a strategy guru: You’re a person with a plan- able to create a long-term strategy plan, including run strategy, asset and people, as agreed by the Factory Director; prioritize and plan resource development and deployment. You’re a culture & change champion: You have a pioneering spirit and a growth mindset- and can develop this in others. You are a believer in transformational change and are able to bring people with you on the journey.

In order to succeed in this role you will need to be an ambitious, strategic and strong leader who has people management experience within a fast paced manufacturing company. You will be able to demonstrate strong skills in coordination and have a wealth of experience in operational and strategic leadership with an understanding of continuous improvement, lean manufacturing principles, culture change and stakeholder engagement.

You will also need:

• Degree qualified or equivalent in a relevant discipline.
• Experience of leading either Total Performance Management, IL6S (Integrated Lean Six Sigma), IWS (Integrate Works Systems) or similar
• Effective problem solving skills and ability to work under own initiative in a high speed environment
• Significant experience in leading and developing a team
• Previous experience of implementing digital tools would be preferred but not essential
• Knowledge of BRC & Mark & Spencer’s standards (Desired)
• Knowledge of quality standards and effect of incident on quality
• Effective team worker, influencer and communicator
• High in enthusiasm & passion

Things We’d Love To Tell You About Arla We are a farmer-owned cooperative. That means we are committed to partnering with farmers so they are guaranteed a fair price for their milk. We experimented with poo powered trucks (google it- you won’t regret it), and built the world’s first ever 100% carbon neutral dairy. All as part of our ongoing commitment to combatting climate change. We are the producer of Lurpak, one of the world’s most iconic butter brands. We are a Danish business, operating across the UK, Europe, Asia, The Middle East, North America, South America and other regions across the globe.

Next steps: Please apply using the link or reach out directly to Rachel McDaid, Senior Talent Partner at Arla Foods. The closing date for this position is Friday 29th March.

We have a purpose for Good At Arla, we strive to unlock the highest potential in each other while working together to create a sustainable future of dairy. We call it Stronger People Stronger Planet and it is deeply anchored in our organisation and founded on our commitment to respecting human rights, increasing access to healthy dairy nutrition, inspiring good food habits, and improving the environment for future generations. In order to succeed we need to hire people with a sustainable mindset. Could this be you?