Process Improvement & Quality Engineer

At Sonoco Chesterfield we manufacture composite cans used as packaging mainly for food and powdered beverages. You have probably seen some of our products on the shelves in the supermarket: Pringles, Bisto, Nestlé Coffee Mate, SlimFast powdered beverages, Heinz Baby Food, etc.

Purpose of Job: Within the operations department and reporting directly to the Continuous Improvement Lead, your role is to improve the efficiency of our plant manufacturing processes by application of the lean manufacturing principles.

Your day to day job will consist of:

• Ensuring an optimal production efficiency by problem solving top production losses, finding the root cause, and designing the issue out in the shortest period possible, leading to no repeated problems occurring.
• Investigating the root causes of complaints – both from the customer and those found during production – and then identifying and implementing effective preventative actions.
• Documenting knowledge in a production standard and training operators to develop team self-sufficiency.

You will also be assigned some projects to manage such as:

• Continuous improvement projects: 5S, SMED, Autonomous Maintenance, Centre-lining, Process Control Automation.
• Machines installation & qualifications on site: Factory Acceptance Test, Commissioning, Team Training.
• New products introduction: trials of new materials and new products launch support at manufacturing level.

You will challenge our operations staff to deliver safely some quality products on time every time.

Role within the company and stakeholder interactions: The candidate will report to the site Continuous Improvement Lead with a dotted line report to the Quality Manager. The candidate will have to interact with multiple stakeholders on a day to day basis: Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Warehouse, Supply Chain, sister plants (based in Europe), Suppliers.

The ideal candidate should have the capability to grow into a larger role within the UK to support Sonoco’s commitment to succession development and succession planning.

Key Activities:

• Develop and drive a culture of continuous improvement within site, ensuring the engagement and involvement of the entire Plant support and operations department.
• Lead improvement activities across all plant and equipment areas of site, through Define, Measurement, Analysis, Improvement and Control methods.
• Manage customer complaints and internal complaints for the site, including recording the complaints in Agile/Excel, leading the investigation into the root causes, agreeing and implementing the preventative actions, and reporting on the complaints to the internal and external stakeholders.
• Assist in the training of staff ensuring that they develop the skills to become subject/equipment experts in the various systems and processes on site.
• Lead and support root cause analysis when plant and equipment issues arise, suggesting corrective and preventative actions and ensuring that these are appropriately documented and approved in accordance with local procedures.
• Provide engineering support to include design reviews, commissioning and validation support of plant and equipment including factory acceptance testing, commissioning and improvement.
• Support the introduction of new plant and equipment defining user requirements specifications through to involvement in commissioning, validation and ongoing operation & maintenance.
• Develop, maintain and improve plant and equipment procedures to execute all activities in a safe and compliant way.
• Conduct optimisation studies and perform detailed engineering analysis of existing facilities, systems & process equipment.
• Support the management of the site maintenance programme to ensure that plant, facilities, and process equipment are kept safe and compliant with statutory regulation and company procedures.
• Work together with the Site and Operations managers to cover periods of holiday and absence; undertake other duties in relation to the position as the Company requires, including working additional hours as requested by the Site and Operations Manager.
• Take ownership of all equipment within your designated focus area, ensuring that they are run to pre-set speeds and conditions. All maintenance is completed to schedule with successful outputs. Where gaps are found, implement controls, and roll out to other similar equipment.
• Ensure that your area has adequate Activity performance indicators that improve KPI’s, and these KPI’s are measured at line level and acted upon when not achieved.
• Track and trend performance issues to ensure that repeat problems are picked up, discussed and activities to resolve organised and followed through.

Key Measurables:

• % Unplanned Downtime on focus machinery
• % Implementation of line process control
• Time taken by the team to change over machinery
• # Standards created on time on focus equipment
• % People trained to correct operating level on focus machinery
• % People trained on problem solving
• $ saved by continuous improvement projects implemented

CANDIDATE’S EXPERIENCE

Qualifications and Experience

Required: Graduate Masters / Bachelor in a Technical / Manufacturing / Sciences subject. Proven capability in Problem Solving (8D, DMAIC, Green Belt Lean 6 Sigma, UPS, A3, ...)

Desirable:

• 1 year or more of experience in a process control / engineering role
• MEng in Industrial / Mechanical Engineering
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt qualified or equivalent
• Experience in a fast-moving manufacturing environment
• Experience in the food packaging, automotive or FMCG industry

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to analyse complex sets of data quickly
• Ability to train people
• Excellent communication: written, spoken, visual
• Excellent computer skills: mainly Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and email

Personal Attributes

• Must be curious
• Must be willing to learn and develop personal knowledge
• Bias for action / Enthusiastic with drive for continuous improvement
• Must be an excellent team player with good interpersonal skills able to communicate at all levels
• Logical with a key eye for details
• Excellent customer focus required

Working Environment: The position is based in Chesterfield plant but can require visits to our manufacturing plants in UK & Europe as well as visits to our Suppliers or Customers in the UK.