Excellence Practitioner - Decatur, IL; Corn

Performance Excellence Practitioner - Decatur, IL

This is a full‑time, exempt position.

The Performance Excellence Practitioner role is designed to coach and guide the implementation of ADM’s Performance Excellence System (PE). ADM is on an ongoing journey to drive continuous improvement in our products, services and processes. In an ever changing world, we have to be positioned to globally compete and win. Performance Excellence (PE) is a practice that helps us to drive a cultural shift to a continuous improvement mindset.

The role began as a pilot program at two Decatur, Illinois, locations and has blossomed into a global initiative that fundamentally changes how we operate. PE empowers, enables and engages colleagues at all levels of the organization and provides a standard set of tools and methodologies that allow us to effectively and efficiently overcome the challenges we face.

Successful alignment with the overall ADM PE philosophies empowers the company to develop efficient processes, eliminate non‑value added or duplicate efforts, waste and other related losses, and adopt best practices globally. This position focuses on driving improvements in revenue and cost reduction through the development of efficient processes, elimination of non‑value added or duplicate efforts, waste and related losses within ADM using the zero‑loss mindset through the PE system.

The PE Practitioner is the direct conduit between tactical/operational and strategic initiatives. The role requires a leader who can facilitate and drive change in a fast‑paced and ever‑changing environment, leveraging strong interpersonal and influencing skills.

Responsibilities include deployment and ongoing sustainment of the PE Pillar system across the Business Unit (Corn, Oilseeds, Nutrition, Milling) and training, coaching, and mentoring of Performance Excellence Leaders at the local plant level.

• Align with strategic objectives for the Business Unit/Division/
  
  Functional Area
  
  /Plant and execute PE to accomplish them.
• Provide advanced coaching on problem solving using data and analytics.
• Assist locations with root cause analysis, systematic problem solving and the implementation of sustainable countermeasures.
• Implement sustainable countermeasures using Kaizen methodology of rapid improvement.
• Perform education for location pillar teams and steering committees.
• Train teams to utilize tools and methodologies aligned to PE.
• Audit and coach the Site Steering Team on KPIs, Pillars and key projects.
• Ensure visibility of KPIs and trend management.
• Provide and share foundational best practices aligned to the system across plants.
• Ensure plant colleague satisfaction through standard visits to transfer performance system knowledge.
• Track and review ROI (Return on Investment) of site implementation to deliver hard cost savings.
• Ensure site program minor blockers are highlighted and communicated with site specialist and site leader.
• When needed, escalates implementation problems to PE Business Unit Lead. Review trip reports with PE BU lead, identify gaps and provide solutions.
• Travel required, up to 75%.

• Manufacturing background either as a department manager or a plant manager.
• Systematic problem solving skills related to manufacturing performance.
• Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills.
• At least five years of manufacturing/processing and/or Continuous Improvement experience, including at least two years as a department or plant manager.
• Experience with data analytics tools such as PI Vision, PI Asset Framework, Red Zone Augmentir, Shift Connector or equivalent data handling and management software used within the manufacturing environment.
• Experience in continuous improvement systems such as ADM Performance Excellence, Lean Manufacturing or Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).

Relocation assistance is available with this position.

Excited about this role but don’t think you meet every requirement listed? We encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another opening within the company.

ADM requires the successful completion of a background check.