Food Manufacturer – Director Production​/operations – South-western Ontario

Our client is a fast-growing, well-established food manufacturer headquartered in the Montreal area. The company manufactures and distributes branded marinated food products to retail and food service operators throughout Canada and the US. The firm is also an important private label partner in its industry. The company boasts a dominant market position in several of its product categories and brands which continue to be expanded upon.

Privately owned, our client has a rich tradition of innovation and an impeccable track record of long-term growth and profitability. Over the past five years alone our client has significantly grown revenues while successfully undertaking major equipment/capacity expansion initiatives at its existing plants and distribution centre. A loyal, committed and entrepreneurial team makes this all possible.

With the completion of a new 150,000 square foot facility in the Chatham-Kent area, the company is creating a new position, that of Director of Production/Operations, which will have the specific responsibility of ensuring that the new plant executes and scales to meet its vast potential.

Reporting to the company’s corporate Vice-President of Manufacturing, the Director Production/Operations will be responsible for all matters relating to the plant’s production processes from the ordering of goods and raw materials through to the efficient production and quality of product quantities sufficient to keep pace with market demand.

In achieving this, the Director of Production/Operations will evaluate all existing systems, processes and metrics with a view to recommending and then implementing continuous improvement mechanisms and disciplines which will minimize production costs and waste while maximizing production and quality outputs.

No less important, the Director of Production/Operations will achieve these results by cultivating positive relationships across the organization while nurturing a culture of excellence.

The Director of Production/Operations will provide strong leadership to the operations-related functional (production, quality, maintenance, supply chain and sanitation) ensuring that the team are encouraged and feel free to contribute and implement ideas that will improve the business.

The areas of responsibility include:

• Align and execute operational plans to strategic plans.
• Assess and evaluate all current production processes, make recommendations and execute ongoing changes that improve efficiencies and cost effectiveness.
• Develop meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics by which to better monitor, manage and improve operations.
• Develop strategic projects to identify and deliver key business improvements throughout operations from identifying initial potential opportunity, delivering the business case, gaining approval and delivering to agreed scope, budget and timescale.
• Cultivate a continuous improvement or related lean manufacturing (eg. Kaizen) culture across the organization.
• Play a hands‑on role in managing all day‑to‑day operations working closely with key managers and team members.
• Supervise preparation of production schedules and plan ordering cycles to ensure production volumes can be met.
• Implement and manage systems for the ordering of goods and raw materials that minimizes stockholding quantities yet is suitably timed to ensure uninterrupted production of all of the company’s product lines in keeping with the market demand for each product. Work closely with the sales organization on demand planning/forecasting processes.
• Continually evaluate costing and supply chain strategies and approaches against best practices.
• Strategic planning, budget preparation and accountability for operational matters within the budget process.
• Ensure that all team members understand their objectives and that they are monitored. Provide regular and constructive feedback.
• Manage and oversee the maintenance and servicing of the company’s production equipment to minimize down times while maximizing the efficiency and working life of all production equipment and machinery.
• Set up working systems which minimize loss of…