Asset Reliability Manager

About Us

Foremost Farms USA is one of the largest, leading dairy cooperatives in the United States and major dairy food and ingredients manufacturing business. We represent hundreds of Midwest dairy farmer members located in seven Midwest states, and we produce about 500 million pounds of cheese and 50 million pounds of butter in plants across our network every year. We Bring Dairy to Life in seven manufacturing plants across Wisconsin and Michigan and in our headquarters in Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin;

and we're looking for employees who are innovative and aim for excellence in our wide variety of production, field and business roles. Join us!

JOB TITLE
:
Asset Reliability Manager

POSITION TYPE
:
Full time

CLASSIFICATION
:
Exempt

Position Overview:

The Asset Reliability Manager serves as the strategic owner of Foremost Farms' asset reliability vision, standards, and governance framework. This role defines enterprise-wide reliability requirements for production facility assets – covering work management, preventive maintenance (PM)/predictive maintenance (PdM) programs, asset strategies, equipment standards, data governance, and KPI structures – and ensures consistent adoption across all plants.

The Asset Reliability Manager leads equipment reliability maturity efforts, capability building, and cross‑functional alignment with Operations, Quality, Finance, and Engineering for equipment care.

• Define and maintain corporate standards for computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) data structure, asset hierarchy, work management processes, PM/PdM methodologies, and documentation requirements.
• Establish KPI definitions, governance expectations, and reporting structures aligned with industry benchmarks.
• Review system and network performance trends and lead enterprise improvement strategies.

• Conduct asset criticality analyses and define preventive and predictive maintenance standards.
• Ensure reliability practices comply with regulatory requirements (PMO, FDA, USDA, 3A Sanitary Standards, and state inspections).
• Govern PM effectiveness, compliance, and optimization across all sites.
• Direct integration of PdM technologies and condition monitoring tools.

• Define required competencies for maintenance and reliability roles.
• Establish training pathways, certification structures, and capability development priorities.
• Guide training content needs.
• Build internal capability by identifying skill gaps and reducing dependency on external vendors.

• Publish and maintain Maintenance & Reliability Standards (planning/scheduling cadence, backlog targets, storeroom practices, lubrication, precision maintenance).
• Facilitate periodic data reviews with maintenance leaders and drive root cause analyses for chronic equipment issues.
• Govern network‑wide adherence to standards and oversee reliability audits.

• Define and maintain a standardized parts catalog across all sites; oversee critical spares strategy and SKU consolidation.
• Partner with Procurement to develop enterprise agreements, inventory policies, and cost‑reduction initiatives.
• Ensure parts compliance with sanitary and reliability standards.