Director of Continuous Improvement

Job Description

At FreshRealm, we aspire to be the most optimized fresh meals solutions platform in the world. Fresh meals are our focus, and we are passionate about transforming this rapidly growing category, bringing fresh to everyone, every day, everywhere.

FreshRealm develops, sources, commercializes and assembles fresh meals, including meal kits, ready-to-heat and ready-to-cook offerings. We partner with leading direct-to-consumer brands, national grocers, and top convenience, club, and food service companies to deliver the very best meals to their customers. Our customer’s success is our success.

If you are a growth-minded leader who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment at a company transforming an industry, FreshRealm is the perfect fit for you.

General Job Description

The Realmians Business Systems (RBS) will be an integral part of the way we run our manufacturing sites & functional areas and serve every customer, every day, everywhere . Under the direction of the Vice President (RBS), this role has a mission to focus on creating, supporting and assisting the improvement efforts tied to the company’s most critical business processes. Primary areas of focus will be the improvement of all Functions including Supply Chain, Operations, Business Development, Marketing, Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance, and Legal. Deep analyzing of processes, diagnosing operational challenges, and implementing process and system changes to drive continuous improvement and breakthrough performance.

Our operating model’s goal is to positively impact our results and culture by establishing standards, institutionalizing daily management processes, adopting consistent problem solving methods and learning by doing. As part of the RBS program of Lean Management, the candidate will build an action plan to implement tools, identify opportunities and launch processe. In addition, this role will be part of the team that defines the lean culture and activities / change management programs to embed in the organization.

The candidate will drive implementation of the RBS including daily management, metrics, and problem solving cadence. He / she will work with all the functions to address KPI’s and alignment to CVD (core value drivers) implementing lean tools and training programs to enable PSP / action planning. This position will also drive the implementation of a lean certification program. This certification program will provide the path to ensure the application of recognized standards for lean principles and practices, serve as a benchmark for FreshRealm’s achievements, and ensure a common roadmap for continuous improvement and workforce development.

The position can be remote but requires at least 50% travel based on location.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Assist the leadership in the development and execution of an RBS Roadmap (i.e., how to use the RBS tools to drive sustainable improvement into all parts of our business and making it a way of life). Be an integral part of FreshRealm’s team that designs and creates the infrastructure to make the RBS a benchmark in the industry.
• Lead, facilitate and co-facilitate targeted, kaizen events, improvement workshops and projects that are tied to our Strategy Deployment (SD) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to drive significant sustainable business results across the organization by leveraging Lean tools, people skills, and change management processes. Ensure successful kaizen events by installing and ensuring compliance to the kaizen process (includes; (1) planning of kaizens through a funnel process tied to SD, KPIs, and business needs, (2) kaizen execution and (3) sustainment of kaizens)
• Work closely with cross functional teams to proactively identify gaps and systematic opportunity for improvement (OFI) and define and drive them through to completion as effectively and quickly as possible utilizing lean toolsets.
• Partner with all functions to identify and create world class processes throughout the organization and define process capabilities, assess gaps and develop gap closure plans.
• Train and lead effective problem solving.
• Build and deliver breakthrough levels of improvement in process capability, reengineer business processes to reduce cost and increase productivity, and attain world-class levels of quality.
• Define and implement process improvements on key initiatives that result in significant improvements in service delivery, increasing organizational effectiveness.
• Mentor, influence and develop potential lean practitioner candidates through their Kaizen events and projects driving business change
• Engage the operational teams in setting specific goals around Lean initiatives. This includes working with leadership to drive lean daily management in key areas of Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and People.
• Facilitate, train, and coach team members in the use of the Business System tools (Lean tools).
• Identify and share best practices across the organization; incorporate benchmarks and best practices from other FreshRealm functions.
• Partner with Finance to incorporate kaizen and project savings into long-range financial plans and operating budgets.

Skills and Requirements

Experience / Education

What We Offer

Our Values at Work

We believe that ACTIONS speak louder than words and our company values align to those ACTIONS.

In Our Daily Work, This Looks Like :