Plant Manager

About the role

The Plant Manager has end-to-end site accountability for all day-to-day activities in order to meet short, medium- and long-term goals, including Safety, Food Safety, Quality, Financials, Performance, Sustainability, and Customer requirements. Furthermore, the sites are part of the sales activity and play an active role to convince customers to buy or to outsource from Barry Callebaut. In a nutshell, the Plant Manager is the owner of the site.

The Plant Manager sets and monitors performance of the Plant against balanced scorecard set targets, following all the standards in areas such as people, safety, food safety, quality, manufacturing efficiency, site productivity, SKU complexity, and cost control.

They ensure and nurture a culture of “Safety, Food Safety First and Quality Always” mindset across all teams and leaders in the site, in line with the Barry Callebaut Go4Zero objective (0 accidents, 0 defects, 0 delays, 0 impact). She/he has the responsibility to act and speak up when deviations cannot be solved locally (example: supplier quality).

She/he ensures compliance with all relevant regulations on a country, local, or global level. Ensure full operational licenses and customer-related audits (SMETA, Rainforest Alliance, etc.). Additionally, implement all needed capex to comply with Safety, food safety, and OT security.

She/he has the drive to constantly seek improvements through lean principles and people capabilities development towards achieving best-in-class performance. This includes challenging the business to allow the plant to be a high-performing operation (e.g. SKU complexity, raw material supplier performance, etc.).

Key responsibilities include

1. Within the global production and country strategy and guidelines, the Plant Manager directs, plans, organizes, develops, and controls all activities of the Operations function (Production, Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Supply Chain, Engineering with some being direct and some dotted line reporting) in order to meet short, medium, and long-term goals, whilst complying with Quality Assurance and customer requirements, rules, laws, and regulations.
2. Ensure that production targets are met, and the facility operates efficiently, safely, and in compliance with all relevant regulations.
3. Define the short, mid, and long-term strategy and set up of the Plant, defining and participating in valuable Capex projects.
4. Ensure the safety of all employees, be familiar with and implement all relevant regulations related to safety, food safety, and environmental protection, and ensure the plant complies at all times. Monitor and improve safety, food safety, and environmental performance.
5. Lead, direct, and control the day-to-day activities of the factory to achieve the quality, operational, and financial objectives on short and medium-term in line with the overall Corporate Business plan.
6. Set and monitor the performance of the Plant against standards and targets (using balanced scorecards) in areas such as manufacturing (processes) and administration efficiency, cost control (budget process, controlling, measurement, KPI management), legal compliance, and human resource management.
7. Lead, direct, evaluate, and develop a team of Functional and Operational Managers or other professionals (for example, Controlling, IT, SC) to ensure that the plant meets its established targets and standards.
8. Develop people: providing learning, growth, building community, and a strong cross-functional collaborative approach.
9. Act as a leadership role model living Barry Callebaut values.
10. Define mission and strategy of the site in line with the Manufacturing strategy and Barry Callebaut Operating System.
11. Define with the Plant lead team “Team strategy and Deployment initiatives.”
12. Be responsible for activities such as Manufacturing, Safety, Maintenance, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance Controlling, IT, and administration.
13. Establish operating budgets; monitor the cost and effectiveness of production activities to optimize resources, prioritize spending, and achieve volume, quality, and manufacturing standards.
14. Develop and drive the implementation of a variety of operating Policies and Procedures (in conjunction with corporate subject matter experts) to ensure that the plant meets its current and future Operation targets, Safety, and Quality standards.
15. Identify and implement process improvements, lean manufacturing initiatives, and new technologies to increase efficiency and reduce waste.
16. Manage the infrastructure of the factory and ensure the factory remains under hygienic conditions.
17. Oversee the maintenance and repair of equipment and machinery to minimize downtime and ensure smooth production processes.
18. Monitor and manage raw materials, finished goods, and supplies to maintain appropriate inventory levels and prevent stock outs or overstocking.
19. Engage with main stakeholders: Sales, R&D, Central Planning, Supply Chain, Regional Quality and Food Safety, Engineering, Finance to deliver the required service to customers, create new products, and achieve high performance with good cost control.

About you

1. Bachelor or Master Degree in Engineering or similar Technical field.
2. Minimum local language fluency plus English (advanced).
3. Knowledgeable in MS Office Suite, SAP Systems, and other applications used in manufacturing e.g. scheduling, CMMS, MES, etc.
4. Strong technical background supporting continuous improvement work environment.
5. Proven business and people management skills, servant leadership mindset.
6. Experience in Leading operational teams and Unions/Works Council context.
7. Detailed knowledge of plant and manufacturing functional disciplines.
8. Practical Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, and TPM.
9. Experience in Project Management through application of innovation/engineering projects.
10. Change Manager seeking Continuous improvement through lean principles and people capabilities development.
11. Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
12. Knowledge of latest quality and safety laws/regulations.
13. Proven strong focus on procedures (standardizing).
14. Good problem-solving abilities.
15. Acts as a servant Leader.
16. Excellent communication (written and verbal) skills both upward and downward.
17. Works well under pressure, enabling his/her team to thrive under all circumstances.
18. Strong attention to detail.
19. Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
20. Comfortable with managing positive change.
21. Self-starter and results-driven mindset with discipline to sustain results.
22. Multitasking and time-management skills.