Division Manager

AMPI owns six Midwest-based manufacturing plants where 10 percent of the nation's American-type cheese and processed cheese is produced. The cooperative's award-winning cheese and powdered dairy products are marketed to foodservice, retail, and food ingredient customers. In 2019, the co-op launched its Dinner Bell Creamery brand and accompanying Co-op Crafted promise, highlighting more than 50 years of dairy farm families partnering with skilled Cheesemakers.

Responsibilities

• All AMPI employees have an obligation to report employee safety, food safety, and food quality issues to personnel of authority.
• Ensures strict adherence to product specifications, food safety standards, and regulatory requirements (FDA, USDA, etc.).
• As the primary point of contact with our brand owner for contract manufacturing, build a partnership ensuring best-in-class safety, quality, service, and cost performance.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with brand owner leadership teams to drive accountability and continuous improvement.
• Administers, plans, and directs plant operations while continually striving for improvements to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
• Applies continuous improvement (CI), Lean, and TPM methodologies to deliver sustainable results.
• Fosters a "safety first" atmosphere. Leads safety with employee engagement and participation, instilling behavior-based safety observations.
• Identifies and investigates safety concerns and implements corrective plan of action.
• Responsible for active involvement with dairy producer relationships, working directly with member services.
• Drives manufacturing performance improvements focused on waste reduction, COGS reduction, throughput, and labor efficiency to exceed budget expectations.
• Manages direct reports who supervise employees in production, quality, maintenance, human resources, and office while responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of the reports.
• Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.
• Develops strategies to achieve organizational goals and adapts strategy to changing conditions.
• Champions data-driven problem-solving and standard work.