Operation Leader in Reading, Pennsylvania at Custom Processing Services Inc.

Summary:

This critical to success role at Custom Processing Services (CPS) provides daily engagement and accountability to the manufacturing employee base, creating a profound experience for all employees.

The Operations Leader is responsible for leading all shift operations within Plant 03, with full accountability for safety, people development, product quality, and operational performance. This role serves as the primary on-shift leader, driving execution, developing employees, and ensuring customer commitments are consistently met.

The Operations Leader is expected to lead by example, foster a high-performance culture, and make real-time decisions to support production goals while maintaining safety and quality standards.

Accountable Functions and Responsibilities

People Focused:

• Establish, improve and maintain a strong safety culture where compliance is non-negotiable
• Own employee training for your shift personnel.
• Lead, coach, and develop shift employees to achieve individual and team performance goals
• Build a respectful, accountable, and engaged team environment
• Own training and development plans for all shift personnel
• Provide regular feedback, coaching, and performance management
• Promote accountability through clear expectations and follow-up

Customer Focused:

• Ensure all production processes meet customer specifications and quality standards
• Deliver on-time availability (OTA) for all products
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions for quality and customer issues
• Safeguard customer-owned materials and products
• Maintain compliance with food safety, food defense, and regulatory requirements

CPS Focused:

• Drive shift performance to meet or exceed production and revenue targets
• Optimize throughput, efficiency, and uptime without compromising quality
• Exhibit a high level of excellence in the custody of CPS purchased goods and items.
• Ensure accurate and timely operational reporting
• Utilize systems (Deacom, MaintainX, Paylocity) to manage performance
• Maintain compliance with ISO 9001, ISO 22000, and ISO 17025 certifications as well as other third party certifications
• Other work as assigned or deemed necessary for the business.

Job Metrics (Measurements of Success):

• Safety Incident rate for shift

• Employee retention & engagement for shift

• First Pass Quality

• On Time Availability (OTA) for plant

• Customer Complaints

• Budget: Shift Uptime

• Budget: Actual process performance verses standard

Required Qualifications:

• Post high school degree in Business, an Engineering discipline, or a related field preferred.

• Alternatively, five years of relative experience in Manufacturing Leadership preferred

• Champion and embodiment of CPS Core Values

• Willingness to work as part of a collaborative team, promoting trust and respect.

• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, including proficiency in Office Suite applications.

• Ability to multitask and establish priorities in an environment of competing expectations.

• Willingness to continue education and personal development for the purposes of staying up to date with industry, technology, and regulatory requirements.

• Desire to be a change agent, not getting discouraged, but persevering through times of conflict.

• Flexible and open minded to change while at the same time being able to hold an unwavering position.

• Previous experience in developing personnel.

• Ability to analyze data, look for trends, and draw conclusions for said data

Location:

• Reading Campus (primary work location) – 99% of time

• East Greenville Campus (secondary location) – 1% of time

Work Environment (estimated averages):

• Office (12%)

• Floor (88%)

Growth Opportunities:

• Business Unit Leadership

• Technical Sales

• Business within a Business Leadership opportunities (Revenue hunters and farmers)

• SME areas Leadership opportunities

Travel Requirements:

• Very rarely, to vendor locations as needed to support learning and equipment/process advancement

• Very rarely, to industry or technical conferences to advance learning and understanding of new technologies

• Between CPS sites as indicated above