Line Lead (3rd Shift)

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At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy.

From your PASSION to ours

Midwest Yogurt, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Line Lead based in Reed City, Michigan.

The Line Lead provides safety and servant-based leadership to achieve breakthrough production results on a specific production system. This position is also accountable for developing and delivering the daily, weekly, monthly and 90-day plans to deliver performance goals. The Line Lead is accountable for driving out losses using rigorous Daily Direction Setting and developing the plan for the day. They will have ownership of Safety, Quality, System Utilization (SU), Actual vs. Schedule (AVS) and Clean Inspect Lubricate (CIL) systems and Planned Stops.

The Line Lead owns ensuring the development of the operating teams’ technical capability. A majority of a Line Lead’s day will be spent on the floor with the operating teams building the capability of the people in their area. This position works daily with the Process Lead and Maintenance Lead to deliver breakthrough results and is ultimately accountable for the results of the system. The Line Lead will support the capability building of the Process Lead and Maintenance Lead roles and should be able to cover their responsibilities in any short-term absence. The Line Lead will be responsible for the management of the platform budget to ensure Cost per Case (CPC) target is met including, but not limited to, overtime management, destroys, hold orders, etc.

From your EXPERTISE to our

Key responsibilities for this position include:

Leadership

• Owns Human and Food safety for the system/platform and action plans for improvement.
• System Owner- Single point accountability for the system/platform results
• Owns DDS process including:
• Leads daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly – including Recognition of team members.
• Lead the development and execution of Plan for the Day – including development and handoff of plan for off shifts.
• Health of CIL system
• Provide ongoing performance feedback and coaching to platform team members and other direct reports.
• Builds capability in technicians, in order to identify, measure and drive out losses on their equipment.
• Support of the developmental plan for the Platform Team
• Owns identifying training gaps for the technicians and other support staff on the system as well as developing and ensuring execution of training plan to address these gaps.
• Implementation and evolution of Planned Stops

Loss Elimination

• Single point of ownership of the 90-Day improvement plan to deliver the glidepath.
• Facilitates development of the system 90-Day Plans to address losses and build capability
• Owns delivery of line targeted results (including financials)

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• Experience managing people, safety and quality.
• Demonstrated capability in driving out losses of a system
• Demonstrated basic technical capability of manufacturing equipment
• Minimum 2 years of related manufacturing experience

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.