Production Leader

Job Title: Production Leader

Location: Gloucester Factory

JOB PURPOSE

The production leader is responsible for the organisation, planning & coordination of activities for a defined production unit within the factory. This includes action tracking on safety & quality, KPI capture & analysis, collaboratively creating production schedules with planning, recruitment, supporting labour planning & receiving projects & innovations.

KPIs & KAIs – OEE, Waste, Cost of Quality, D-Incidents, Blocked Stock, Housekeeping & Hygiene Scores, Safety Leading Indicators

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Technical / Functional – production leaders need to have a strong background in manufacturing. They should have a firm grasp on the principles of production scheduling, continuous improvement, loss capture, safety standards, quality standards and incident management.
• Safety
  • Action Tracking – Collates information from all sources to generate the safety action plan, including but not limited to machinery safety, incident investigations, CSHEC minutes, SBO/DCAs, near misses, SHEPAR. Expected to drive these actions to completion through working with relevant colleagues.
  •  Audits – Expected to carry out and follow up safety audits in line with site requirements.
  •  Risk Assessments ­– tracks and drives the progress of risk assessment completion.
  •  Incident Investigations – carry out investigations for serious incidents that require coordination across shifts.
  •  KPI Collation – working with the safety teams to ensure that relevant KPIs & KAIs are collated and shared with the production teams.
• Quality
  •  Action Tracking – Collates information from all sources to generate the quality action plan, including but not limited to housekeeping & hygiene, incident investigations, . Expected to drive these actions to completion through working with relevant colleagues.
  •  Audits – Expected to carry out and follow up quality audits in line with site requirements.
  •  External Audit Support ­– first point of contact for their area for support on external audits.
  •  Incident Investigations – carry out investigations for serious incidents that require coordination across shifts.
  •  KPI Collation – working with the safety teams to ensure that relevant KPIs & KAIs are collated and shared with the production teams.
• Operational Activities:
  • Daily Coordination – Ensures that relevant communication and execution plans & materials are in place for relevant members of the team. Attends mornings meetings within the factory operating system & consolidates inputs into an action plan. Responds to any operational disruptions to reset plans where the impact spans across multiple shifts e.g., material shortages, production plan changes, etc.
  • Weekend Planning – Ensures that the weekend plans are clearly communicated to all shift managers & that monitoring & measuring mechanisms are in place for review the following week.
  • Weekly Coordination – Prepares the inputs for the weekly production meeting including updated actions, KPIs, production plans & projects.
  • Production Planning – Responsible for agreeing the weekly production schedules in collaboration with the planning department. Must ensure this is robustly communicated along with any changes to the production teams.
  • Labour Planning - ensures that the production, labour & activity plans are aligned and proactively works to address any areas of misalignment.
  • Execution Support – Where required, supports shift managers on the shop floor to drive activities including briefs, changeovers, cleaning and projects.
  • Rectification - works with the quality and production teams to develop & execute plans for the rectification or destruction of blocked stock.
  • Detailed Activity Planning – responsible for preparing detailed activity plans for downtime. This includes scheduled cleaning, maintenance, projects, start-ups & shutdowns. In some cases, there will be an expectation to support in driving the execution of these activities.
• Projects
  • Receiving - The first point of contact for all projects landing in the production area, whether related to engineering, systems, innovations or processes. The expectation is for these to be properly coordinated and integrated into the team plans.
  • Planning - Collaborating with planning teams to ensure seamless scheduling of project activities.
• People Management
  • Direct Reports - this role has no direct reports.
  • Employee Relations – production leaders are expected to carry out disciplinary investigations / hearings and to hear grievances where required in their area.
• Continuous Improvement – Has knowledge and understanding of the key principles of continuous improvement and an awareness of the tools used to identify and prioritise time, cost and waste losses in the production area and eliminate them; role requires data collection. Works with process engineers, engineering technicians and operators to support CI activities in the area. Has formal accountability for the progress of the AM programme.
• Training & Recruitment
  • Training – works closely with the site training team to ensure plans are coordinated properly with labour and production requirements. Expected to take a holistic view of skill level in their area (e.g. through grade distribution) and work with the operations manager, training teams and shift managers to set appropriate direction & to coordinate resources.
  • Recruitment – works with the operations manager, labour planner & shift managers to agree & coordinate recruitment activities for the area.

ALL ABOUT YOU

Professional Qualifications:

(The minimum requirement from the JSP should be described, incl degrees/qualifications preferred, noting qualifications vary globally).

• National school leaver qualifications in Reading and Comprehension, Writing and Mathematics.  This will support recording of data, analysis of machine performance and general teamwork skills with an emphasis on good communication.

It would be advantageous to hold a degree in a science or engineering background, but this is not an essential requirement for the role.

Experience Required:

• Must have a strong understanding of the end-to-end manufacturing process. 
• Has knowledge and understanding of national Safety and Environmental legislation and company policy, systems and practice relevant to the factory and the legal responsibility placed upon individuals. 
• Strong servant leader, with significant demonstrable experience of achieving sustained success within a manufacturing environment.
• Has successfully led improvement projects and managed the change and transition process with teams of people.
• Strong continuous improvement knowledge.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Excellent organisation & communication skills.
• Considerable ability to drive a strong safety culture.
• Good commercial acumen and understanding of financial concepts.
• Ability to deal with ever-changing fast-paced environment, making quick sound decisions, prioritising and driving changes to the operation in real time
• Is curious about self-development, proactively and continuously develops self to be the best they can be 
• Should ideally have reasonable mechanical skills to address day to day issues.
• It would be advantageous but not essential to hold a degree in a chemical, science or engineering related discipline.

This role is ideal for individuals who wish to develop into more senior people leadership roles or technical roles in manufacturing.

NOTES

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’ 

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at Unilever | Unilever.

Recruitment Fraud

Cyber criminals advertise fake job adverts with prestigious employers as a way of stealing information or even defrauding individuals out of money.In the most sophisticated cases, they will set up fake websites, which have a similar address to companies like Unilever. They even conduct fake telephone interviews and then offer candidates a role with the proviso they pay a fee for background checks or to cover work visa costs. These types of attacks are becoming more common as more people are looking for employment in the economic climate.

How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down.

What can I do?

If you become aware of potential recruitment fraud, spot fake Unilever recruitment adverts or fake LinkedIn profiles, report them via Una Live Chat.

Unilever does not accept responsibility or liability for any candidates who are financially impacted by recruitment fraud. Your vigilance is key!