Good people, working with good people, for our common good.

Sound good?

KeHE-a natural, organic, specialty and fresh food distributor-is all about "good" and is growing, so there's never been a more exciting time to join our team. If you're enthusiastic about working in an environment with a people-first culture and an organization committed to good living, good food and good service, we'd love to talk to you!

Primary Responsibilities

• The role of the Process Improvement Manager will support the optimization of KeHE’s business processes and Continuous Improvement.
• Primary objective of the role will be to have a thorough understanding of the Buyer and Demand Planner roles, in order to evaluate and suggest process gaps and opportunities which increase service level, decrease DOH, and lower spoils.
• The Process Improvement Manager is responsible to train all key roles such as Demand Planners and Buyers on using system capabilities and provide process training.
• As with all positions at KeHE, we expect that all actions will be consistent with KeHE’s Mission, Vision and Values.

Essential Functions

• Process Improvement

  • Leverage data and analytics to ensure process optimization and system efficiency.
  • Work as a full member of project teams throughout the lifecycle, owning the definition, documentation and sign-off of valid business process specifications.
  • Conduct interviews with SME’s, Super Users, and Cross-Functional partners to understand how their processes work.
  • Create process compliance guardrails for the Demand Planners and Buyers and build metrics tracking methods to ensure process discipline and adherence.
  • Process Improvement for Demand Planner and Buyer roles are the primary focus for the role. In addition to this, it also has responsibilities to build processes for some new roles in the organization (Customer Fulfillment Specialist, S&OP Demand planning roles, etc).
  • Build cross functional processes that advances the usage of technology like utilization of Order Projection by Supply chain to share with vendors, Receipt Projection sharing with DC Ops for labor planning and all future projections of Demand and Supply with various internal and external functions.
  • Cross Functional Process Improvement encompasses multiple functions like Sales, DC Operations, Transportation, etc. Ability to develop process guard rails on any impact from these functions’ processes to Supply Chain is key to the role.

  Change Management

  • Be the Positive Change Agent, attract and recruit other champions of change to influence and coach the broader Supply Chain team in embracing change.
  • Identify creative ways to keep business users engaged and continuously educated in a new remote world,
  • Drives targeted, sustainable improvement by leveraging consulting skills and change management processes.
  • Comfort speaking and presenting in front of 60+ 130+ people.

   

  Capability Development

  • Thorough understanding of the Planning system capabilities from Demand and Replenishment functions to train Demand and Supply Planners effectively.
  • High level understanding of Forecasting Algorithms like Exponential Smoothing, Linear Regression Algorithm, Demand Patterns like Fast Moving, Slow Moving/Intermittent, highly seasonal demand, etc and understanding of set up of parameters to accomplish the highest Forecast Accuracy.
  • Understanding on Exception based Demand Management methods to quickly identify exceptions in an environment with million of SKUs for management.
  • Clear understanding of foundations of Replenishment logic with Safety Stock, Order Point, Order Up to Level, etc and all details on Order suggestions by planning systems to help answer questions from user community.
  • High level understanding of advanced cost-based optimization models that helps optimize inventory and ordering like Economic Order Quantity, Forward Buy, etc to train users on functionality of systems.
  • Understand the business problems and system capability enhancements required to solve them through leveraging out of the box system capabilities or customizing the forecasting and replenishment solution.

   

   

  BI / Analytics

  • High level understanding of Reporting and Analytical systems to help train the Supply Chain team on efficiently getting to the right report or dashboard to access the data they need.
  • Ability to identify how Processes should be built by a combination of sources like Planning systems, Reporting systems and also Transactional systems to help make decisions on day-to-day operations by Demand and Supply planners.
  • Guide Supply Chain user community with not only pulling historical data, but also by coaching on pro-active usage of data to avoid Service Level issue.

   

  Learning & Development

  • Fully understand the Buyer and Demand Planner roles and responsibilities.
  • Develop learning material to align with KeHE’s growing business model.
  • Acknowledging innovative ways to leverage technology in training.
  • Determine appropriate methods for learning and development based on present state of programs and processes.
  • Evaluating good and bad qualities, documenting models of the processes, and facilitating neutral teams to accommodate new business process designs.
  • The role of the Process Improvement Manager will support the optimization of KeHE’s business processes and Continuous Improvement.
  • Primary objective of the role will be to have a thorough understanding of the Buyer and Demand Planner roles, in order to evaluate and suggest process gaps and opportunities which increase service level, decrease DOH, and lower spoils.
  • The Process Improvement Manager is responsible to train all key roles such as Demand Planners and Buyers on using system capabilities and provide process training.
  • As with all positions at KeHE, we expect that all actions will be consistent with KeHE’s Mission, Vision and Values.

Minimum Requirements, Qualifications, Additional Skills, Aptitude

• • Adaptable: Ability to effectively manage a wide variety of tasks simultaneously.
  • Goal-oriented: Tenacious focus on identifying opportunities, pursuing solutions, and achieving results.
  • Motivated: An energetic self-starter who possesses initiative, a sense of urgency, and an unyielding positive attitude.
  • Organized: Effective time management and project management skills with an obsessive attention to detail.

   

   

  Education and Experience:

   

  • Bachelor’s Degree required; degree in Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Business, Operations, or Analytics preferred
  • Lean Six Sigma Certification (preferred)
  • Minimum of Five to Seven years in relevant distribution, retail or consumer goods industry
  • Advanced Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Word skills
  • A demonstrated passion for training, process, and procedure
  • Experience with Supply Chain systems (SAP, Manhattan, JDA, etc.) a plus