Continuous Improvement Manager Europe & Asia

At Corbion, we exist to champion preservation in all its forms, preserving food and food production, health, and our planet.

Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
 

Do you recognize this? If yes, and if you get energized by the opportunity to contribute with your skills and mindset to continuously improve and integrate ways of working, you might be interested in our position of Continuous Improvement EU and Asia Regional Manager.

In this position you will have a key role in creating a change of culture and enabling a learning organization of our various plants and relevant departments in European and Asian regions. To make this happen you need to be able to influence multiple, diverse, and global stakeholders at all levels in the organization without authority. You need to be an effective “trusted advisor” and bring facilitation skills required to overcome initial resistance. Furthermore, you need to always live the behaviors of continuous improvement leader.

As our CI EU & Asia Regional Manager you will be part of Corbion Integrated Continuous Improvement (CiCi) global department and will report into the CI Director. You will work closely with leadership teams and local CI leads of all sites.

The main challenge for you will be to shape the continuous improvement journey in Europe and Asia. In this role you will connect to and coach the leaderships teams towards a Continuous Improvement culture, making sure the culture change sticks. You will also create a plan together with the local leadership teams to improve where needed and support them in the implementation of their improvements. Furthermore, you will do regular program verification checks on the sites to assess the performance, practices and people and support them in identifying new opportunities.

Furthermore, this role is focused on:

• Regional management of Continuous Improvement (CI) roll-out and implementation.
• Designing of global and regional CI methodology: methods, organization, planning.
• Providing subject matter expertise on CI improvement concepts (like 5S, visual management, autonomous maintenance, Stable OPS and Big Data).
• Assuring quality consistency across sites and that local CI improvement projects and initiatives are executed according to the CI methodology.
• Mentoring, coaching, and developing of local CI leads and site leadership teams.
• Transferring of knowledge regarding CI methods and best practices across sites and between regions.
• Reporting of regional planning and progress of CI initiative.
• Monitor external developments and translate them in Corbion’s opportunities.
• Develop self-sustainable CI capabilities in Europe and Asia regions.

About you

You have/are:

• At least 10 years of working experience and high expertise in manufacturing/operations.
• More than 5 years of experience in cultural change, operational excellence, continuous improvement, or Lean Six Sigma transformations. Trained and experienced in one or more methods like TRACC, TPM, Stable OPS, Lean six sigma. Candidates with (master) black belt LSS certification will have advantage.
• A bachelor or master’s degree.
• Personally executed continuous improvement or cultural change projects on the shop floor.
• Willingness to travel >25 %.
• Adaptability to work with diverse cultures and strong stakeholder management skills.
• Stress resilient; ability to deal effectively with ambiguity and scope changes.
• Fluency in English (oral and written) is mandatory. Additional language is advantage: Dutch, Spanish or Thai.

At Corbion, we look for employees who can:

SET CLEAR DIRECTION: Explain clearly where we are heading, why and how we will get there

MAKE THE DIFFERENCE: Deliver results and quality while managing change

FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS: Consistently meet the expectations of internal and external customers

DELIVER THROUGH TEAMWORK: Engage, motivate, challenge and support employees and teams

Our offer

We offer competitive remuneration and benefits. What makes Corbion special is the way we consciously create that connection between the product of our work and our individual lives and use it to shape our choices and our priorities as a company. We have a great company made up of talented, dedicated people – people who share a purpose and a vision. When we all understand how we intend to get there in the same way, there is no telling how far we can go. We offer you the chance to join a company with a:

• Culture to empower people and where your initiatives and ideas make a real difference
• International focus with truly diverse teams
• Unique possibility to be trained by our internal expertise in the world of biobased products
• We invest in relevant training courses related to your particular discipline, which will give you the opportunity to grow into an industry expert
• Lastly, we offer a friendly, informal culture in a demanding professional environment

In addition, we actively embrace diversity in how we work together and contribute toward our shared objectives and values. By joining Corbion, you will become an employee in a company where you can feel pride in your achievements and develop your career with global prospects

About Corbion 
 

What makes Corbion truly special is our talented global team of people, who are consciously dedicated to connecting the work we do together with the difference it makes in the lives of consumers, including our own friends and families. At Corbion, innovation is in our DNA; we explore, we discover, we create, and then we do it all over again, finding ever-better ways to help the world solve some of its most pressing challenges. When you come to Corbion, you will find that for us, sustainability is not simply a corporate program, it is at the very heart of our business, giving direction to our work, our investments and our creativity. We exist to preserve what matters.

As a company where day-to-day priorities and decisions are shaped by a shared purpose and vision, we enjoy a working environment energized by empowerment and opportunity. By joining Corbion, you can be part of :

• A culture open to great ideas wherever they come from, and where your work can make a real difference in the world
• An organization that values diversity of thought, background and experience
• A company ready to invest in you, helping you grow toward your personal ambitions
• A workplace that’s friendly and informal, while being focused and professional
• An international team small enough to stay agile, but large and talented enough to make an impact today, and for future generations

Our corporate values – Collaboration, Care, Courage and Commitment – define what it takes to overcome obstacles and create the sustainable breakthroughs the world sorely needs. As a member of the Corbion team, you’ll see these values put into action every day, and you’ll have the chance to make your own unique contribution to our collective achievements.

Corbion does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to hiring managers. All candidates must be submitted by approved Corbion vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Talent Acquisition team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Corbion Talent Acquisition team and such candidate was submitted to the Corbion Talent Acquisition Team.