Business Excellence Associate

Associate Business Excellence (Lean) Specialist

About Tirlán

Tirlán, formerly known as Glanbia Ireland, is a world-class food and nutrition co-operative, with a diverse portfolio of quality ingredients, leading consumer and agri brands.

A talented team of over 2,100 people manage Tirlán’s network of 11 production facilities and 52 agri retail outlets serving its communities with annual revenues of over €3 billion expected in 2022. Tirlán’s state-of-the-art headquarters in Kilkenny city and innovation centre in Ballyragget promote innovation, creativity and collaboration. Tirlán is committed to sustainability throughout the organisation through its comprehensive Living Proof programme, and the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) contained within it. For more information visit www.tirlan.com

Role Profile

Tirlán is now hiring an Associate (Graduate Level) Business Excellence (Lean) Specialist, this is an exciting opportunity to gain rich experience in developing, leading, and embedding a culture of Lean across our operations, the role will be based at and support our operations in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny.

This role will report to the Business Excellence Manager for Tirlan, key stakeholders will be the Business Excellence (Lean) Specialist for Ballyragget and the Ballyragget Site Manager, and will be part of our passionate and engaged team of Lean Practitioners which support our operations across Ireland.

Key Responsibilities

• Providing leadership, guidance and support in operational excellence and continuously improving the LEAN maturity of the site.
• Contributing to the development of strategy focused on embedding a culture of operational excellence and continuous improvement across Tirlan.
• Ensuring that the site daily management system (3M), KPI reviews and continuous improvement forums are embedded at all levels of the site, including putting in place health check to assess effectiveness & drive site wide improvements to achieve business targets.
• Driving and embedding our central Business Excellence strategy, culture, philosophies, tools & techniques across the site.
• Supporting the provision of relevant Continuous Improvement training & development programs for all Ballyragget staff to ensure effective implementation & daily practice of continuous improvement / Lean techniques.
• Assisting the RCA process and ensuring effectiveness and excellence in problem solving.
• Implementing standardisation for all business-critical processes (Business KPI’s, RCA, CI, and Standard Work) across the site.
• Preforming systematic ongoing site wide performance analysis, identifying areas of opportunity, improvement & driving / supporting implementation of improvements.
• Lead, support & implement key business improvement projects across functions (One Right Way, Standard Work, 5S, Centerlining, etc.), facilitating & monitoring improvement initiatives through the use of Business Excellence tools and techniques.
• Defining process flows & standardised work in partnership with department teams with a view to producing Takt time, SOPs & value stream maps for all operations.
• Implementing best in class Visual Management System – communicating all key business information ensuring visibility & transparency.
• Working with functional leads on budget targets, constantly striving to reduce costs & improve efficiencies through detailed analysis and a continuous goal of eliminating waste.
• Coaching and mentoring of employees at all levels in the use of LEAN systems & tools.
• Building and maintaining effective working relationships across the business (and in particular with colleagues on the Business Excellence team) to ensure appropriate alignment with business process improvement projects.
• Communicating and engaging with people at all levels within the business in order to promote awareness and engagement in Business Excellence.

Key Requirements

• Third level qualification or significant relevant hands-on experience of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Process Improvement or product development, project management.
• Self-confident with the ability to promote a new way of thinking.
• Highly motivated and self-driven.
• Excellent influencing skills.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation communication skills.

If you are interested in this position, please apply with an up-to-date resume.       

Join our Talent Pool

Considering a new career in Tirlán but this isn’t the role for you?! Then why not register your experience & sign up for career opportunities at www.tirlan.com/careers.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Tirlán embraces diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion. We are committed to building diverse teams where different perspectives drive innovation and growth. We strive to create an inclusive workplace where people can bring their true self to work and achieve their full potential.

At Tirlán, we celebrate diversity, because we know that our individual strengths make us stronger together. We welcome and encourage interest from a wide variety of candidates, and we will give your application consideration, without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, or disability status. 

At Tirlán our culture will celebrate individuality, knowing that together we are more.

Tirlán owns leading consumer and agri brands such as Avonmore, Kilmeaden Cheese, Millac, Solmiko, Truly Grass Fed, Premier Milk, Wexford, mymilkman.ie and GAIN Animal Nutrition. 

About us

The farmer-owned co-operative has a first-class track record of success in the global market. Rooted in a rich heritage of family farming and embedded in its communities, Tirlán has evolved to bring the passion of its farmers and their high-quality milk and grains to the international marketplace. Using modern-day technology and applying the best processes to its milk pool of three billion litres and its premium grains portfolio, Tirlán now exports to more than 80 countries.  Its award-winning brands are household names in Ireland, and include Ireland’s number one consumer dairy brand, Avonmore.

The organisation draws on a wealth of experience to deliver exceptional products and tailored nutritional solutions including Kilmeaden, Wexford, Truly Grass Fed, Solmiko, CheddMax and GAIN. Tirlán has a strong market presence in the UK, France, Germany, UAE, the US, North Africa, Japan and China.

Tirlán is a Values Based Organisation - www.tirlan.com