Continuous Improvement Partner – Manufacturing Excellence

Premier Foods Group; Ashford; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 day’s annual leave and 8 bank<br>H

Contributory pension up to 7.5%, plus

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Company shop

Cycle to Work scheme

Free on‑site parking

Job summary

Premier Foods Group in Ashford, Kent is seeking a Continuous Improvement Specialist to drive operational excellence across our manufacturing site. You will lead improvement projects, coach teams, and embed disciplined problem-solving to raise safety, quality, productivity and cost performance.

Reporting to the CI Manager, you will analyse data, run Lean, Six Sigma and root-cause analysis, facilitate workshops, and develop standard work and dashboards to track KPIs.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in Continuous Improvement, Operational Excellence or similar.
• Experience in manufacturing/FMCG/food production environments.
• Lean Manufacturing tools knowledge and problem-solving.
• Root Cause Analysis techniques and structured problem-solving.
• Data analysis to identify trends and make evidence-based recommendations.
• Experience facilitating cross-functional projects and workshops.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management.
• Coaching teams to adopt CI practices.
• Proficient in KPI reporting and Excel.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or equivalent qualification.
• Experience with Value Stream Mapping and OEE improvement programmes.
• Knowledge of food manufacturing quality systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead continuous improvement activities for your area.
• Identify opportunities to improve safety, quality, productivity and cost.
• Analyse data to uncover improvement opportunities for informed decisions.
• Apply Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen and RCA methodologies to solve challenges.
• Facilitate workshops and problem-solving sessions.
• Coach and mentor teams on CI tools and techniques.
• Support reduction of downtime, waste and inefficiencies.
• Monitor KPIs including OEE, yield and productivity.
• Collaborate with Production, Engineering, Quality and Maintenance.
• Support change management and new ways of working.
• Develop and maintain improvement documentation and dashboards.

Skills

Continuous Improvement

Lean Manufacturing

Six Sigma Green Belt

Root Cause Analysis

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Coaching & influence

Microsoft Excel

KPI reporting

Team leadership

Tools

Excel

Job description

Premier Foods Group in Ashford, Kent is seeking a Continuous Improvement Specialist to drive operational excellence across our manufacturing site. You will lead improvement projects, coach teams, and embed disciplined problem-solving to raise safety, quality, productivity and cost performance.

Reporting to the CI Manager, you will analyse data, run Lean, Six Sigma and root-cause analysis, facilitate workshops, and develop standard work and dashboards to track KPIs.