Operations Excellence Lead - Continuous Improvement

Total Marketing Support Limited; Kemsley; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days' holiday + bank holidays

Pension scheme

Life assurance

Income protection

Employee assistance program

Cycle to work scheme

Shopping discounts

Job summary

DS Smith at Kemsley Mill is seeking an Operations Support Manager to lead day-to-day performance and drive continuous improvement. You will partner with Operations, Engineering, and Process teams to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient operations, coaching teams and solving problems across PM3/PM6 areas.

The role focuses on safety, quality, productivity and cost, leveraging data to identify losses and implement sustained improvement in a fast-paced process manufacturing environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in a continuous manufacturing or process industry environment.
• Experience in an operational, supervisory, or manufacturing leadership role.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing performance measures, operational standards, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Experience using operational data to identify losses, trends, and improvement opportunities.
• Knowledge of Root Cause Analysis, problem solving techniques, Standard Work, and 5S principles.
• Strong understanding of health, safety, quality, and environmental requirements.
• Ability to build effective working relationships across multiple functions and teams.
• Excellent communication, organisational, and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide visible operational leadership across PM3/PM6 and support senior shift roles to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient performance.
• Analyse data to identify losses and drive improvement actions.
• Lead structured problem solving and Root Cause Analysis activities.
• Promote Standard Work, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.
• Champion safety culture and environmental compliance across the site.
• Support maintenance planning, shutdowns, and reliability initiatives.
• Monitor budgets, resource use, and cost drivers; contribute to cost reduction.
• Coach and develop operational teams to achieve high performance.

Skills

Continuous improvement

Root cause analysis

5S

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Operational data analysis

Leadership / coaching

Health and safety

Operational discipline

Education

Engineering or management qualification

Tools

NA

Job description

DS Smith at Kemsley Mill is seeking an Operations Support Manager to lead day-to-day performance and drive continuous improvement. You will partner with Operations, Engineering, and Process teams to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient operations, coaching teams and solving problems across PM3/PM6 areas.

The role focuses on safety, quality, productivity and cost, leveraging data to identify losses and implement sustained improvement in a fast-paced process manufacturing environment.