Value Stream Leader
Southern Champion Tray Llc
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Job summary
Southern Champion Tray is seeking an experienced Value Stream Leader to drive safety, quality, and cost performance for the Printing, Cutting, and Gluing value stream. You will provide end-to-end leadership, develop people, and partner with Maintenance, Quality, Scheduling, CI, Engineering, and Commercial teams to meet customer requirements and achieve sustainable financial results.
You will spend significant time on the production floor coaching leaders, removing obstacles, building technical
Qualifications
- Minimum high school diploma or equivalent.
- Bachelor’s degree preferred; 8+ years manufacturing and production operations experience.
- Six Sigma Green and/or Black Belt a plus.
- Packaging and/or folding carton experience strongly preferred.
Responsibilities
- Establishes world-class performance in safety, quality, throughput, cost, OEE, labor efficiency, waste reduction, OTIF, and people development across the value stream.
- Ensures strong organization and communication across SCT’s 24/6 production environment.
- Establish a scalable operating system aligned to safety, quality, delivery and cost.
- Standardize processes to reduce variation and enable flexible staffing models.
- Coach and develop Production Leaders through daily Leader Standard Work and Gemba.
- Develop tools and dashboards to improve visibility and decision speed.
- Drive continuous improvement to improve productivity and reliability.
- Foster succession planning and leadership development across teams.
- Spend ~30% of time on the floor prioritizing CI and accountability.
- Lead safety culture through visible leadership and hazard elimination.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact this employer to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.
Chattanooga, TN, US
All jobs at Southern Champion Tray (SCT) require Team members to act in accordance with the shared Core Values and Operating principles of the company as they perform specific job functions. These include:
- Trustworthy – We strive for our actions to match our words in all our relationships.
- Servant – Hearted – We enable and empower our team to serve the needs of customers, Team members, suppliers and the community.
- Relational – We aim to build healthy relationships while fostering an environment that promotes compassion, balance, and personal and professional growth.
- Resourceful – We value strategic insourcing, first looking to create solutions internally, and then looking to apply that knowledge to future opportunities.
Responsible for the safety, quality, delivery, cost, and people performance of the assigned value stream, including Printing, Cutting, and Gluing equipment, supporting processes, and assigned production teams. This role provides end-to-end leadership for the operation while developing people, improving processes, and creating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. The Value Stream Leader serves as the business leader of the value stream and is accountable for operational performance, customer service execution, employee engagement, technical capability development, and long-term system improvements. This leader partners closely with Maintenance, Quality, Scheduling, Supply Chain, Engineering, Human Resources, and Commercial teams to ensure the value stream consistently meets customer requirements while delivering sustainable financial results.
The successful candidate will spend significant time on the production floor coaching leaders, removing obstacles, building technical capability, and driving continuous improvement while modeling SCT's values of Trustworthy, Servant-Hearted, Relational, and Resourceful
- Establishes world-class performance in safety, quality, throughput, cost, OEE, labor efficiency, waste reduction, OTIF, and people development across the value stream
- Ensures strong organization and communication across SCT’s 24/6 production environment
- Establish a scalable operating system (tiered accountability, daily management, visual management) aligned to safety, quality, delivery and cost
- Standardize processes and work content to reduce variation, improve yield, and enable predictable staffing models and flexible labor deployment
- Coach and develop Production Leaders through daily Leader Standard Work, Gemba, and structured feedback
- Develop Practical tools and structures (dashboards, hour-by-hour boards, skills matrixes) that improve visibility, prioritization and decision speed
- Drives continuous improvement across the assigned operation to improve equipment flow, reduce changeover time, control waste, increase labor productivity, and provide value to end customers
- Grow and manage the technical and leadership competencies across their teams to ensure SCT is always ready for growth
- Functions as a highly visible leader, spending approximately 30% of time on the floor prioritizing continuous improvement, proactive communication and accountability.
- Drives culture that prioritizes safety through visible leadership, communication, accountability, and hazard elimination
- Leads root cause investigations and corrective actions to resolve safety, quality, and production issues
- Partners with Continuous Improvement, Engineering, Quality, and Maintenance to improve productivity, reliability, and manufacturability
- Develops and maintains technical expertise in equipment, tooling, material behavior, quality systems, changeover practices, and standardized work
- Drive discipline through 5S and Lean Manufacturing principles
- Collaborates with Engineering, Maintenance, CI and other resources for capital purchases and new technology adoptions within the value stream
- Ensures robust succession plans exist throughout the value stream for key positions
- Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, engagement and respect
- Owns the reliability and basic care of equipment through operator care, preventive maintenance discipline, and partnership with Engineering and Maintenance
- Develops a strong working knowledge of equipment, tooling, process settings, material specifications, and common tray quality defects
Directly supervises Production Leaders within the Value Stream. Is responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of the Value Stream. Carries out managerial responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training team members; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining team members; addressing complaints and resolving issues in compliance with any applicable employment law guidelines and upon consultation with the Vice President of Operations, Site Leader, Production Manager, Chief People and Technology Officer, Regional People Experience Manager, and/or People Business Partner if necessary.
The Value Stream Leader will be measured against performance in the following areas:
- Safety: recordable incidents, near misses, hazard elimination, safety audit completion, and safety engagement.
- Quality: customer complaints, internal defects, rework, material and adhesive waste, quality holds, first-pass quality, and conformance to tray specifications.
- Delivery: OTIF, Fill Rate, and ATS
- Cost: labor efficiency, material yield, adhesive usage, overtime, waste reduction, conversion cost, and budget performance.
- Equipment Performance: OEE, uptime, downtime, changeover time, run speed, tooling readiness, and maintenance reliability.
- People: training matrix completion, leader development, turnover, engagement, cross-training, and succession readiness.
- Continuous Improvement: completed improvement projects, sustained standard work, 5S performance, and measurable productivity gains.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Minimum high school diploma or equivalent, bachelor’s degree preferred
- Minimum eight (8) years of experience in manufacturing and production operations, including supervisory or leadership responsibility
- Demonstrated ability to coach team members and develop talent while driving performance
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Applications including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Packaging and/or folding carton experience is strongly preferred; experience with Folding Carton equipment, tooling, adhesives, and high-speed converting operations is a plus
- Six Sigma Green and/or Black Belt a plus
- Eighteen (18) years of age or older
- Successful completion of pre-employment drug screen, physical and background check
- Dependability
- Valid driver’s license
- Ability to safely operate a motor vehicle
- Willingness to travel occasionally by air and land
- Willingness to train in areas of growth as needed, including hitting specified skill development targets.
- Willingness to complete activities as assigned in Leadership Standard Work.
- Schedule Expectations:
Willingness to work a minimum of 45 hours per week and maintain a visible onsite presence to support plant operations. Job responsibilities will routinely require availability before and after scheduled shift hours to address operational issues, lead projects, collaborate across functions, and ensure successful execution of operations priorities.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills
- Ability to work satisfactorily as a Team Member and communicate with all levels within the company
- Excellent organizational skills
- Detail oriented
- Adept at problem solving and finding creative solutions
- Ability to exercise discretion and independent judgment on a customary and regular basis
- Ability to set, adjust and change daily priorities
- Ability to handle sudden changes in project/priority and multiple tasks simultaneously in a positive fashion
- Ability to manage conflict and resolve issues in the most positive fashion for all parties concerned
- Ability to read, understand, and communicate to others the meaning of complex documents including legal documents, letters, etc. and write legibly in English
- Ability to understand and speak clearly, and communicate in English.
- Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide both fractions and decimals, solve equations, read measurements
- Ability to use formulas to calculate and analyze data
- Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists
- Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a Team member successfully performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions, but the essential functions cannot be eliminated or performed by others.
While performing the duties of this job, regularly required to remain in a stationary position a minimum of 25% of the time, move and regularly operate a computer and other office equipment and properly employ objects, tools and/or controls. Frequently required to communicate and exchange accurate information.
While performing the duties of this job, regularly required to walk, stand, use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls and reach with arms and hands and occasionally attain non-standard physical positions for varying amounts of time.
Specific vision abilities include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, distance vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
Must regularly transport up to twenty-five (25) pounds and occasionally transport up to seventy-five (75) pounds. Lifting devices must be used or help must be requested for anything over twenty-five (25) pounds.
Required to occasionally ascend/descend, balance and work at various heights.
Ability to occasionally travel by land and/or air for extended periods of time.
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those a Team Member encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions and cannot be eliminated or performed by others.
While performing the duties of this job, regularly exposed to a shop manufacturing environment and occasionally exposed to a climate-controlled office environment
Office environment exposures include frequent telephone and computer use. The noise level in the office is usually moderate consistent with an office environment.
Shop manufacturing environment exposures include exposure to moving mechanical parts, machinery, tools and equipment, heights, vibration, fumes or airborne particles, motorized vehicles, machining operations, and outside weather conditions. The noise level in the shop is usually loud consistent with an industrial manufacturing facility and may require hearing protection in certain areas.
Occasionally exposed to travel hazards associated with automobile and/or airplane travel.
1st Shift 6:00am to 2:00pm
Downtown Plant - 220 Compress Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405
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