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Operational Excellence Specialist

Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc.
locationJoplin, MO, USA
PublishedPublished: 5/16/2026
Full Time

Operational Excellence Specialist

US-MO-Joplin

Job ID: 2026-9164
Type: Regular Full-Time
# of Openings: 1
Joplin Plant

Overview

The factory Operational Excellence (OpEx) Specialist is responsible for analyzing and improving factory processes within our Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) journey to improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, reduce food loss, and enhance the overall operational efficiency (OEE) in our food manufacturing facility. This position will lead and develop others within the factory loss analysis program, problem solving process and OEE reporting. This role will be required to perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned, which may evolve based on organizational needs.



Responsibilities

Factory Loss Analysis Leadership
  • With support of the Operational Excellence Manager, collect data, analyze data, identify specific losses and prioritize losses within the factory’s OEE, downtime, raw material loss, labor loss, etc.
  • Provide effective visual sharing and guidance of losses to the factory leaders and team members to action against
  • Ensure the appropriate loss analysis is provided on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis
Problem Solving Leadership
  • Lead and develop others in the usage of our root cause analysis tools (STPD, BDA, etc.) to drive continuous improvement
  • Ensure the health and wellness of our problem-solving tools meet the standards for analysis and corrective actions and preventative actions
  • Implement verification steps on solutions for sustainability and if possible, reapplication to other similar equipment or situations
OEE Reporting Ownership
  • Own the OEE reporting program from data collection, loss analysis, loss categorization and monitoring to ensure reporting is done effectively and correctly
  • Provide OEE reporting internally to the factory leadership and team members that will use the loss identification within the continuous improvement activities
  • Lead and develop others in the understanding of the OEE loss categories with the availability, performance and quality components


Qualifications

Education LevelDescription 2 Year / Associate Degree

Minimum Associate of Science degree in a STEM field (Engineering, Food Science, Technology, Math, etc.) required.

4 Year / Bachelors Degree

Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM field or active enrollment in a 4-year STEM degree program preferred. Preference will be given to those with a degree in engineering or to those actively enrolled in an engineering program.

Other

Experience in lieu of degree will be considered.

Experience Minimum Years of ExperienceComments 2 to 4 years

Minimum 2 years of manufacturing experience in a leadership role, preferable in the food industry.





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