Operational Excellence Lead

**Who are we?**

Lyka is an Australian founded pet wellness company that’s shaking up an outdated industry and paving the way for happier, healthier pets. Despite medical advancements, animal lifespans are on the decline. Today, the average pet only reaches 37% of their full potential lifespan and statistics have shown us that many suffer from dental disease, cancer, and obesity. Simply put, the status quo is not enough.

As humans, we’ve experienced firsthand the positive impact fresh wholefoods can have on our health and wellbeing, and we believe our furry friends deserve the same. We're on a mission to do just that, starting with nutritionally balanced, wholefood meals delivered direct to doors around Australia. As the world’s most sustainable pet wellness company, we’re putting pets and our planet first - one bowl at a time.

Today, we are proud to share we’ve served over 50 million meals to puppers and their parents across Australia, and this is just the beginning. Our vision is to create multiple nutritional products, adding disease prevention meals and supplements, and expand into new markets.

Currently, we have a team of 250+ pet-obsessed people, and we're continuing to grow (yes, looking at you). These carefully selected people are dedicated to building the next generation of technology and products to help empower pet parents to take control over their pet’s wellbeing.

**Our Mission**

The time we share with our pets is being cut short. Despite medical advancements, they’re getting sicker earlier. They’re dying prematurely. The industry has it backwards - prioritising treating symptoms instead of addressing the root cause. That’s where we come in.

At Lyka, we take a preventative, holistic and personalised approach to pet care. We look at the full picture, factoring in the diet, lifestyle and environment of each individual animal.

We don’t stop at symptoms, instead we dig for the root cause. We create nutrition plans unique to each pet, because it’s not just about living longer, but living well too.

Our mission is to increase the lifespan of dogs and cats.

**The Role**

As our Operational Excellence (OPEX) Lead, you’ll be joining our Manufacturing and Supply Chain (M&SC) Leadership Team and play a pivotal role in ensuring Lyka continually improves in alignment with our OPEX Roadmap. This is a supporting and enabling role, predominantly teaching, coaching and mentoring M&SC team members (with the support of 1 direct report) at all levels to embrace lean manufacturing, to improve efficiencies and reduce operational costs and waste.

**Responsibilities**
- Lead OPEX initiatives, working collaboratively with cross functional teams to ensure lean manufacturing tools are embedded, to drive manufacturing process improvements (workforce and labour utilisation, facility layouts, leveraging lean principles including 5S, SMED, DMAIC, RCA, Value Stream Mapping, TIMWOOD)
- Work with operational teams to determine root cause of inefficiencies and assist in embedding preventive actions
- Teach, coach and mentor direct team, peers and manufacturing team members to drive the short-term OPEX roadmap, eg PCLs, CILs
- Work in the medium to longer term to assist in embedding lean at the conceptual and design stages, as Lyka’s M&SC's network continues to scale
- Scope, develop and execute on projects that help determine the responsibilities of workers and work units, and on how best to deploy them across the facilities
- Develop specifications for facility layouts and equipment, and determine the requirements required to execute on the specifications
- Develop and establish policies and procedures that will help us embed the OPEX mindset across our facilities
- Continuously measure and monitor processes, risks, and controls by conducting post-implementation reviews and project follow-up
- Actively support the site to achieve a cohesive, flexible and goal focused culture in alignment with Lyka’s values

**Requirements**:

- Degree Qualifications in Manufacturing, Engineering/Science, Business or allied areas; minimum Green Belt in Six Sigma (highly preferred)
- 3+ years' industry experience, with 2+ years in lean manufacturing in a similar position within FMCG, automative, pharma or similar industries
- Strong facilitation skills with a track record of engaging and coaching frontline stakeholders to embrace lean manufacturing methodologies, CILs and PCLs
- Experience in setting up standard procedures (one-point lessons), on new and existing plant
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and people skills, with the ability to build effective cross functional relationships with internal and external stakeholders across all levels
- Excellent IT skills are essential, with strong capability at being able to capture and trend data to identify emerging trends and opportunities
- A strong appetite for innovation and the capacity to challenge the status quo
- High degree of proces