Maintenance Technician

Role Summary

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the start-up of Kilkenny Cheese Limited. Kilkenny Cheese is a joint venture between Tirlan and Dutch family business Royal A-ware, a 130-year-old company with strong positions in EU and global markets. The facility is to be located at a greenfield site adjacent to Glanbia Ireland’s specialized nutrition facility at Belview, Co Kilkenny.

Rooted in our rich heritage of family farming and embedded in our communities, Tirlan has evolved to bring the passion of our farmers and their high-quality ingredients to the international marketplace. Using modern-day technology and applying the best processes to our milk pool of three billion litres, we now export innovative products and tailored ingredients solutions to be enjoyed in more than 100 countries.

Royal A-ware is a traditional Dutch family business with a passion for food and with a strong entrepreneurial attitude. Demand-led, we offer our clients tailored products and services. In recent years investments have been made in the development and management of own supply chains resulting in independence, efficiency, and flexibility. We are specialized in producing, ripening, cutting, and packaging cheese, and also produce and package cream and fresh dairy products.

Based in Belview in South Kilkenny the role reports to the Maintenance Manager. The Maintenance Technician role will allow the successful candidate to gain valuable maintenance experience while supporting the delivery of the Kilkenny Cheese maintenance strategy and providing maintenance support to the production team. This will be achieved within a flexible work system, supporting the 24 x 7 operation. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Operational Support:
  • Responsible for Production Team support to maximise plant readiness & effectiveness through maximising plant downtime, meant time between failure and overall plant operational equipment effectiveness.
  • Applies sound technical skills and experience to resolve problems relating to plant efficiencies in a timely & effective manner.
  • Utilizes sound methodology, experience and initiative to identify, follow-up on and robust resolution for reoccurring downtime or operational inefficiencies.
• Preventative Maintenance
  • Supports and executes preventative & predictive maintenance programmes.
  • Executes and maintains schedule adherence planned preventative maintenance schedules in order to meet production related requirements.
• Continuous Improvement
  • Seeks to identify, understand & address areas of opportunity relating to plant, operational and maintenance team inefficiencies.
  • Utilises where possible a sound & structured problem-solving methodology to deliver robust solutions to long term problems.
• Health, Safety & Quality Compliance
  • Manage work and environment such that good manufacturing practices (GMP) are adhered to, and pristine plant standards are maintained.
  • Plant handover/hand-back procedures must be followed & all work carried out must be completed, such that it presents zero risk to product quality and personal safety.
  • Ensure all plant maintenance operations are conducted in a safe and controlled environment.
  • Issuing of permits to work, adherence to site safety procedures and identification of on-going safety improvements.
  • Use of computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) to input data and monitor & evaluate plant performance.

Experience

• 2 years minimum manufacturing experience preferably in a maintenance environment within a food/drink’s facility.
• Have working knowledge and demonstrate being comfortable working with both mechanical & electrical elements of automate manufacturing plant.
• Automation experience is an advantage.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Good prioritization capability and comfortable adapting to meet production needs.
• Organised and methodical, with excellent attention to detail.
• Good interpersonal skills and acts with integrity.
• Experience in operating within, and delivering on, the highest quality standards in the manufacturing sector
• Results driven, customer focused with high performance capability in a fast moving challenging business environment
• Track record in decision-making and ability to work on own initiative
• Aptitude for troubleshooting, fault finding & root cause analysis on plant/process issues.
• Good working knowledge of GMP best practices.
• Experience operating within, and delivering on, the highest quality standards in the manufacturing sector.
• Proven ability to work effectively as part of a cross functional team.

Person Profile

• Hold an appropriate trade qualification or higher in electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, engineering or related discipline.
• Knowledge of Dairy or similar food processing industry.
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills.