Process Engineer

Process Engineer

Kilkenny Cheese Ltd

Role Summary

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 has started up in 2024 as a greenfield site 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 Operations Manager. This role is responsible for the optimisation of plant performance. The Process Engineer will be assigned ownership for a particular aspect of the Manufacturing Process initially but will expand the role to cover the full process. Through ongoing development and improvements in plant process and automated systems the Process Engineer will support the Plant Operations teams in the delivery of Plan.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for end to end process and plant optimisation across production, initial focus will be on the packaging area
• Act as Process SME and lead technical support for all production impacting issues
• Establish performance standards and optimise performance across all processes in the plant
• Engage with stakeholders including Quality and Production teams in the prioritisation, development, design and testing of new or enhanced processes
• Utilising the relevant Change Control Systems, secure approval for implementing change
• Work with Production team to plan and execute agreed changes
• Monitor MES KPI data for individual processes including reporting and trending of data
• Utilise data insights to recommend interventions to drive performance
• Troubleshooting issues and identifying opportunities to enhance plant performance and drive KPI improvement
• Ownership of process driven documentation including design, development and roll-out of Standard Operating Procedures, Process documentation (including log books) and training documentation
• Completion of QSM documentation relating to Change Control, Event Reports, RCAs etc for specific processes
• Take leadership role in Change Control for specific processes
• As Subject Matter Expert for specific processes, work with training to design, plan and deliver training to new and existing employees and take a lead role in technical competence assessment of Trainees
• Train new and existing employees on process management including MES
• Engage with R&D teams to advise on pilot plant level trials and the upscaling of pilot plant trials to full scale commercial production
• Work with wider site team to assess the impact, relevance and benefits of new technologies that become available to the site
•  Identify, oversee and execute projects in relation to cost out value in targets for the site
• Use process related KPIs to anticipate issues that may be in the early stages of development and design a plan to mitigate against the risk to site

Requirements

• Third level qualification in a Science, Food, Engineering, Manufacturing or related discipline desirable
• A minimum of 3 years experience in Food/Beverage or Pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors with particular experience in process/production management and use of automated systems
• Experience in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Process Improvement or product development,
• 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
• Demonstrate strong technical ability and attention to detail to do the job at a high level of accomplishment
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to bring people with them for the best outcomes
• Ability to analyse data, recognise trends and recommend actions to drive continuous improvement

Person Profile

• Strong process knowledge in Dairy or similar industry
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills

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