Operational Excellence Programme Leader

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins works with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate. Eurofins believes it is a global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing, as well as in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies.

In over just 30 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 50,000 staff across a network of more than 900 independent companies in over 50 countries, operating more than 800 laboratories.

In 2019, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR € 4.56 billion, and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.

SUMMARY OF POSITION AND OBJECTIVES

Supportthefurther development and implementation of Operation Excellence by driving multi-site projects; coaching local and international cross-functional teams and by further developing the “Eurofins Lean Academy”. The focus of the Eurofins Permanent Improvement Programmes is on sustainable culture change, not only on quick wins and, while Programme Leaders use a defined methodology adapted to the service industry, the focus is on systematic problem solving, out of the box thinking regarding tool application and coaching rather than dogmatic implementation of tools or optimizing specific pain points. Strong project and change management skills are required for successful transformation in a decentralized organization such as Eurofins.

• Support the further development of the “Eurofins Lean Academy”. This methodology and training programme is a practical collection of methods, tools and best practices specifically adapted to the testing laboratory world. It covers all relevant topics, from how to analyse a lab, identify and quantify improvement opportunities to finally define and implement appropriate solutions to increase quality, reduce turn-around-time (Lead Time) and save cost. The Programme Leader will, with support of the Permanent Improvement Programmes team and other Eurofins experts, own and develop or refine parts of the Lean methodology, create new training modules, provide training, review proposals from colleagues and lead/ participate in workshops to challenge and further complete the methodology.
• Support the dissemination of the “Eurofins Lean Academy” and other best practices through coaching in projects, delivering of training, organization of onboarding events to visit sites, coordinating knowledge sharing calls with a wider expert network and finally, contributing to specific communications e.g. newsletters.
• Launch and run/coach Lean and other operational excellence projects.Based on the defined methodology, the Programme Leader structures and launches, and for more complex projects also co-runs, the projects jointly with the local Lean Project Managers or technical experts. To ensure impact, the Programme Leader always participates in the structuring phase, the diagnostic phase, the generation of the project plan, and in most cases, the implementation of the pilot phase. At start of the project, the Programme Leader will, together with the local project manager, run the day-to-day project management of these pilots, including team management, creation and tracking/ monitoring of project plans, escalation of challenges, managing interfaces with local teams, identifying and testing solutions to identified operational issues, documenting overall impact, etc. Over time, when the local resources are more mature and grow in autonomy, the Programme Leader ensures all elements are in place to ensure sustainable results (including standardization, 5S, performance management, problem solving, a proper governance) and progressively reduces their active involvement, typically leading to ongoing distant support on a regular but infrequent basis.
• Support mature Lean projects and coach experienced Local Lean Project Managers. Some Labs have experienced Lean Project Managers on site, which do not need intensive support to run their projects. They still benefit from periodic coaching on the issues they might encounter. The Programme Leader supports and coaches these local managers, and ensures systematic interaction and sharing of experiences and best practices. This link to local operations also supports the further development of the common Lean methodology and best practice documentation of the Lean Academy.
• Participates in the selection of local Lean project managers and technical leads,by supporting local HR departments in assessing the Lean knowledge and experience or scientific expertise (as required) of candidates and participating in the recruitment decision process.
• Definition and development of standard laboratories and processes (blueprints) for specific applications

Given its capabilities portfolio and its international presence, Eurofins is permanently driving towards operational best practices identification and implementation. Standardisation and harmonisation of processes and laboratories infrastructures across the group is a key objective. Key tools for this will be:

• The steering of local expert networks;
• The documentation of the operational best practices as part of blueprints (detailed documentation of aligned and clearly defined best practice processes, laboratory layouts, infrastructure and IT requirements, equipment, organisational set-up, etc.) for standardised processes and laboratories.

The Programme Leader will support the business experts, technical experts and process optimisation teams to ensure coordination of the programme, alignment with the group priorities and consistency in the approach and documentation. Once the blueprints are defined and piloted, the Programme Leader will support their implementation at greenfield sites or by reengineering existing or newly acquired labs.

• Development of methodologies and standards in performance and cost management

Design and implementation of KPI set and performance evaluation tools is a key requirement to better understand the operational performance of Eurofins, identify opportunities for improvement and drive towards excellence. The Programme Leader will support the definition, development and implementation of:

• Tools and processes for performance measurement and benchmarking (e.g. corporate KPI system);
• Standardised operational performance reporting (with a clear focus on laboratories production performance);
• Production of cost calculation models (using activity-based costing methodology);
• Laboratories benchmarking methodologies (e.g. financials calculation, productivity measure, production cost analysis).

• Personal Skills :

Strong change management skills required. Good interpersonal skills (team management, written and oral communication, presentation skills) are at least as important as the functional skills, since the operational excellence programme is all about changing the way people work. In the Eurofins culture of decentralized decision rights, change management skills are imperative.

• Initial Education Background :

Engineering, scientific or economy degree.

• Additional Education Background :

Extensive formal and on-the-job training of Lean / operational excellence concepts and at least 3 years (preferably multi-site) of implementation experience.

• Language skills and level expected :

English must.

French and German nice to have.

• Type and duration of previous experience :

Total professional experience > 5 years, at least 3 of which working on Lean or operational excellence projects with at least 1 year of leadership experience (e.g. run a pilot or local implementation). Previous “production” or “manufacturing” experience strongly desired.

• Technical knowledge (e.g. IT…):

Good knowledge of standard office applications, especially MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel. VBA programming and/or SQL and/or working with HTML experience will be a distinct advantage. Experience with Bizagi modeller, Visio, X-Mind or similar would be advantageous. General knowledge about systems, IT architecture and production control is helpful.

• Management capabilities :

Team management skills required. Must have run a core team (if not direct reports) of approx. 5 people during a transformation, excluding all the stakeholders and external team members (e.g. such as local plant staff).

The position calls for someone that is willing to travel in Europe up to80% of their working time (weekday travel) and may include trips outside of their normal region. This requirement is an absolute and is not negotiable.

Evolution

In a fast growing group, successful leaders are frequently being offered increased areas of responsibility (subject to geographic mobility).