Position Description:
Performs functions to recommend, implement, and manage continuous improvement initiatives with our 3rd party warehouses and logistics department to improve productivity, quality, efficiency and reduce costs.
Primary Responsibilities:
Plant Warehouse Operations
- Owns all on-site warehouse operations, including receiving, storage, staging, picking, loading, and shipping.
- Drives warehouse efficiency through labor productivity, overtime control, space utilization, and optimized slotting and material flow.
- Has full ownership of truck yard operations, including trailer management, carrier behavior, dwell time, yard rules, congestion control, and utilization of dry and refrigerated equipment
- Designs, documents, and continuously improves warehouse processes, replacing tribal knowledge with standardized, auditable procedures.
- Use KPIs to identify and drive improvements, including inventory accuracy %, OTIF, Freight/lb, Storage cost / pallet, and dock performance metrics
Inventory Management
- Owns inventory accuracy and book-to-book integrity, partnering with Operations, Planning, and Finance to ensure completeness and correctness.
- Serves as the warehouse sign-off authority to Finance for inventory accuracy at month-end.
- Leads warehouse execution for month-end close, including after-hours coverage as required to ensure timely and accurate results.
- Acts as the primary warehouse and logistics contact for annual audits, supporting inventory, storage, freight, and yard-related audit requests.
- Investigates and resolves inventory discrepancies, aging issues, and root causes of variance.
Invoice Management / Finance Partnership
- Partners with Finance on accrual accuracy by ensuring complete, timely, and accurate invoice approvals, proper GL coding, and visibility to all storage, freight, trailer, and accessorial costs.
- Review and approve 3PL, freight, trailer, and accessorial invoices; challenge and resolve discrepancies / inaccuracies.
- Provides Finance with clear explanations for over/under-budget performance related to warehouse, freight, and storage costs. (Controllable cost management)
3PL Network & Freight Optimization
- Designs, optimizes, and manages the end-to-end 3PL network, building a cohesive efficient strategy
- Leads negotiations with 3PLs and carriers on rates, capacity, service levels, and accessorials; escalates final decisions as required.
- Owns freight optimization across mode selection, lane strategy, carrier performance, and accessorial accountability, including charging carriers for service failures.
- Develops and maintains carrier and 3PL scorecards to drive performance, cost control, and service reliability.
- Ensures materials and finished goods move efficiently across internal sites, 3PLs, and customer destinations
Cold Chain, Tempering & Blast Freezing
- Owns warehouse planning and execution of tempering and blast freezing operations, in partnership with Procurement, Sales, Operations and QA.
- Ensures strict adherence to temperature control, food safety, and cold-chain compliance requirements.
- Supports QA with audits, testing, and investigations related to 3PL storage, tempering, and handling practices.
Customer Pickup & Service Execution
- Owns warehouse execution and coordination of customer pickups, partnering with Sales and Customer Service on communication and expectations.
- Ensures warehouse and logistics performance supports on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery commitments.
- Leads root-cause analysis and corrective actions for service failures tied to warehouse, yard, or freight execution.
- Performs other duties as assigned
Supervisory/Management Responsibilities:
- Leads a team consisting of one clerk, two warehouse supervisors, and one freight coordinator, with indirect leadership of approximately 35 union employees.
- Hires, fires, coaches, counsels, develops, and motivates staff.
- Oversees administration of timecards and approval of time off requests.
- Oversees employee participation and adherence to food safety and employee safety programs and policies.
- Provides strong union workforce leadership through supervisors, ensuring adherence to labor agreements, safety standards, and company policies.
- Participates directly in disciplinary actions as appropriate and coach supervisors in effective, consistent employee management.
- Develops talent, builds bench strength, and fosters a culture of accountability, safety, and continuous improvement.
- Guides the enforcement of systems, policies, and procedures consistently and fairly.
- Resolves personnel issues in accordance with company guidelines and policies.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree related to Business, Logistics or Warehouse Management, or equivalent experience.
- 3 or more years warehouse or dock experience including personnel management.
- Experience working with an ERP or WMS software, strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office programs.
- Strong communication, negotiation, and analytical skills.
- Must be able to speak, read and write English proficiently.
- Detail oriented with strong organizational & planning skills.
- Ability to work flexible hours, including various shifts and weekends, as needed.
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to walk the production floor for extended periods throughout the shift.
- Ability to lift to 25 lbs., bend, kneel, and climb as needed to observe and inspect operations.
- Ability to ascend and descend ladders
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, industrial environment
- Frequent exposure to fluctuating temperatures, including cold and heat, depending on the production environment.
- Frequent exposure to operational noise from machinery in the production environment.
Benefits for this role include: Medical, vision, dental, discretionary bonus up to 20% (50% personal performance based & 50% company performance), 401(k) with matching up to a max of 4% and 120 hours PTO in the 1st 12 months.