MANUFACTURING BUSINESS: WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Our Manufacturing teams are an essential part of our Supply Chain organization. And we’re constantly looking for ways to improve our processes and create a safer, more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing environment.

How do we do that? By giving our people the power to make improvements and the skills to implement them. Here, two of these people explain how it all works.

Julie Reddoch, Plant Lead, Ringwood Site, Australia

Julie started in 1987 as a casual lab assistant while she was a student. Since then, she’s worked in two different countries and in R&D, as well as manufacturing. Now, she’s the Site Manager at our Ringwood plant, responsible for the safety, quality, delivery, cost, sustainability and morale of the team. There are around 550 people on site and the plant runs a 24/5 operation, so it’s a major role.

DOING THINGS RIGHT

Mondelēz International have introduced an Integrated Lean 6 Sigma (IL6S) approach in all our manufacturing operations, which aims to eliminate losses and empower our people. At Ringwood, this focuses on all of our employees creating and implementing their own innovations to minimize losses. It’s a huge enabler for us to achieve zero losses – but it also appeals to the hearts and minds of our people.

The most exciting thing about my role is being able to develop and build the capability of ou employees – to see people grow in their roles is awesome. The main challenge is the pace of change. We need to meet aggressive targets to keep our business sustainable and profitable. Change is happening, yet there’s a lot of work still to do! System innovation is also a key component in my role. We need to find faster more effective ways to eliminate waste in every area of our business and this means that everyone needs to play a role.

A LEARNING JOURNEY

The different roles I’ve had over two decades have given me a local, regional and global network. I’ve been able to learn and grow from others, both inside and outside of the organization and these people have made an enormous impact on me and my career. Consequently, I’m a very strong proponent of mentoring and coaching and I still have opportunities to be a coach and a mentor across the business. This gives me another avenue of learning and capability building.

But the biggest shift in my development has been working with the IL6S community in the organization since 2012. I’ve been extremely lucky to work alongside and for inspirational leaders over this time. It’s taught me that ownership at every level of the organization is the key to success. I’ve learned the power of building capability, creating the right culture and allowing others to shine – that’s the real meaning of leadership.

BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY

It takes a concerted effort to manage my work and personal life balance. I have two beautiful children who both understand my passion for my career, yet I need to make sure they know they are number one.

Mondelēz International as an organization has always supported me to progress my career whilst prioritizing my family. I can’t speak highly enough of the values that this organization has when it comes to family.

FAVORITE PRODUCT?

Our most popular brand has to be Cadbury – especially products in the shapes of eggs and bunnies that help us celebrate Easter each year.

Having said that – you just have to love our very Australian Cherry Ripe!

Cloris Zhang, Supply Chain Excellence Director, AMEA

Cloris is accountable for delivering global efficiency, reducing conversion costs and improving productivity across the AMEA region, where our plants are introducing Integrated Lean 6 Sigma (IL6S) processes.

She focuses on supply chain excellence and has strategic responsibility for ensuring our Logistics teams and suppliers are synchronized to create a smooth supply chain across AMEA. This involves putting processes and systems in place to create cultural change, as well as implementing information systems to cover the full lifecycle from materials to inventory.

Find out more about how she enjoys the challenge.

CREATING THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE

I focus on the supply chain in our manufacturing plants – for example, how do we deliver products for the lowest cost at the quickest speed, but with excellent quality? How do we create manufacturing plants that are high-performance organizations and great places to work? Or, most importantly, how do we make sure our plants are risk free, both for employees and the local communities?

This involves working with a number of different teams to make sure we’re all moving in the same direction. At the moment, for example, we’re talking about the ‘factory of the future’. I need to make sure all our category directors are aligned on the future design of their factories. Introducing the factory of the future will involve cultural transformation, so I need to work with HR to ensure we have all the support we need. And to improve labor productivity, I need to work closely with Engineering on automation solutions.

This kind of collaboration is vital when you’re creating the future.

TRANSFORMING LIVES

My role is being an enabler – showing people how they can improve. It relies on innovative thinking and 100% employee engagement. To achieve this, I travel to different plants, meet a variety of people and learn from different cultures so I can build their capabilities and simplify their work. It’s about always looking for better ways of working across the supply chain and being open to change and improvements every day.

This involves a lot of traveling across the region. I have to spend around 50-60% of my time traveling outside my home base, and sometimes as much as 80%. This makes it very difficult to balance my work and personal life. But seeing how people do things enables me to add value to their processes and help them improve. Ultimately, this gives me the ability to touch people’s lives across categories, countries and levels.

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL FUTURE

In the future, I want to help Mondelēz International continue to grow in AMEA and globally, to be the market leader and to keep bringing joy to people around the world. I would expect this to include being a pioneer in synchronized global supply chain operations and influencing the whole industry.

Personally, my career at Mondelēz International in just two years has included a number of rotations into different roles that have helped me to learn a lot. I’d like to continue this learning, maybe in a line management role, leading a team that delivers business results. This would allow me to apply all I’ve learned and experienced to contribute directly to the business.

I’d also like to keep a good work/life balance. As a female leader, I would like to support my husband, kids and parents in a strong way while I’m progressing in my career. My kids are growing up quickly and in my own way, I’d like to grow with them.

FAVORITE PRODUCT?

In China, our most popular brand is Oreo. Every kid loves it, including mine. So they were very happy when mum started to work for Oreo! My own favorite is Clorets. It’s the best mint I’ve ever tried and I always have it in my bag to feel fresh.