Joseph M. Malesic
Oak Park
Summary
Experienced manufacturing professional with 18 years of leadership experience in global manufacturing companies. I enjoy leading teams through large-scale change initiatives, building a sustainable continuous improvement culture, and developing people by establishing a culture of coaching, feedback, and accountability. Track record of meeting productivity goals while achieving high safety and quality standards.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Site Director
Ferrara Candy Co.
12.2019 - Current
- Site leader of 52 salaried employees and 410 hourly associates, fully accountable for delivering improvements of safety, environmental, quality, productivity and cost metrics
- Increased annual output over 5-year period from 65MM pounds/year to 110MM pounds/year through implementing $52MM capital expenditure plan and increasing site overall equipment effectiveness from 68% to 84%.
- Tripled sales of Nerds and SweeTarts products directly tied to site over 5-year period, which accounted for 40% of total company sales of sugar confections division.
- Grew Nerds business tenfold over 5-year period in partnership with marketing team, Nerds is now the largest sugar confections product in North America over last 2 years.
- Expanded Nerds business globally to European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and Mexico through partnership with corporate regulatory team, partnership with research and development team, and flawless execution of hiring plan of 50 associates.
- Drove breakthrough safety performance at site through implementation of behavior-based safety program and leadership through safety program, reducing total incident rate/million hours worked from 8.5 to 1.5, site recently achieved 1-year with zero recordable incidents.
- Drove breakthrough quality performance by reducing critical defects from 460/year to 20/year through implementation of TPM Quality pillar tools.
- Increased factory overall equipment effectiveness from 68% to 84% through implementation of Autonomous Maintenance Step 1 across 42 production lines over 3-year period.
- Improved factory cost from $0.88/pound to $0.68/pound by improving scheduling routines at the site and developing cross-functional plan to idle 12 cost prohibitive production lines and implement capital expenditures for 5 new production lines.
- Reduced factory turnover from 21% to 9% and improved employee relations through implementing a focused leadership development program for salaried people leaders (managers and supervisors), and launching a “coffee with the site director” monthly roundtable in partnership with human resources team.
- Improved relations with Village of Itasca wastewater department through 80% reduction of BODs over 3-year period, result achieved through transparent collaboration with village leadership and improvements to internal sanitation routines.
- Expanded community relations by joining Greater O’Hare Association (GOA) and building partnership with the Mayor of Itasca to serve local community.
- Implemented accountability routine with Regional Director of ComEd to eliminate power outages at site, influencing ComEd to upgrade infrastructure of electrical feed to the site.
- Created front-line employee “Nerd of the Month” recognition program that was reapplied company wide.
- Increased company-wide recognition and awareness by hosting NBC Today show to capture 5-minute segment on site in October 2022, and hosting CBS Chicago on site for live broadcast in May 2024
- Launched extruded rope product global center of excellence program in partnership with two factories in Brazil, coordinated 2 visits/year between our teams for best practice sharing
- Successfully implemented upgraded SAP system in January of 2020 in partnership with company IT department and Accenture consulting team
- Partnered with Vice President of procurement to reduce supplier defects from 110/year to 15/year through teaching suppliers basic TPM principles and cross-functional visits between vendors and factory team.
Senior Operations Manager
Ferrara Candy Co.
07.2018 - 12.2019
- Accountable for all performance aspects of 9 salaried employees and 170 hourly associates and enabling the team to achieve factory safety, quality, productivity and cost goals
- Reduced factory cost per pound from $0.71/lb. to $0.49/lb. over 18-month period through the implementation of a labor management routine and targeted operational efficiency improvements
- Improved factory packaging line efficiency (OEE) from a baseline of 51% to 72% over 18-month period through partnership with maintenance group to restore and maintain equipment base conditions, streamlining of supervisor activities, and implementing operator driven standard routines
- Increased monthly pounds produced in packaging from a baseline 12.2MM lbs./month to 14.5MM lbs./month through the implementation of daily schedule adherence routines for supervisors and implementing formal long term scheduling routines in partnership with demand planning team
- Successfully implemented continuous operations (24-7 operations schedule) on trolli brand production line, driving $240,000.00 of overtime cost avoidance, increasing production of Trolli brand by 3MM lbs. annually
- Successfully implemented basic TPM practices on mogul starch molding processing line, improving line efficiency from 58% to 67%, increasing weekly pounds made from 800k/week to 1.02MM/week, and freeing up 6.9MM lbs. of available capacity
- Reduced safety incident rate from 3.0 to 1.61 through the implementation of a near miss program, implementation of first aid investigation program, and formal problem solving routines for safety incidents
- Decreased quality holds for code date inaccuracies from an average of $110k of product held/month to $5k of product held/month through the implementation of formal quality pre-flight checklist/first piece approval routine
- Launched formal monthly factory business update meeting for all employees, quarterly salaried community events, and annual supervisor appreciation events to drive positive employee engagement practices
- Hired 25 full time associates to move temporary to permanent ratio in packaging operations from 50/50 (permanent to temporary) to 75/25 (permanent to temporary) and drive sustainable labor practices
Factory Operations Manager
Nestlé USA
03.2015 - 07.2019
- Accountable for all performance aspects of 13 salaried employees and 250 hourly associates and enabling the team to achieve factory safety, quality, productivity and cost goals
- Reduced factory cost from $1.21/pound to $0.92/pound over 2 year period through labor management routines and fixed cost improvements
- Improved factory overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) from 49% to 65% over 3 year period through partnership with maintenance group to restore and maintain equipment base conditions, streamlining of supervisor activities and reconfiguration of operations department structure
- Drove $1.2MM in annual variable labor savings through launching and sustaining labor management routines in partnership with supervisors
- Improved factory case fill rate from 88% to 99% over 2-year period through improved planning routines, streamlined budgeting routines, and line reliability improvements
- Successfully implemented continuous operations (24-7 operations schedule) across 20% of operations group in 2017, driving $400,000.00 of overtime savings, increasing production of SweeTarts brand by 2.6MM lbs. in 2017 and improving average employee hours of work in those areas from 62 hours/week to 49 hours/week
- Improved factory employee relations score during absence of factory manager from 48% (22nd of 26 factories in Nestle USA) to 71% (5th of 26 factories in Nestle USA) over 6-month period through executing focused employee relations improvement plan in partnership with human resources
- Implemented daily production planning meeting with operations, maintenance and supply chain teams that improved planned production attainment from 84% to 95%
- Increased hourly associates engagement in behavior based safety program from 15% of total population to 68% of total population, resulting in a 33% reduction in recordable incidents
- Partnered with supervisors to simplify the number of systems they focus on from 30+ systems to 5 critical systems, enabling them to increase their time on the shop floor from 30% of their day to 75% of their day
- Assigned and developed dedicated operators across 80% of the production lines of the factory to enable equipment ownership and to facilitate the use of LEAN and TPM tools on the production lines
- Supported factory floor during high volume months by developing and implementing nights and weekends coverage routine in partnership with factory leadership team
- Coordinated successful status of Nestle Market audit in 2016 in absence of factory manager
Director of Continuous Improvement – Frozen Foods
Nestlé USA
01.2014 - 03.2015
- Responsible for fully embedding Nestle Continuous Improvement methodology across 9 factories, Co-Manufacturing, Engineering and Technical Applications group
- Reduced recordable incidents by 15% through use of safety network tools
- Reduced consumer complaints by 12% through use of quality network tools
- Delivered $40MM in productivity savings through use of continuous improvement tools and factory labor management routines
- Utilized Leadership Development methodology to build succession plan and talent pipeline for all continuous improvement managers in Nestle USA
- Collaborated with human resources to develop standard job descriptions for continuous improvement managers across Nestle USA
- Supported 6 factories in passing LEAN assessments on time and in full
- Developed and Implemented LEAN operational board standards across technical group
- Developed 5-year strategic Frozen Foods Operational Master plan in partnership with President, Chief Marketing Officer, and Vice President of Operations
Regional Continuous Improvement Manager
Nestlé Beverage
11.2011 - 01.2014
- Facilitated successful launch of continuous improvement foundations network across 5 coffee and aseptic Beverage Factories
- Coached six factories to successful Nestle LEAN assessment accreditation
- Conducted training workshops for senior management, corporate functions and factory management
- Collaborated with operations, marketing, sales, and supply chain teams to develop operational master plan for Beverage and Confections Businesses
- Standardized performance measures development process for technical and production goals
- Led 25+ LEAN/TPM assessments across Nestle USA
- Developed and implemented training modules for 26 factories in Nestle USA market
Production Manager
Nestlé Confections
04.2010 - 11.2011
- Responsible for exceeding all safety, cost, quality and delivery goals for Toll House Morsels business unit
- Directly responsible for managing 3 salaried direct reports and 60 hourly associates within the morsel business unit
- Led DMAIC team to reduce taffy overfill, resulting in $90,000.00 material loss reduction
- Sponsored DMAIC team to reduce breakdowns on morsel production line, resulting in 65% reduction of breakdowns and $65,000.00 annual savings
- Launched behavior-based safety program to eliminate hazards and unsafe behaviors, reducing injuries by 75%
- Partnered with BCTGM and Teamsters Union presidents to successfully negotiate 24-7 continuous operations schedule on Laffy Taffy line in contract
- Collaborated with BCTGM president to develop promotion program of union associates into salaried positions, three employees promoted into salaried positions as a result
- Created changeover matrix for morsel business that provided constraints for raw materials and labor, driving $35,000.00 cost avoidance in labor
- Worked with union associates to develop standard template for shift handoff procedure
- Collaborated with union leadership to standardize a rewards and recognition program for project teams in factory
- Utilized bottleneck analysis to improve efficiency of taffy line by 7%, resulting in $20,000.00 savings
Maintenance Supervisor
Nestlé Ice Cream
11.2009 - 04.2010
- Reduced breakdowns on drumstick lines by 50%, driving $560,000.00 annual cost savings
- Led breakdown analysis (BDA) across three TPM pilot lines
- Created shift handoff procedure for technical operations department
- Audited startup checklists on new technology platforms, improving factory first hour performance by 40%
- Utilized part priority classification standard to determine reorder points for inventory
Production Supervisor
Nestlé Ice Cream
02.2008 - 11.2009
- Conducted interviews, trained and managed 35+ frontline team members
- Led Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) Team for new product platform to reduce changeover time that resulted in savings of $300,000.00
- Managed Safety Improvement Team for department that improved ergonomics, machine guarding, and Lock-Out Tag-Out procedures
- Led DMAIC team to reduce minor breakdowns for new technology platform that resulted in savings of $150,000.00
- Established labor utilization plan, reducing labor variance by $450,000.00 on the new technology production line
- Facilitated Autonomous Maintenance Team through step 1 as part of the plant wide roll-out of TPM
Industrial Engineer
04.2007 - 02.2008
- Led breakdown improvement team on new technology platform resulting in $215,000.00 of performance savings
- Completed value steam mapping for new product platform, eliminating $75,000.00 of non-value added activities
- Developed production standards for performance, material loss, and labor on snack lines
- Created simulation model to predict line efficiency for incoming high speed cup line
- Performed loss analysis to determine focus areas for productivity projects
Education
Bachelor of Science - Industrial Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
06-2007
Skills
- Budgeting and cost savings
- Capital project implementation
- Problem-solving
- OSHA and FDA compliance
- Stakeholder communication
- Team leadership development
- TPM and Lean Manufacturing
- Waste reduction
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Excellent communication
- Active listening
- Continuous improvement
Languages
English
Native or Bilingual
French
Limited Working
Timeline
Senior Site Director
Ferrara Candy Co.
12.2019 - Current
Senior Operations Manager
Ferrara Candy Co.
07.2018 - 12.2019
Factory Operations Manager
Nestlé USA
03.2015 - 07.2019
Director of Continuous Improvement – Frozen Foods
Nestlé USA
01.2014 - 03.2015
Regional Continuous Improvement Manager
Nestlé Beverage
11.2011 - 01.2014
Production Manager
Nestlé Confections
04.2010 - 11.2011
Maintenance Supervisor
Nestlé Ice Cream
11.2009 - 04.2010
Production Supervisor
Nestlé Ice Cream
02.2008 - 11.2009
Industrial Engineer
04.2007 - 02.2008
Bachelor of Science - Industrial Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
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