Continuous Improvement Manager

Echo Lake Foods is a leading manufacturer of ready-to-eat egg products and breakfast foods, including waffles, pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs, omelets, and egg patties, serving major retail, foodservice, and national restaurant customers across the United States. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Burlington, Wisconsin, the company operates multiple production facilities throughout the Midwest and has built a strong reputation for quality, innovation, and customer partnerships.

In 2025, Echo Lake Foods was acquired by Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the United States, marking an exciting new chapter of growth. This partnership strengthens our resources, expands our capabilities, and supports continued investment in our people, facilities, and products. Creating new opportunities for employees to grow their careers within a stable and expanding organization.

General Job Description

Echo Lake Foods Continuous Improvement (CI) will be an integral part of the way we run our manufacturing sites & functional areas and serve everycustomer. Under the direction of the Senior Director Business Enablement, this role has a mission to focus on creating, supporting and assisting the improvement efforts tied to the company's most critical business processes. Primary areas of focus will be the improvement within our manufacturing site, analyzing our processes, diagnosing operational challenges, and implementing process and system changes to drive continuous improvement and breakthrough performance.

Our operating model's goal is to positively impact our results and culture by establishing standards, institutionalizing daily management processes, adopting consistent problem-solving methods and learning by doing. As part of the CI program of Lean Management, the candidate will build an action plan to implement tools, identify opportunities and launch processes at the site level. In addition, this role will develop the kaizen and project funnel prioritizations for the site he/she is responsible for and ultimately is part of the team that defines the lean culture and activities/change management programs to embed in the organization.

The candidate will drive the implementation of the CI including daily management, metrics, and problem solving. He/she will work with the site to address KPI's and alignment to our core value drivers implementing lean tools and training programs to enable action planning. This position will also drive the implementation of a lean certification program. This certification program will provide the path to ensure the application of recognized standards for lean principles and practices, serve as a benchmark for Echo Lake Foods's achievements, and ensure a common roadmap for continuous improvement and workforce development.

The position will be based in Burlington, WI.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Assist site leadership in the development of a CI Roadmap (i.e., how to use the CI tools to drive sustainable improvement into all parts of our business and make it a way of life). Be an integral part of Echo Lake Foods's team that designs and creates the infrastructure to make the CI a benchmark in the industry.
• Lead, facilitate and co-facilitate targeted, kaizen events, improvement workshops and projects that are tied to our Strategic Plan and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to drive significant sustainable business results across the organization by leveraging Lean tools, people skills, and change management processes. Ensure successful kaizen events by installing and ensuring compliance to the kaizen process (includes; (1) planning of kaizens through a funnel process tied to the Strategic Plan, KPIs, and business needs, (2) kaizen execution and (3) sustainment of kaizens)
• Work closely with cross functional teams to proactively identify gaps and systematic opportunity for improvement (OFI) for the assigned plants and define and drive them through to completion as effectively and quickly as possible utilizing lean toolsets.
• Partner with all functions at the site to identify and create world class processes throughout the organization and define process capabilities, assess gaps and develop gap closure plans.
• Train and lead effective problem-solving methods from plant leadership to line associates.
• Build and Deliver breakthrough levels of improvement in process capability, reengineer business processes to reduce cost and increase productivity, and attain world-class levels of quality.
• Define and implement process improvements on key initiatives that result in significant improvements in service delivery, increasing organizational effectiveness.
• Mentor, influence and develop potential lean practitioner candidates through their Kaizen events and projects driving business change
• Engage the plant teams in setting specific goals around Lean initiatives. This includes working with leadership to drive lean daily management in key areas of Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and Productivity.
• Facilitate, train, and coach team members in the use of the Business System tools (Lean Six Sigma tools).

Identify and share best practices across the organization; incorporate benchmarks and best practices from other Echo Lake Foods locations.

• Partner with Finance to incorporate kaizen and project savings into long-range financial plans and operating budgets.

Skills and Requirements

• Prior experience with deploying lean methods in operations and functions.
• Experience leading and developing training, processes and systems using kaizens, A3 Problem solving, X Matrix, daily management and lean toolsets.
• Ability to create, lead, manage, and coordinate multiple kaizens and projects simultaneously
• Ability to work both as a member of a team, a team leader or as a Kaizen event leader
• Lead and participated in developing and managing KPIs preferred.
• Very customer focused with a strong ability to influence and communicate effectively at all levels of the organization from senior site management to hourly employees.
• Active, aggressive, externally focused and future-oriented
• Independent worker, capable of operating in a fast-moving, ever-changing environment and able to effectively deal with difficult situations.
• Possess strong functional experience and commercial business acumen
• Excellent training, consulting and change management skills
• Keen listener, open-minded, and have strong interpersonal skills and the intellectual horsepower to establish deep client relationships all levels
• Quick study, who can rapidly adapt to Echo Lake Foods's culture and gain the confidence of the organization.
• Visibly demonstrates a sense of urgency and strong personal ownership to business performance
• Hands-on and detail-oriented but also able to see the big picture.
• Great interpersonal skills, ability to build effective relationships, collaborate productively with others and drive teams to successful outcomes.

Experience / Education

• 7+ years of relevant business experience
• Bachelor's degree, preferably in a related discipline. MBA is a plus.
• Manufacturing sector with directly related experience in a business-to-business environment.
• High degree of proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Power BI, ERP System(s),
• Green Belt or higher certification preferred
• Project Management (PMP) certification preferred
• Food manufacturing experience a plus

What We Offer

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Free Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Company contributes 3% of your base pay in company Stock - regardless of your contribution

We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, military service, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.