By joining Bio-Techne, you’ll join a company with a powerful and positive purpose of enabling cutting-edge research in Life Sciences and Clinical Diagnostics. Bio-Techne, and all of its brands, provides tools for researchers to further treat and prevent disease worldwide.

Position Summary: 

Bio-Techne is looking for a Manager, Continuous Improvement and Equipment Maintenance at our Minneapolis, MN campus.  This is a key role responsible for optimizing existing equipment, team leadership and support of Director, Continuous Improvement in identifying process and equipment changes to enhance quality, yield and throughput. 

You will lead a team of skilled equipment technicians to optimize current machine operating time, ensure unplanned disruptions are addressed immediately, ensure documentation consistent with QMS and lead efforts that are focused on process improvements in yield and service delivery advancements.   

We are highly complex manufacturing site focused on liquid and lyophilized proteins, antibodies and immunoassays, you will engage and lead Kaizens, Value Stream current / future state processes with Operations, Quality Control, and Research & Development teams.  Success in this position requires the use of a variety of skills to identify, analyze and implement opportunities for improvement within our laboratories for cell culture, protein/antibody purification, immunoassay reagent preparation, as well as the complete production cycle from production to shipment. 

Key Responsibilities 

Lead a team of technicians completing calibrations, PM’s and emergency equipment repairs. 

Develop an automation road map for the processes covering RUO/IVD and GMP business 

Improve the key department metrics of On-time PM and Calibration completion by 20 % YOY  

Improve the OEE on identified Bottling equipment from its current state by 20% YOY. 

Lead root cause analysis on equipment failures, develop improvement and control plans 

Leadership and collaboration in process and equipment related to line transfers and new production introductions.  

Responsible for creating vision for factory automation in progressive years. 

Responsible for development of a highly technical team focused on equipment performance enhancement.  

Interact with vendors and service providers. 

Develop standard work procedures for training and operations. 

Develop methods to minimize change over time and reduce downtime. 

Identify improvement initiatives to variability reduction, equipment down-time, lead time reduction and waste elimination. 

Coach and mentor Technicians in lean philosophies to complete scheduled maintenance and enable an environment that identifies and eliminates barriers 

Champion Kaizen events document via VSM (Value Stream Mappings) existing processes, identify fail points and develop solutions. 

Responsible for improvements on improved organizational productivity/operating efficiency and service delivery to our customer base. 

Create an environment of continuous learning by conducting lessons-learned events that identify root cause of performance failure and assist team in long-term corrective actions. 

Calculate financial cost & benefits; validate results with process owners. 

Manage process improvement implementation, escalations, cost and scope. 

Provide coaching support to organization’s managers to support their improvement efforts. 

Utilize change management techniques to ensure the improvements are sustained. 

Education and Certification 

Requires a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering field and 5-8 years of progressive experience 

Up to 5 years of technical management experience preferred 

Skills Required 

B.S/B.A. in Mechanical, Biological Science Engineering or related field with at least 5 years of operations. 

3-5 years of experience leading team improvement efforts in production facilities. 

Enthusiastic, energetic, and highly driven, with the desire to learn our business. 

Strong background in a complex, fast pace, high throughput environment consisting of scientific manufacturing labs, bottling and kitting operations. 

Effectively engage teams in the value of Lean, VSMs and continuous process improvement. 

Ability to manage projects and work independently across one or more active improvements. 

Ability to quantify the impact to process metrics and financials. 

Build consensus and support for chosen solution(s). 

Must be skilled in the use of Microsoft office products, specifically MS Project and Visio. 

Have highly developed facilitation and problem-solving skills. 

Ability to analyze complex data to draw supportable conclusions and recommendations. 

Live our company values of EPIC. 

 Preferred but not required 

Certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green or Black Belt.  

Experience with statistical software is desired. 

Why Join Bio-Techne:

We offer competitive wages along with extensive benefits for employees and their families.We invest in our employees’ financial futures through retirement programs and an employee stock purchase plan.We help our employees develop their careers through mentorship, promotional opportunities, training and development, internship programs, and more.We offer an international and diverse working environment, enriched by employee resource groups; volunteer and charity events; and employee events that build a culture of caring and belonging. We foster a culture of empowerment and innovation, where employees feel valued and encouraged to bring their new ideas to the table.

Bio-Techne is an E-Verify Employer in the United States.

Bio-Techne is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

To protect the interests of all, Bio-Techne will not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than a candidate application. Any unsolicited resumes sent to Bio-Techne will be considered Bio-Techne property.