Summary:
This position is responsible for servicing Star Accounts, Strategic Accounts, and strategic growth market segment accounts by providing externally focused service and quality technical expertise, improvement program development and implementation, training, follow-up, and analyses to these customers.
Preferred Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree, Quality and/or Qualification Manufacturing Experience
Primary Responsibilities:
STRATEGIC MARKET AND STAR TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES
· Participates as required on market segment and star account teams to ensure that short and long-term strategic service and quality objectives coincide with package capabilities and customer expectations.
· Interfaces with sales, marketing, manufacturing, R&D, and engineering to establish quality requirements on products and services based on customer needs, as well as to ensure that quality parameters are addressed early on in the commercialization process.
· Serves as team facilitator on market segment and star account teams.
· Provides effective oral and written communications within customer and Sonoco organizations to relay customer inputs and resulting strategies to team members and accomplish tactical objectives in an efficient and effective manner.
· Performs trade audits for key markets in order to provide feedback on package performance to market teams and customers as appropriate.
STAR / STRATEGIC ACCOUNT RESPONSIBILITIES
· Conducts customer listening sessions, surveys, Quality Functional Deployment processes, etc. at Star and Strategic Accounts in conjunction with sales and marketing to determine our customers' performance expectations and priorities in service and quality. Incorporates those expectations and priorities into a performance plan for those respective customers. Benchmarks our current performance for those critical performance attributes, establishes appropriate control plan and targets for performance improvement, and adds Critical Performance Measures (CPM's) to measure our ongoing performance improvement against those attributes.
· Establishes relationships with Star and Strategic Customer contacts, including key management, operations, and quality personnel.
· Identifies and understands Star/Strategic account goals in terms of growth, market changes, product modifications, and new product introductions. Additionally understands potential downstream issues and opportunities, such as changes in distribution handling, distribution channels, product exportation, etc. Understands at a more advanced level how Sonoco's service and quality impacts our customer's customer and the ultimate consumer.
· Builds and communicates to Sonoco supplying plants Star (and Strategic as necessary) customer satisfaction scorecards regarding critical performance measures. Supports the development and implementation of Sonoco plant systems for continuous customer service/quality improvement. Determines with sales and manufacturing effective methods for communicating Sonoco's performance and getting Sonoco's ticket punched for its efforts.
· Provides needed/requested support for customer-focused improvement initiatives to the Sonoco plant, including systems development, leadership, coaching, training, and facilitation. Coordinates improving supplying plant capability to more effectively address customer-related issues and expectations.
· Develops and implements customer supported and valued initiatives that more closely link the Sonoco supplying plant(s) to the customer (i.e. joint service/quality teams, plant visits/meetings, joint process improvement, etc.).
· Provides 6 Sigma project support and/or training for Star and Strategic accounts, including but not limited to Kaizen, 6 S, TQM, Quality Function Deployment, etc.
· Provides technical assistance at Star and Strategic customer facilities to evaluate and resolve specific issues
involving product or service quality.
· Manages escalated Star and Strategic customer problems and issues to resolution, ensuring all problems arc resolved to our customers' expectations and finding ways to delight the customer in our responsiveness to those issues.
· Benchmarks and develops a service audit/standard to assess current plant performance for Star/Strategic accounts that will point out improvement/training/communication opportunities.
· Develops specific customer improvement plans for RPV survey results falling into the "value laggard" category.
· Prepares responses to customer surveys and questionnaires. Coordinates and conducts internal quality systems audits on an as needed basis for supplying plants to Star and Strategic Accounts.
· Investigates CAR's (Corrective Action Requests) for Star and Strategic Accounts to verify corrective actions are appropriate and effective. Maintains and reports CPM's for CAR response time and % Non-recurring complaints.
· Works with Sales & Marketing in customer account "value-selling".
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
· Stays abreast of trends and developments in the customer service and quality fields and recommends changes in policies or procedures as appropriate.
· Maintains currency with respect to technical and managerial skills by attending training courses, seminars, and trade shows.
· Trains new Operations Improvement Managers based on expertise and market segment supported.
Determines application of 6 Sigma methods in field studies or market evaluations.
Only successful candidates will be contacted. No phone calls please.
EOE/AA/H/V
