Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Timeline
Generic

MELISSA DEAN

Dexter,MO

Summary

Accomplished VP with 25 years of progressive experience and proven record of significant, successful contribution in Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality Management, Project Management, Transportation, Inventory, People Management, Commercialization, Packaging, Process Improvement, Business Analysis, Product Methodologies, Supplier Management, QMS, Regulatory, Budgeting and Cost Reduction. A self-motivated leader with strong organizational and prioritization ability. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities while maintaining customer and team focus.

Overview

15
15
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

VP, Co-Pack Operations and Quality

Zevia
02.2021 - Current
  • Manage 5 departments under Zevia Operations: co-pack manufacturing, quality, consumer relations, packaging, and operations portfolio management (commercialization)
  • Manage AOP Budget of 100MM. Reduced spend in 2023 by 10%. Consolidated .manufacturing network from 17 plants to 9, leveraging volume for reduced costs. Expected to reduce spend by 4.7MM in 2024, partnership with new co-pack manufacturer
  • Establish and direct a 3rd party manufacturing network servicing the US and Canada that optimizes end-to-end supply chain quality, costs, flexibility, and resilience
  • Build and deploy innovative solutions that improve quality and cost-to-serve efficiencies in the extended supply chain network
  • Establish mutual relationships with 3rd party partners with contracts that reflect that mutuality while incentivizing relentless improvements in service delivery and cost structure
  • Lead development of Zevia’s Quality System, Consumer Relations reporting and KPI’s
  • Ensure effective investigation, communication, testing outcomes, corrective actions and documentation of product or materials that do not meet Zevia standards and all trending customer concerns
  • Drive efficient, sustainable practices for manufacturing
  • Work directly with co-pack site for sustainable corrective actions, follow ups, and develop action plans for resolutions about quality or other manufacturing incidents
  • Lead commercialization efforts, including manufacturing plant launches, packaging configurations, line extensions, normal production, testing, and quality parameters
  • Ensure vendor compliance and audits across GMP, Food Security, HACCP, HARPC, FSMA, SFCR, Regulatory compliance, Supplier Approval Process and Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP)
  • Assure accuracy, effective utilization, and integration of NetSuite ERP with co-packer systems
  • Implement vendor scorecards, KPI’s and quarterly business reviews
  • Ensure all protocols and procedures follow best-in-class business practices and efficiencies.

VP, Quality, Inventory, and Transportation

Zevia
04.2019 - 02.2021


  • Quality and Co-pack See above
  • Inventory:
  • Manage and foster the relationships and communications between the inventory control, quality, supply chain, customer service, warehousing and logistics teams, both internal and external, in all areas related to inventory for issues, resolutions, and corrective actions
  • Manage, lead, coach, develop, and schedule the activities of the Inventory Control Team to deliver high quality service to the Operations Team while maintain inventory accuracy
  • Manage and responsible for all daily inventory activities to include but not limited to: PO Shortages, PO/BOL discrepancies, warehouse damages, lost inventory, inventory variances between NetSuite and warehouse/plant inventory counts, hold requests, Amazon and e-commerce inventory issues, Inbound/Outbound damages, lot reports (RM and FG) and adjustments
  • Responsible for managing the reconciliation schedule between Zevia and warehouse/plant/Amazon inventories and auditing the effectiveness
  • Collaborate with the Finance Team for month end process and any system driven negatives on inventory
  • Direct liaison with outside auditing firms and Finance Team to assist and provide information or reports for inventory
  • Facilitate and manage the year-end inventory process
  • Partner, lead, and manage, where applicable, the creation of supplier claims for inventory related conditions
  • Assist with new warehouse/plant set ups for daily/monthly lot and inventory reporting and expectations
  • Manage, lead and assist in the development of standard work instructions and practices
  • Manage the inventory metrics and dashboard for reporting, establish adjustment approval levels
  • Partner with the Business Analytics team for building and reporting metrics system (TRP, Z Suite, KPI’s)
  • Transportation:
  • Lead sourcing and contracting efforts for new carriers, brokers and lanes, driving ongoing cost reduction and cost containment through best-in-class rates
  • Optimize transportation demand network
  • Manage vendor scorecards and quarterly business reviews
  • Establish KPI’s and reporting
  • Establish and manage department goals that align with all internal and external customers
  • Ensure all carriers meet legal and insurance requirements
  • Ensure carriers and brokers meet Sustainability and Social Impact policies and adhere to Code of Conduct Policy
  • Develop Standard Operating Procedures for the department
  • Drive efficiency in the function, including maximizing the use of technology such as Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
  • Tender and track inbound and outgoing shipments in support of team
  • Oversee budgeting process for department, from proposal to expense control
  • Develop and maintain budget of 20MM yearly
  • Maintain all financial transactions, ensuring that goals align with allotted budgets and established rates with carriers and providers
  • Oversee the compliance of Regulatory Transportation requirements

Sr. Director Quality and Inventory

Zevia
02.2018 - 04.2019
  • Manage and foster the relationships and communications between the quality, consumer relations, inventory control, supply chain, customer service, warehousing, finance, sales, marketing and logistics teams, both internal and external, in all areas related to quality and consumer relations for issues, resolutions, and corrective actions
  • Manage, lead, coach, develop, and schedule the activities of the quality and consumer relation teams with the Operations Team, Product Development (PD) Team and Tech Services (TS) Team while maintaining quality and consumer standards
  • Responsible for the development of Zevia’s Quality System, Consumer Relations reporting and KPI’s
  • Manage the review and reporting processes for all transactional beverage quality metrics and customer/consumer complaints and inquiries
  • Responsible for the investigation, communication, testing outcomes, corrective actions and documentation of products or materials that do not meet Zevia standards and all trending customer concerns
  • Work directly with internal and 3rd party partners for sustainable corrective actions and follow ups
  • Manage, lead, and assist with commercialization activities, to include manufacturing plant launches, line extensions, normal production, testing, and quality perimeters
  • To include extensive knowledge, participation, accountability and delegation of the following items at the manufacturing level:
  • Set-up/validation of formulations
  • Batching
  • Quality Perimeters
  • Specifications
  • Hold Processes
  • Packaging
  • Coding
  • Sanitation
  • Microbiological Results
  • Product sampling
  • Water quality
  • Manage the maintenance, organization, and accuracy of quality activities by co-packer for the above-mentioned processes
  • Create an escalation protocol for any reported out of specification condition
  • Responsible for audit compliance
  • Develop the of metrics and tracking for GMP, Food Security, HACCP, HARPC, FSMA, SFCR, Regulatory compliance, Supplier Approval Process and Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP)
  • Manage, create, and implement 3rd party food safety audits and processes for owned warehouses
  • Conduct and manage audits for suppliers, co-packers, and warehouses, as needed
  • Manage compliance oversight for the following items:
  • Manage Bulletin and SOP processes
  • Manage supplier documentation
  • Create and maintain beverage manual updates
  • Oversee yield reporting process
  • Research consumer issue trends
  • Review and troubleshoot customer issue trends
  • Hold inventory testing and management
  • Formulation compliance
  • Manage the research of inventory variance items against formulas
  • Mange the Creation of Supplier and Co-Packer Claims for Quality and yield related loss
  • Manage the maintenance of the Zevia certifications for Kosher and Gluten Free
  • Develop improvement strategies for quality, reliability, and consumer relations objectives
  • Manage quality related special projects with supply chain partners
  • Manage the maintenance of the Corrective Action Database for issues that will include initial problem, short term solutions, root cause, and corrective actions for co-packer and supplier related issues, investigations for quality and trending consumer complaints (Issue Trak Management)
  • Manage complaints according to risk and escalate to relevant partners
  • Manage, lead and assist in the development of standard work instructions and practices for quality and consumer relations
  • Manage and continually improve the quality metrics and dashboard for reporting
  • Ensure employees have the proper training, skills, and tools to effectively perform their day-to-day functions
  • Responsible for the management and development of quality teams, co-pack operations and consumer affairs teams
  • Develop, mentor, and guide the quality and consumer relation teams to develop technical and professional skills
  • Manage retail customer requests that include customer questionnaires, specification sheets, audit certificates and reports
  • Responsible for the quality budget and the establishment of the quality testing, as needed
  • Maintain FQA and protocols specific to the customer relations team
  • Support all quality, consumer relations, product development, projects, and packaging platforms, as needed.

Quality Assurance Manager

Cott Beverages (Refresco)
06.2008 - 02.2018
  • Develop and maintain the Cott Beverages Food Safety and Quality Program and execution in the Sikeston, MO Facility.
  • Responsible for major food safety and quality areas including receiving, batching, manufacturing, sanitation, and quality
  • Responsible for internal audit compliance:
  • Maintain certification currency in FSMA, HACCP, SQF, Food Defense
  • SQF practitioner, continual improvement, and lean manufacturing concepts
  • Conduct yearly HACCP, GMP, Food Security, and FSMA audits
  • Facilitate all scheduled 3rd-party and customer plant audits
  • Execute Change Management Process. Develop method to report status of change management procedures and process to validate. Establish, create, and promote Corrective and Preventative Action Program. Verification of identified corrective actions. Develop appropriate validation step to ensure long-term success
  • Monitor Customer/Consumer Complaints and Vendor Quality Deficiency Investigations. Ensure the appropriate actions are taken to investigate requests and coordinate activities. Develop method to collect, track, and summarize details about customer complaint investigations and to maintain this information in a form easily accessible by Quality and Manufacturing
  • Develop method to collect, track and summarize details about vendor quality deficiency investigations/
  • Maintain and develop systems and training for specifications, sanitation, manufacturing procedures, quality testing, microbiological, quality holds, aged inventory, SSOP’s, SOP’s, rework, GMP, GLP, work aids, continuous improvement, SAP, SQF, FSMA, Internal Auditing, job training, safety training, and food safety training.
  • Facility Continuous Improvement Coordinator, Develop quality certification program for maintaining quality ownership within the facility, people development and waste reduction with CI projects
  • Manage Departmental Budgets. Research opportunities for technology and process improvement, write cap ex against findings, and work with engineering department for quality improvement projects. Work with planning to optimize production schedule to eliminate downtime in changeover process and reduce the risk of flavor contamination. Streamline process for buying supplies to optimize savings while maintaining quality standards of suppliers
  • People and process management in quality, batch blend, and sanitation.

Education

Associate of Arts - Sociology

Three Rivers College
Poplar Bluff, MO

Skills

  • Metrics Tracking
  • Operations Management
  • Contract Negotiation
  • Data Analysis
  • Staff Development
  • Process Improvement
  • Business Development
  • Policy and Procedure Development
  • Critical Thinking
  • OKRs and KPIs
  • Documentation and Reporting
  • Complex Problem-Solving

Certification

SQF Practitioner, FSMA PCQI, Six Sigma Black Belt People, and Better Process Control School Certification

Timeline

VP, Co-Pack Operations and Quality

Zevia
02.2021 - Current

VP, Quality, Inventory, and Transportation

Zevia
04.2019 - 02.2021

Sr. Director Quality and Inventory

Zevia
02.2018 - 04.2019

Quality Assurance Manager

Cott Beverages (Refresco)
06.2008 - 02.2018

Associate of Arts - Sociology

Three Rivers College

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MELISSA DEAN