Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Timeline
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Zach Hanson

Summary

Operations leader with extensive experience in human safety, food safety, and product quality. Proven ability to improve system efficiencies and eliminate losses across various areas. Expertise in project management and continuous improvement initiatives, complemented by strong skills in personnel development. Aiming to leverage these competencies to drive operational excellence and ensure compliance in a dynamic environment.

Overview

14
14
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Mill Superintendent

Grain Craft
Los Angeles, CA
01.2019 - 08.2024
  • Utilized gap analysis and problem-solving principles to reduce unplanned downtime from 6% in year one to less than 1.5% in the last two years of tenure.
  • Applied milling principles and team training to reduce flour quality defects by 50% in year one, and improved the defect rate further year over year.
  • Managed daily sanitation efforts with the goal of keeping the plant audit-ready at all times.
  • Trained and mentored a team of mostly new operators with a combination of written SOPs, milling theory training, and hands-on training.
  • Scheduled roughly 50% of the work for the Maintenance Department and was the point person for ordering the majority of spare parts.

Mill & Elevator Team Leader II

General Mills, Inc.
Vernon, CA
05.2013 - 12.2018
  • Revised roll change program and led focused defect resolution on rollstands, leading to significant downtime decrease and yield improvement of roughly 2%.
  • Co-lead on a major cost-savings project, merging two existing milling units together to increase daily milling capacity by 20%.
  • Worked closely with the corporate grain department to manage wheat sourcing and logistics.
  • Implemented the Mill department's daily direction-setting (DDS) process with a goal of sustaining performance levels and driving out loss across the milling systems.
  • Led an initiative to optimize planned downtime windows, which roughly doubled the available mill crew hours to dedicate to repair work.

Mill Team Leader I

General Mills, Inc.
Great Falls, MT
06.2010 - 05.2013
  • Led a project to de-bottleneck the B-Mill patent flour pneumatic transfer system, leading to a 30% increase in whole wheat flour hourly capacity when milling that grade.
  • Added the role of safety manager in June 2012; a major safety initiative during tenure was scheduling and conducting a dust hazard analysis, and responding accordingly to the results. Employee dust masks were updated to full-face respirators, per OSHA dust exposure guidelines.
  • Installed impact detachers on key streams on B-Mill, resulting in a yield increase of 0.2%.

Education

Bachelor of Science - Milling Science & Management

Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
2010

Skills

  • Product quality
  • Food safety
  • HACCP knowledge
  • Continuous improvement
  • Root cause analysis
  • Human safety
  • Pest management
  • Project management
  • Process improvement

Certification

  • PCQI Certified May 2019

Timeline

Mill Superintendent

Grain Craft
01.2019 - 08.2024

Mill & Elevator Team Leader II

General Mills, Inc.
05.2013 - 12.2018

Mill Team Leader I

General Mills, Inc.
06.2010 - 05.2013

Bachelor of Science - Milling Science & Management

Kansas State University

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Zach Hanson