IT Business Analyst

at  California Dairies Inc

Valley Natural Beverages is a state-of-the-art Extended Shelf Life (ESL) and Aseptic Ultra High Temperature (UHT) dairy bottling facility located in Bakersfield, California, producing high-quality beverage products in Tetra Pak packaging formats. A division of California Dairies, Inc., the leading dairy cooperative in California. Valley Natural Beverages is owned by 300 dairy families located in the heart of the Golden State.

JOB SUMMARY

The IT Business Analyst for Operations is responsible for the ongoing improvement of business processes throughout the CDI plant operations. He/She will accomplish this by working closely with the operations groups to analyze and document existing processes and gather requirements for new processes that will evolve through the implementation and maturity of D365 and related systems. The position will liaise between all operations users and various members of the IT and other corporate teams to build open channels of communications.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 10 years of business analyst experience in ERP or related business applications for food manufacturing operations, including implementation and support
• Functional level understanding of ERP, WMS, TMS, HRIS, Quality Systems, BI and at least a basic familiarity with MES

• Ability and willingness to build relationships at all levels of Operations and IT

  Basic Understanding of:

• Dairy/Food processing technology or similar discipline

• Process qualification & validation in the dairy industry

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience

• S. or B.A. degree in Business Administration, Management, Computer Science, Engineering or related field or equivalent work experience will be considered in lieu of a college degree.
• College level verbal and written communication skills. Must be able to communicate with upper management on a daily basis.
• Strong technical skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Skilled at leading multi-functional work teams
• Strong written and effective verbal communications in team settings
• Leadership, team development, coaching, and/or teaching experience.
• Excellent computer skills for data input, report writing, program tracking.
• Excellent organizational and follow through skills.
• Minimum three years of experience in a production setting.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

EEO

The Company is an equal employment opportunity employer
This job description will be updated if duties and responsibilities change significantly. Job functions are subject to modification based on business necessity

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Build relationships with those leading and working in operations to determine needs, and gather requirements and their priorities. Partner with the Director of Application Services to establish said requirements on the enterprise application roadmap to satisfy those business requirements.
• Work with the Director of Application Services to help establish and promote a governance process to handle security requests within D365. This will include being an active part of the governance committee and vetting the requests.
• Develop and maintain necessary documentation for all business processes within the operations divisions. Translate the process documentation to functional business requirements to be implemented by internal IT and their development consultants/contractors.
• Identify key stakeholders within the Operations business and meet with them at least every 2 weeks to review progress and gather new requirements
• Support the Director of Application Services in monitoring and analyzing the cost, utilization and effectiveness of existing applications and apply continuous improvement methods to increase value of operations applications (eg D365) to the organization. Conduct surveys with users and business process owners and publish results to the organization. Suggest enhancement or replacement of applications as may be necessary.
• Provide support and analysis which fits CDI’s business, culture and team. Direct vendors and contractors implementing new, expanding, and supporting existing solutions. Assist and support all stakeholders on new systems and applications.
• Maintain formal service level agreements (SLAs) for all business applications, measure, track and publish attainment to the business. Review SLAs/achievements with the business customers. Plan and execute appropriate actions to maintain and improve enterprise application performance and service to the organization and users.
• Contribute to application troubleshooting during unplanned outages, restore service in the minimum time, perform root cause analysis, and adjust internal procedures accordingly. Document incidents and update documentation for both internal and contractor usage.
• Maintain quality standards for all IT Application activities, whether they be development, project or support related. Measure work product and optimize results consistent with the SLAs established with the business leadership.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices with respect to business operations and the ERPs. Ensure operating and planned business applications are practical and consistent with company direction and needs.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. The company will make reasonable accommodations that do not cause an undue hardship to the company if such accommodation enables individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

• Sitting/Standing/Walking: Each workday the office personnel spend about 75% of their time sitting at their desk while performing computer or manual accounting and other clerical duties. They walk short distances to retrieve and replace files, to photocopy or fax documents, and to interact with other office personnel.
• Lifting/Carrying: Each workday the office personnel rarely carry items weighing over 15 to 20 lbs. Most items would be files or documents weighing less than 10 lbs., and most would be carried short distances. They are directed to seed assistance for heavier items such as a full box of photocopy paper.
• Pushing/Pulling: Each workday the office personnel may occasionally push or pull files, stacks of documents, or boxes of documents, which may be in files or on shelves at any height. They are directed to seek assistance for anything heavy.
• Bending/Stooping: Each workday the office personnel frequently squat or kneel to retrieve and replace files and documents in file drawers or on lower shelves.
• Squatting/Kneeling/Crawling: May assume any combination of these positions during clean-up duties, including kneeling on the floor and crawling under equipment. He/she may squat to use legs for leverage when using a large wrench to open product presses.
• Twisting/Turning: Each workday the office personnel extensively twist, turn and move their head, neck, shoulders, arms and hands at various angles performing heavy computer input, and comparing information from their computer monitor with paper documents. While standing or sitting at their workstation, they occasionally twist or turn to retrieve or replace something form an area beside their workstation.
• Climbing/Balancing: Each workday the office personnel may need to walk up and down stairs several times throughout a day.
• Reaching: Each workday the office personnel may reach overhead to retrieve or replace files or documents on high shelves.
• Grasping/Manipulating: Each work day the office personnel need full range of motion in both hands for heavy computer input and for using other office equipment including calculators, typewriter, and fax machines as well as for sorting through and organizing large stacks of documents