Alp Ira

Having successfully improved processes, increased manufacturing efficiency and contributed to business growth through skillful alignment of production, engineering and factory management, Lean manufacturing and quality improvement initiatives, I am writing to offer your organization my 21+ years of demonstrated achievements.

As a highly-accomplished, results-driven leader and factory/production manager with unique background of tobacco processing/manufacturing, technical, construction, process improvement and business development skills and expertise, along with cross-functional team leadership and stakeholder relationship-building attributes, I am confident in my ability to generate superior results for your team as Factory Manager.

I have served in multiple global positions, including Regional Continuous Improvement Manager, Production Manager, Technical Manager and Operations/ Factory Support Manager for Imperial Tobacco International, the 4th largest tobacco company in the world, identifying critical production issues and delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions and factory support services. A sample of my extensive contributions includes:

• Creating opportunities for new business growth by preparing organization for production startup in only 6 months’ time and providing support of production, technical and quality operations. Guiding/coaching teams.
• Establishing a safe, well-maintained production operation with yearly volume of 13.3 mio sticks and €5.6 mio budget in accordance with corporate standards and gov’t regulations. Assuring proper layout of production areas.

• Optimizing achievement of organizational objectives through expert production planning, problem-solving and continuous process improvement, utilizing Lean manufacturing tools and best practices.

• Executing maintenance program to supply required production capacity in accordance with production plans. Leading implementation of integrated ISO system certification. Efficiently utilizing staff of 250 with 5 direct reports.

• Boosting productivity by 11.5% by introducing initiatives to increase efficiency and reduce costs, including use of best practices to implement new working structure on production floor and reduce machine staff from 6 to 5.

• Contributing to business/revenue growth by managing business and product commercialization processes taking into account different markets, regulations and cultures. Working to reduce working capital requirements.

• Significantly reducing tobacco waste from 10.6 to 7.5%, the best waste rate among all competition, by conducting 5 Whys and Root Cause analyses, as well as implementing new process control parameters and quality initiatives.

• Orchestrating adept leadership with skillful alignment of production, quality, supply chain and technical management operations to support factory in meeting market demands and in business development activities.

• Building a culture of continuous improvement in areas of overall effectiveness, labor productivity, waste rates and capacity utilization through use of problem solving, best practices, quality improvements and Lean manufacturing.