COO – Regional Operations — Process-Manufacturing Network

The mandate

A Netherlands process-manufacturing network has approved automation across recipe control, in-line measurement, packaging and warehouse movement. Projects were sponsored independently. The urgent replacement COO – Regional Operations will decide what to stabilise, automate, resequence or stop and will own the operating result.

Approximately 1,675 employees and material partners fall within plants, production planning, maintenance, engineering, quality, logistics and operational excellence. The COO reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and carries regional safety, output, cost, capital and workforce accountability. Technology and engineering provide specialist authority; the COO sets operational prerequisites and accepts each system into controlled production.

Automation will be matched to failure mode. Advanced control cannot compensate for drifting instruments, variable feedstock or unmaintained valves. Automated inspection may accelerate rejection without correcting the process. The COO will require baseline capability, data quality, asset condition and operator workflow before investment proceeds. Projects unable to state the physical loss they remove will return for redesign.

Human control remains important. Operators must know when the system is outside its validated envelope, what can be overridden and how to restore safe manual or degraded operation. Alarm load, interface design, training and shift supervision will be tested during realistic abnormal scenarios. Removing experienced positions before this competence is demonstrated is unacceptable.

Batch genealogy and recipe authority require particular care. Versions, raw-material lots, parameters, deviations and laboratory results must remain linked through integration and recovery. A software change cannot silently alter a validated operating range. Quality and process-safety approval will remain independent of programme schedule.

Value tracking will separate installation, adoption and outcome. Labour, yield, energy, inventory and maintenance benefits need an operational baseline and a named owner after go-live. Temporary vendor support, dual running and increased specialist maintenance belong in the case. Savings will not be claimed while equivalent cost appears elsewhere.

Operational technology security and recovery form part of acceptance. Remote vendor connections, recipe servers, sensors and automated movement can extend the attack surface and create new common-mode failure. The COO will require segregated access, tested backups, supported versions and a practised restoration path, including a safe production response when trusted digital control is unavailable.

The outgoing COO left following a board disagreement over programme sequencing. Interim site governance is protecting daily operation, but capital and people decisions require a permanent leader. The new COO has authority to reset projects without prejudging the merits of the technology.

What you will own

• Carry regional plant safety, quality, service, cost, capital and workforce performance.
• Reassess automation against physical loss, stability and control prerequisites.
• Establish operator authority, abnormal-operation and manual-recovery readiness.
• Protect recipe, genealogy, laboratory and process-safety controls through integration.
• Sequence shutdown, commissioning, ramp and vendor support around customer supply.
• Validate benefits after adoption and remove duplicated legacy cost responsibly.
• Strengthen plant, maintenance, engineering and operational-excellence leadership.
• Maintain constructive employee, community and regulator relationships.

The first 12 months

In the first 50 days, visit each plant, observe the processes targeted for automation and review asset, data and workforce readiness. Place interim gates on projects with unstable baselines or unsafe fallback. Provide the sponsor with a rephased capital and delivery plan, including any sunk cost that should not continue.

By month six, stabilise priority processes, commission selected systems through abnormal-condition tests and train each affected shift to certified competence. Stop or redesign low-confidence projects and establish benefit ownership. Workforce consultation and role changes should follow demonstrated work rather than forecast headcount.

At twelve months, improve saleable yield by five percentage points, reduce automation-targeted manual intervention by 40% and deliver 95% schedule adherence at selected plants. Approved projects should remain within 10% of reset capital and verified annualised benefits. No serious safety, genealogy or customer-release event may result from automation or failed fallback.

What the sponsor will measure

• Automation removing diagnosed loss rather than masking instability.
• Operators able to recognise, intervene and recover under abnormal conditions.
• Recipe and genealogy control preserved across digital and physical systems.
• Capital stopped when prerequisites or economics fail.
• Benefits realised after adoption and complete cost transfer.
• Plant leadership stronger than dependence on vendors or programme teams.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in chemicals, food, materials, pharmaceuticals or adjacent process operations, including multi-plant P&L or COO accountability. You have commissioned automation in live batch or continuous production and are equally credible on process stability, workforce adoption and capital discipline.

Your prior remit should include more than 1,200 employees and partners or €1 billion of assets. Evidence must include a project you stopped, an abnormal-operation test and benefits verified after go-live. Dutch and English capability, works-council experience and direct safety leadership are required.

Compensation and terms

The base range is €330,000–450,000 plus annual incentive and long-term incentive linked to safe automation, yield, service, capital and leadership. This permanent onsite Rotterdam role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor and requires plant travel. A prompt transition is expected.

Confidentiality

The network, plants, automation projects, workforce assumptions, vendors and operating weaknesses remain private. Detailed cases follow fit, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact suppliers, employees or regulators to identify the enterprise.