Quality Supervisor

Position Summary

The Quality Supervisor is responsible for leading day-to-day quality operations across pulp preparation, forming, thermoforming, finishing, and packaging processes. This role ensures compliance with food-contact, customer, and regulatory requirements while driving continuous improvement in product performance, consistency, and defect reduction. The Quality Supervisor manages technicians, oversees lab testing, supports root-cause investigations, and serves as a key interface between production, maintenance, and customers.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Systems & Compliance

• Enforce plant quality systems including HACCP, GMPs, SOPs, CAPA, MOC, and internal audit programs
• Ensure compliance with food-contact requirements (FDA, indirect food additives, coatings, inks, adhesives)
• Support third-party audits (SQF, ISO, customer audits) and maintain audit readiness
• Control document management, specifications, COAs, and records retention

Pulp & Fiber Quality Control

• Oversee pulp quality testing including:
  • Freeness (CSF or equivalent)
  • Fiber length, fines content, and morphology (e.g., MorFi or equivalent)
  • Ash, contaminants, and moisture
• Monitor various fiber type performances and support fiber qualification and change management
• Collaborate with operations on furnish optimization and fiber cost/quality tradeoffs

Molded Fiber & Thermoforming Quality

• Ensure conformance to product specifications including:
  • Basis weight / caliper
  • Dimensional tolerances
  • Visual defects
  • Cobb / water absorption
  • Oil & grease resistance
  • Compression, stack load, ring crush, or stiffness (e.g., Gurley/Gester)
• Support first-article approvals, start-ups, and changeovers

Lab & Measurement Control

• Supervise the quality lab
• Ensure proper sampling plans, test methods, and data integrity
• Maintain calibration schedules for lab and in-process measurement equipment
• Analyze trends and publish quality dashboards and KPIs

Leadership & Team Development

• Supervise and train quality technicians and inspectors
• Assign daily inspection and testing priorities aligned with production schedules
• Promote a culture of quality ownership across shifts and departments
• Coach operators and supervisors on defect recognition and prevention

Customer & Continuous Improvement

• Lead investigations into internal defects and customer complaints
• Prepare RCCA reports using structured methodologies
• Support customer trials, line validations, and new product introductions
• Drive continuous improvement projects to reduce scrap, rework, and customer claims

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience)
• 2–5 years of quality experience or manufacturing experience
• Working knowledge of:
  • HACCP and GMPs
  • Statistical process control (SPC)
  • Root-cause analysis and CAPA systems
• Experience supervising technicians or inspectors in a manufacturing environment

Disclaimer

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.