Maria Cuevas Verdin

• I have a regional job in charge of four locations in the poultry industry: Sanford, NC; Live Oak, FL; Guntersville, AL; and Gainesville, GA (base location). My job has two sides: operational excellence, where we apply lean six sigma methodology, such as 6S, SOPs, root cause analysis, developing PDCAs, and Kaizen events. In labor management, we set standards based on the volume that will be produced, equipment capacity, and establish standards for team members needed per department based on workload, using time studies as a tool.
• I also mentor all supervisors on labor management, helping them understand production rates, performance metrics, and how to use that data to make informed staffing and operational decisions. Part of the company goal is to look for ways to improve production rates and reduce staffing.
• We also develop the annual labor budget, determining staffing needs based on process changes, updated production rates, and any adjustments in workforce requirements.

• I oversaw eight locations—Sanford, NC; Live Oak, FL; Guntersville, AL; Gainesville, GA; Aibonito, PR; Cold Spring, MN; De Queen, AR; and Lufkin, TX. My role focused on guiding all Operational Excellence coordinators across these sites in the six pillars: People, Management, Environmental, Safety, Quality, and Maintenance.
• My job as one of the OE coordinators was to ensure all pillars were being followed by the owners, as well as to develop tools for production area SOPs, waste identification, 6S observations, PDCAs, Kaizen events, Fishbone diagrams, and root cause analysis.
• We develop improvement projects based on each location’s operational gaps, focusing on increasing yields, improving KPIs, and driving cost savings. We also ensure that all improvements are sustained long after the results are achieved.

Owner of the Management Pillar, alongside the Plant Manager and Complex Manager. In this role, we identified 6S opportunities on the production floor and developed SOPs for all production positions in the crewing guide—120 SOPs in total.

We also led yield-improvement projects across both the plant and live operations sides, using Lean Six Sigma methodology.

• Plant side: breast yield, paw recovery, fecal failure reduction, line-speed efficiency, trim reduction, late-load reduction, and customer complaint reduction.
• Live side: Hatchability and fertility improvements.

I conducted monthly audits for all pillar owners to ensure alignment with company standards and continuous improvement goals. Through these efforts, our team earned the company’s Excellence Award for first place two years in a row.

• I supervised the trim area in a beef‑processing facility, ensuring all work met USDA regulations as well as customer quality and food‑safety standards.