Business Process Analyst

Business Process Analyst (Manufacturing)

Bridge business operations and IT delivery by documenting, improving, and translating manufacturing processes into clear solution requirements.

Position Summary

The Business Process Analyst (Manufacturing) serves as a critical link between plant stakeholders (Operations, Production, Quality, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and EHS) and IT delivery teams. This role leads discovery to understand how work is performed on the shop floor and across supporting functions, maps current-state and future-state processes, and translates operational needs into clear, testable requirements so IT can deliver effective, usable solutions. The role also supports change management and continuous improvement to ensure solutions are adopted and deliver measurable outcomes (e.g., throughput, quality, cost, and compliance).

Key Responsibilities

• Process discovery & documentation: Facilitate workshops and interviews to understand end-to-end manufacturing and supporting processes; document inputs/outputs, roles, handoffs, pain points, controls, and system touchpoints.
• Process mapping: Create and maintain current-state and future-state process maps (e.g., swim lanes), including decision points, exceptions, data flows, and compliance requirements.
• Requirements translation: Convert business needs into clear user stories/functional requirements, acceptance criteria, and non-functional requirements; ensure requirements are testable and aligned to business outcomes.
• Stakeholder management: Act as a trusted liaison between plant teams and IT (product owners, developers, architects, data/analytics, integration, and security); ensure shared understanding of scope, assumptions, constraints, and priorities.
• Solution evaluation: Partner with IT and the business to assess solution options (configure vs. build, integration impacts, data needs), perform gap analysis, and recommend process/solution approaches.
• Data & reporting needs: Define key data elements, master data impacts, and reporting/KPI needs (e.g., OEE, scrap, yield, cycle time, downtime); validate definitions and downstream usage.
• Testing & validation: Support SIT/UAT planning and execution; develop test scenarios from process flows; coordinate user testing and defect triage with IT and business SMEs.
• Change management & adoption: Help develop training materials, SOP updates, communications, and hypercare plans; support go-live readiness and adoption measurement.
• Continuous improvement: Identify improvement opportunities, standardize best practices, and track benefits; support lean/CI initiatives and ensure technology changes sustain improved processes.
• Governance & documentation: Maintain process documentation, requirements traceability, and decision logs; support audits and compliance documentation as needed.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 3+ years of experience in business analysis, process engineering, operations excellence, or similar roles within a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to elicit requirements and map processes across shop floor and plant-support functions.
• Experience translating business needs into requirements for IT teams (Agile user stories and/or traditional BRD/FRD formats).
• Working knowledge of common manufacturing concepts and metrics (e.g., production scheduling, BOM/routings, OEE, downtime, yield, scrap, traceability).
• Strong facilitation and communication skills, including the ability to work with both hourly production teams and technical IT teams.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work with ambiguity, and drive alignment across stakeholders.
• Proficiency with standard documentation tools (e.g., Microsoft 365) and process mapping tools (e.g., Visio or equivalent).

Preferred Qualifications / Skills

• Experience with manufacturing systems such as ERP (e.g., SAP/Oracle), MES, QMS, CMMS/EAM, WMS, and/or SCADA/industrial data platforms.
• Understanding of integrations and data flows between shop floor systems and enterprise platforms.
• Lean / Six Sigma training (e.g., Green Belt) or experience applying CI tools (VSM, 5-Why, A3, Kaizen).
• Experience working in Agile delivery teams and with backlog management tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jira).
• Familiarity with validation and compliance environments where applicable (e.g., regulated manufacturing, traceability, audit readiness).
• Strong analytical skills (Excel/Power BI) to baseline performance and quantify benefits.