Operations Leadership in Food Manufacturing

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Courses - September 2025

Level 1

Course details

Conestoga 101
CON0101

Description: This self-directed course focuses on introducing new students to the supports, services, and opportunities available at Conestoga College. By the end of this course, students will understand the academic expectations of the Conestoga learning environment, as well as the supports available to ensure their academic success. Students will also be able to identify on-campus services that support their health and wellness, and explore ways to get actively involved in the Conestoga community through co-curricular learning opportunities.
  • Hours: 1
  • Credits: 0
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Principles of Food Safety and Quality Assurance
FOOD8020

Description: This course will introduce the student to food safety hazards, their negative impact on the food industry and the benefits of developing strong food safety control programs to assure safe food production. This course provides in-depth coverage of the fundamental concepts of food safety, Preventive Control Plans (PCP) and how they assist in controlling the likelihood of introducing food safety hazards to the food product through the work environment and operational practices. Students will be introduced to the knowledge and skills required to enable them to establish and implement PCP. This course will provide a strong foundation for the later studies in hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), and other globally recognized food safety management systems. This course provides in-depth coverage of food safety according to the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), Codex Alimentarius Basic Texts (WHO) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). Students will be introduced to the resources necessary to enable them to customize Preventive Control Plans (PCP) to meet industry specific requirements and regulations and industry best practices. The learner will be introduced to the skills required to identify, document and communicate food safety responsibilities for different job categories and the need for involvement and interactions between departments in a food organization (i.e. production management, maintenance, engineering, sanitation, product development, quality control, marketing, sales, production employees).
  • Hours: 70
  • Credits: 5
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Food Manufacturing - Equipment Operations I
FOOD8122

Description:

This course includes an introduction to food science, food composition, basic processing methods, and food regulations. Through hands-on activities on complete manufacturing lines, students will learn how to set up, operate and optimize food processing and packaging equipment in a GMP environment. Students will create batch documentation and production reports for product and team performance assessment.

  • Hours: 70
  • Credits: 5
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Cleaning and Sanitation
FOOD8160

Description: This course will give students an in-depth knowledge of effective Cleaning and Sanitation practices in the food and beverage manufacturing industry. Specific methods for determining soils and choosing the best chemical agents for treatment and elimination, main causes of environmental cleanliness failure and the science base for choosing the most effective ways to perform and evaluate sanitary conditions will be presented. Proper use of and safe handling of chemicals, along with overall safety in sanitation will be practiced throughout the course. Methods of detection and correction will be explored from both a practical and theoretical point of view. Students will be assigned sanitation tasks and will use the knowledge gained to test various cleaning agents and different techniques to determine their efficacy by means of on-site inspections, microbiological and ATP swabbing on actual food manufacturing lines. Assignments will include the creation of a Master Sanitation Schedule for the pilot plant and SSOPs for the equipment
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Developing Team Dynamics and Employee Engagement
MGMT8482

Description:

Success in any professional environment requires employees to operate effectively as a team member, acknowledging and functioning as part of a group. This course will define various types of teams and their typical applications, team tools and team member roles, effective meeting and project management concepts, and coaching tools for other ineffective team members. Students will practice using the learnings through projects and in-class practical applications.

  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Performance and Competency Management
MGMT8531

Description:

Competency and performance improvement remain urgent goals of most organizations. In this course, students will learn systematic approaches to improving individual performance in ways that help achieve change. The course will cover successful and unsuccessful methodologies to performance appraisal and management. The student will learn through role-play and case study, the most effective and personally comfortable process to conduct performance evaluations. Several examples of actual performance appraisals are made available in this hands-on course.

  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Operations Management
QUAL8081

Description: This course will introduce the student to the process of manufacturing and how manufacturing operations are planned and managed. Special emphasis will be placed upon the process of bringing new products to market. Topics will include: the concept of “Value-Adding”, production strategies and processes, concurrent engineering, design for manufacturability, “lean manufacturing”, plant and work-cell layout, process flowcharting and operation analysis, labour force planning, and health and safety management.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Level 2

Course details

Quality Assurance Management Systems
FOOD8056

Description: This course will provide the students with practical knowledge and experience in food quality management systems. Through case scenarios, product evaluations and audit examples complemented with theory sessions, students will learn the regulations and standards including enforcement through various audits. Students will be able to develop Standard Operating Procedures, product specifications, with an emphasis on process controls and techniques to minimize variation. Quality programs will be explored with a focus on product compliance from Supplier to customer. Methods of detecting issues, correcting them, and developing an effective Quality system tools will be explored from a theoretical and practical point of view.
  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Comprehensive Maintenance
FOOD8132

Description:

Understanding how equipment components work is a vital skill for those working with manufacturing equipment. This course will provide theoretical and hands-on practical experience in comprehending how sub-assemblies of the most common types of equipment work. Students will have the opportunity to disassemble and reassemble various components of equipment that will be found in any manufacturing environment.

  • Hours: 28
  • Credits: 2
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Food Manufacturing - Equipment Operations II
FOOD8142

Description:

In order for manufacturing companies to remain competitive, it is of vital importance to implement a prioritized continuous improvement program. This course will provide students with specific tools that can extremely effective in driving continuous improvement across all functions of an organization. Students will also be provided with effective methods to communicate with employees and with managers to gain support for the types of changes that result from continuous improvement implementations. Students will have an opportunity to identity appropriate tools to apply to various situations and to apply those tools effectively.

  • Hours: 70
  • Credits: 5
  • Pre-Requisites: FOOD8121 OR FOOD8122
  • CoRequisites:

Supply Chain Functionality
FOOD8152

Description:

Manufacturing companies’ processes are integrated between many business functions within an organization. Effective leaders know the roles of these functions, their goals, how they operate, what the challenges are, and how they relate to the other functions. Students will gain knowledge of that information in a typical manufacturing environment and will identify opportunities to improve cross-functional effectiveness.

  • Hours: 28
  • Credits: 2
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Introduction to Project Management
MGMT8551

Description:

This course provides the tools to manage and monitor the progress of complex projects across cross-functional teams of employees in multiple departments. The project management tools include clear definition of goals, outlining specific tasks and components, status reporting, the use of MS Project, and holding employees accountable for completion of project milestones. This managerial skill will help establish priorities and effectively manage projects to drive business results.

  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Occupational Health and Safety and Food Law
OHS8211

Description:

This course will address the need identified in industrial environments for increased awareness to hazardous situations and the resulting reduction of workplace injuries and accidents. Upon completion of this course, students will have an understanding of the obligations, rights and responsibilities of employees, supervisors/managers and employers and how to effect change in their future workplaces toward Health and Safety regulatory compliance. Students will have an understanding of how to respond to and record the legal, economical, technical, and personal dimensions associated with hazard awareness in industrial environments.

  • Hours: 14
  • Credits: 1
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Lean Six Sigma
QUAL8181

Description: This course will provide students with specific tools that can be extremely effective in managing and leading continuous improvement across all functions of an organization. Students will also be provided with effective methods to communicate at all levels of the organization to gain support for the types of changes that result from continuous improvement implementations and to drive increased employee engagement.This course will demonstrate how two complementary continual improvement philosophies have been combined to provide a methodology that achieves rapid improvements in customer satisfaction, cost, quality and process speed. Through the application of a structured approach students will learn how to reduce waste, minimize defects and eliminate non-value-added activities in any manufacturing or transactional process
  • Hours: 70
  • Credits: 5
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Program outcomes

  1. Develop skills and knowledge required to supervise food processing operations and supply chain (from purchasing to shipping).
  2. Interpret information regarding Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) to identify opportunities for improvement of the manufacturing operation.
  3. Understand and apply food safety regulations, sanitation requirements and traceability systems specific to food manufacturing to support efficient, safe and quality operations.
  4. Develop best industry practices in Lean Six Sigma and Total Preventative Maintenance to support continuous improvement processes in food manufacturing operations.
  5. Select and use appropriate and effective principles and practices of team-building and leadership to implement and maintain new procedures and practices in all areas of the manufacturing operation (e.g. food safety, quality assurance, lean six sigma, total preventative maintenance, continuous improvement).
  6. Practice leading and supervising an operations team in food manufacturing.
  7. Understand regulations governing Occupational Health & Safety in a manufacturing environment.