Working as an account manager for a staffing company gave Eileen Kristensen an inside look into many types of industries before she became an Operations Intern for Heaven Hill Brands. Today she uses her skill set in process improvement and data analysis to streamline production across Heaven Hill bottling and production lines.

Eileen Kristensen knew she wanted a role in the bourbon industry, but it was the Heaven Hill Brands experience that drew her to her first experience as an Operations Intern in 2019.

“The more I looked at Heaven Hill, the more I was drawn to our values,” said Eileen. “To have the company’s values – and essentially our entire strategy – laid out so openly and transparently, immediately drew me in.”

As an Operations Intern and in her current full-time role as Continuous Improvement Specialist since 2020, Eileen is responsible for helping to improve processes in production that generate a positive result for Heaven Hill.

During a typical day, Eileen might lead a Kaizen Event, in which cross-functional teams come together to identify an area for improvement and work together on improving a process.

A recent Kaizen Event addressed layout challenges in Heaven Hill’s bulk bottling line, creating a better and more efficient flow to fill and move bottles through the line. “I’ve also worked on several larger-scale projects, but I still keep the root of my projects in what people have suggested or in needs that they see,” said Eileen.

Heaven Hill has embraced engagement-style management, which uses the 90/10 rule — 90% of the organization’s time, effort and resources go to people, and 10% is focused tools that help people, who are the experts at what they do, to continuously improve, said Continuous Improvement Manager Shawn Hughes.

“Eileen has lived by that rule, and that was one of the most important factors in bringing her on full-time,” said Shawn. “She wasn’t doing it to get hired. She was doing it because she believed it. Being genuinely concerned for people and being teachable are the two most important factors I look for in any candidate.”

“No other job I’ve worked has offered me this much autonomy to control my own career,” said Eileen. “I’ve learned to communicate better and translate the needs on the production floor to quantifiable reasons for change for upper management. Sometimes I like to say that my job is basically translating what we need on the production level to numbers and metrics that justify change.”

Eileen is currently earning her Master’s degree in Operations and Supply Chain Management from The University of South Dakota. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Economics from Canisius College.