Manufacturing Supervisor - 1st Shift

Responsibilities

• Lead daily first shift manufacturing operations while providing operational oversight for warehouse, receiving, and second shift activities to ensure continuity across the operation.
• Champion a culture where safety is the highest priority by ensuring compliance with all company safety policies, OSHA requirements, safe work practices, and leading safety observations, toolbox meetings, and incident investigations.
• Ensure compliance with GMPs, HACCP, FSMA, the site's Food Safety Plan, sanitation standards, and all regulatory requirements while promoting a culture of food safety and quality.
• Cook up daily production schedules and resources to meet safety, quality, service, cost, and productivity objectives.
• Monitor production performance, labor utilization, downtime, waste, yield, inventory accuracy, and schedule attainment, taking timely action to address operational gaps.
• Partner with Maintenance to prioritize preventative maintenance, improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and support continuous improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate with Planning, Quality, Customer Service, Logistics, and Maintenance to optimize production performance and exceed customer expectations.
• Maintain a visible presence on the production floor by coaching employees, removing operational barriers, reinforcing standard work, and fostering a culture of accountability.
• Recruit, train, coach, develop, and hold team members accountable while supporting employee engagement, succession planning, and career development.
• Lead root cause investigations, implement corrective actions, and utilize production metrics and KPIs to drive continuous improvement through Lean Manufacturing, TPM, and TMM principles.
• Effectively communicate production priorities, operational issues, staffing needs, and shift handoffs to ensure alignment across all departments and shifts.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 1+ years of increasing responsibility in feed/food manufacturing environment, including supervisory accountability OR High School degree with 5+ years of manufacturing experience plus 1+ years of leadership experience.
• Candidates in the rotational Land O' Lakes programs (TAP/MMT/DMT) will be considered.
• Solid organization skills and detail orientation skills.
• Capacity for consistently meeting deadlines and managing multiple projects.
• Strong computer proficiency in Microsoft Office Suites and data entry.
• Demonstrated effective communication skills - written and verbal.
• Proven ability to coach, decision making, facilitates change, managing conflict; and ability to align performance with success.

Preferred Qualifications

• Feed, grain, milling, food manufacturing, or other continuous process manufacturing experience.
• Previous leadership experience in a 24/5 or 24/7 manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading warehouse, inventory, shipping, or receiving operations.
• Working knowledge of SAP, JD Edwards (JDE), MES, or similar ERP systems.
• Experience with production planning and scheduling.
• Lean Manufacturing, TPM, or Continuous Improvement experience.
• HACCP and/or PCQI certification.
• OSHA or advanced safety training.