Plant Manager

Essential Responsibilities

• Lead all plant operations: production, maintenance, quality, warehouse, and plant support functions.
• Drive safe, reliable daily execution against quality, service, cost, and output goals.
• Maintain strong floor presence across shifts; escalate issues early and ensure follow-through.
• Run a disciplined operating cadence (daily review, action tracking, accountability).
• Own plant performance results, including productivity, conversion cost, and plant profitability.
• Manage plant budgets, forecasts, and capital execution with strong financial discipline.
• Drive waste reduction and cost improvement with a strong “pennies business” mindset.
• Partner with Finance to improve plant-level visibility, costing accuracy, and inventory valuation.
• Build and lead the plant’s annual improvement initiative charter aligned to VPET priorities and strategic initiatives.
• Focus the charter on measurable improvements in Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, and People (SQDCP).
• Define clear owners, milestones, KPIs, and review cadence for priority initiatives.
• Improve equipment reliability, uptime, and process stability through strong maintenance and operating discipline.
• Reduce scrap, downtime, and process variability through focused problem-solving and line/SKU improvement plans.
• Strengthen preventive maintenance execution, spare-parts readiness, and technical capability.
• Track progress visibly and drive actions to completion with cross-functional support.
• Deliver consistent quality and service through strong schedule execution and production readiness.
• Partner cross-functionally to reduce pushouts and improve customer reliability.
• Support successful startups, qualifications, and process transfers with Operations, Engineering, and NPD.
• Own plant inventory discipline, including material movement, transactions, cycle counts, and traceability.
• Ensure warehouse and production teams follow standards that support SAP and financial accuracy.
• Partner with IT, Finance, and Planning to improve data quality and reporting reliability.
• Drive accountability for held ware, slow-moving inventory, and disposition processes.
• Build and lead a high-performing plant leadership team with clear accountability and follow-through.
• Strengthen frontline leadership, technical depth, and training discipline across the plant.
• Partner with HR on recruiting, retention, performance management, and engagement.
• Reinforce VPET’s guiding principles and a culture of ownership, teamwork, and execution.
• Own the content of the Playbook, including definitions and nomenclature and deployment process.
• Drive alignment with the different sites.
• Maintain system health and improvement through governance and feedback.

Qualifications

• Experience 10+ years in manufacturing operations leadership, preferably in plastics manufacturing.
• 5+ years in plant leadership with broad cross-functional responsibility.
• Proven track record improving safety, quality, delivery, cost, and team performance.
• Demonstrated experience with plant financials, budgeting, and cost reduction.
• Experience leading change in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, maintenance, quality systems, and warehousing.
• Experience improving OEE, scrap, downtime, and process discipline.
• Working knowledge of ERP/SAP-driven operations and inventory controls.
• Leverage of Lean / continuous improvement mindset with practical implementation experience.

Leadership Competencies

• Hands-on, floor-focused leader.
• Data-driven and financially disciplined.
• Clear communicator and team builder.
• High accountability / high standards.
• Strong problem-solver with urgency and follow-through.
• Builds trust and ownership across functions.

Plant KPIs

• Safety & People: Safety incident rate / # of recordables, Employee retention / turnover, Training completion and frontline leadership readiness.
• Quality & Delivery: Customer complaints, Customer returns, and internal defect trends, On-time delivery / schedule attainment.
• Operations & Cost: OEE / equipment performance and availability, Scrap rate / yield loss / regrind performance, Downtime (planned vs. unplanned), PM completion and critical spare-parts readiness, Conversion cost / manufacturing cost performance vs. budget.
• Inventories & Financial Discipline: Inventory accuracy (SAP vs. physical), Held ware / slow-moving inventory reduction, Transaction discipline / traceability compliance, Plant profitability / EBITDA contribution, Working-capital and cash-impact improvements (especially waste and inventory).

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, Supply Chain, or related field preferred.
• Equivalent combination of experience and technical training will be considered.

Work Environment

• Manufacturing plant environment with regular floor presence required.
• Must be able to work across shifts as needed to support safe and reliable operations.
• Occasional travel to other plants, suppliers, or customer sites may be required.

Competitive Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision insurance premium.
• Employer paid Life Insurance.
• Employer Match.
• Paid Vacation and Paid Sick.
• Holiday Pay.