Production Manager

About the role

The Production Manager is the daily driver of plant performance and is responsible for leading manufacturing execution through the Production Supervisors. This role owns the rhythm of production and ensures Safety, Environmental, Quality, Productivity, Schedule, Throughput, Reliability, and employee development objectives are met.

Responsibilities

• Lead the operational organization as the primary operating driver of their program plan.
• Create a culture where supervisors and employees understand the goals, own the plan, and actively contribute to improvement.
• Use data, visual management, daily meetings, and disciplined follow-up to improve performance every week.
• Build supervisors into stronger leaders through coaching, accountability, and clear expectations.
• Drive daily production execution to meet customer schedules, build plans, forecasts, and delivery commitments.
• Own production performance metrics, including safety, quality, schedule adherence, throughput, labor efficiency, scrap, rework, and cost per unit.
• Develop and mentor Production Supervisors so they can lead meetings, own department performance, and drive accountability at the production level.
• Establish manufacturing priorities for Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, Materials, Planning, and other support functions.
• Partner closely with Maintenance to improve equipment availability, reduce unplanned downtime, improve MTBF, reduce MTTR, and support reliability-centered execution.
• Partner closely with Engineering to identify bottlenecks, remove process constraints, execute productivity projects, and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Lead daily management routines, production reviews, IPT meetings, and action-item follow-up to ensure the plant is aligned and moving forward.
• Drive continuous improvement, S.M.A.R.T. initiatives, material yield improvement, scrap reduction, labor productivity, and waste elimination.
• Create clear ownership for capital and productivity projects that affect production areas, including expected return, schedule, resources, and delivery of promised benefits.
• Evaluate and communicate the financial and operational impact of productivity, capital, manpower, and forecast decisions, including expected return, resources required, and timing of benefit realization.
• Use weekly graphs, scorecards, and trend reviews to measure improvement and ensure the organization is always moving forward.
• Use budget, forecast, labor, throughput, and productivity data to make decisions and drive accountability across the production organization.
• Build a cohesive production and support team that can solve problems quickly and execute with urgency.
• Actively participate in new product development, production launch, capacity planning, and labor estimates for proposals.
• Own and manage production budget responsibilities for assigned areas, including labor, overtime, consumables, scrap, rework, and controllable production costs.
• Make recommendations on manpower levels, staffing plans, shift structure, overtime, training needs, and resource allocation required to meet forecast, schedule, throughput, and productivity commitments.
• Approve production forecasts, build plans, manpower assumptions, and material/resource requirements in partnership with Planning, Materials, and Operations leadership.
• Communicate business objectives, forecast status, production risks, resource needs, and performance gaps to the Site Leader with clear recommendations and action plans.

Qualifications

• A four-year college degree.
• Requires a minimum of 10 years of manufacturing/operational experience, preferably in a participative management environment.
• Demonstrated ability to lead supervisors, develop employees, and improve manufacturing performance.
• Strong understanding of safety, quality, production planning, throughput, labor efficiency, OEE, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of production budgets, labor planning, manpower recommendations, forecasting, capital project support, productivity project tracking, and financial impact of operational decisions.
• A high energy level with excellent reasoning, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Must be driven to complete production commitments and improve performance over time.
• Must be dependable, responsible, accurate, and able to work effectively with people at all levels of the organization.
• Must be comfortable taking on a challenging assignment and delivering measurable improvement.

Skills

• Strong leadership and management skills.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Experience with production planning and scheduling.
• Knowledge of safety and environmental policies.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with generous company contribution
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA - Medical & Dependent Care)
• Life and Accident Death and Dismemberment Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Parent Leave Pay
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Vacation
• Sick Leave
• Holidays (8 paid holiday including holiday shutdown weeks in July and December)
• 401(k) matching
• Tuition Assistance

Pay

$110,387 - $153,138 /Salary

Schedule

4/10 workweek