Production Manager

About the role

Reporting to the Plant Manager, this leadership role oversees manufacturing operations across multiple production areas, ensuring safe, efficient, and high-quality production while meeting customer and business objectives. The Production Manager leads supervisors and production teams, drives continuous improvement initiatives, optimizes resources, and partners with cross-functional teams to enhance operational performance and support business growth within a specialized laboratory glassware manufacturing environment.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership to Production Supervisors and Leads across all manufacturing operations, including Precision Bore (PB), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), LabGlass (LG), and secondary production lines.
• Drive a high-performance culture focused on safety, quality, delivery, productivity, and cost through effective leadership of multiple production teams and organizational layers.
• Lead, coach, develop, and hold accountable Production Supervisors and Leads while building organizational capability through succession planning, performance management, and employee development.
• Translate business objectives into clear operational plans, ensuring production teams execute against safety, quality, delivery, labor, and financial targets.
• Own overall production performance across all manufacturing departments, including On-Time Delivery (OTD), productivity, throughput, yield, scrap reduction, labor efficiency, and schedule attainment.
• Establish, monitor, and communicate key performance indicators (KPIs), driving accountability through data-driven decision making and operational reviews.
• Ensure standardized work, manufacturing procedures, quality systems, and best practices are consistently executed across all production areas.
• Identify operational constraints and lead cross-functional teams to improve throughput, reduce waste, eliminate bottlenecks, and optimize manufacturing performance.
• Develop workforce plans that ensure appropriate staffing, cross-training, skills development, and operational flexibility across all production departments.
• Partner with Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, Planning, Supply Chain, Human Resources, and Customer Service to align manufacturing capabilities with customer requirements and business priorities.
• Lead structured problem-solving activities utilizing root cause analysis and continuous improvement methodologies to resolve production, quality, and delivery challenges.
• Champion Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, 5S, and continuous improvement initiatives that improve safety, productivity, quality, and operational efficiency.
• Oversee compliance with all safety, environmental, quality, and regulatory requirements while reinforcing a zero-incident culture.
• Ensure production schedules are achieved while balancing labor utilization, equipment capacity, and customer priorities.
• Support new product introductions, process improvements, capital projects, automation initiatives, and operational expansion activities.
• Serve as a key member of the plant leadership team by contributing to strategic planning, organizational development, capacity planning, and capital investment decisions.
• Drive communication and alignment across all production shifts and departments to ensure consistency in priorities, execution, and performance expectations.
• Lead customer-facing activities as required, including audits, operational reviews, corrective actions, and issue resolution.

Experience / Qualifications

• Demonstrated success leading leaders (Supervisors and Leads) in a manufacturing environment, with strong coaching and talent development capability
• Minimum 7–10+ years of progressive manufacturing experience, with 5+ years in leadership roles managing multiple teams or functions
• Proven ability to drive safety, quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across complex production environments
• Strong organizational, operational planning, and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple production lines and priorities
• Experience in scientific glassware, precision manufacturing, or other highly technical, tight-tolerance production environments preferred
• Hands-on experience with Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and data-driven process improvement initiatives
• Demonstrated ability to analyze production data and manage KPIs including OTD, yield, scrap, throughput, and labor efficiency
• Strong cross-functional leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to drive results in a fast-paced, customer-driven environment
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Manufacturing, or a related technical field required, or an equivalent combination of education and/or relevant experience
• Formal training or certification in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or Continuous Improvement methodologies, or demonstrated hands-on application of these principles
• Ongoing professional development in leadership, operations management, or technical manufacturing disciplines strongly encouraged

Salary

$115,000 – $130,000

Physical demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to walk and is frequently required to sit; use both hands; reach with hands and arms; and talk and hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• The employee is regularly required to stand, walk, crawl, bend and sit.
• The employee is occasionally required to lift up to 50 pounds.

Work environment

• The office environment is an interior office with air conditioning.
• The shop contains mobile equipment, machinery, and high voltages.
• The shop noise level is variable and may require hearing protection in some areas.
• The shop is heated when required but many areas are not air conditioned.
• Some shop processes use high voltage arcs or concentrated magnetic fields.
• The shop contains open flames and caustic chemicals.
• Some areas of the shop may be designated as hard hat zones.