Production Manager – Manufacturing Operations

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee daily manufacturing operations for the Straws, Kitting & Packaging, and Injection Molding departments across all shifts.
• Directly manage and support four Shift Supervisors and Maintenance Technicians to ensure operational effectiveness and equipment reliability.
• Ensure production schedules, efficiency goals, quality standards, and customer demands are consistently achieved.
• Monitor and analyze operational metrics including productivity, downtime, scrap, labor utilization, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
• Maintain strong floor presence while providing hands-on leadership and operational support within the manufacturing environment.
• Cookstaffing and production priorities to meet changing business needs and customer demands.
• Drive accountability and operational discipline throughout all production departments.

Department Oversight Responsibilities

• Injection Molding Operations:
• Oversee the production of plastic cutlery products including knives, forks, spoons, soup spoons, soda spoons, taster spoons, and sporks.
• Manage operations involving polystyrene and polypropylene resin materials.
• Support and optimize production performance across three injection molding machines.
• Partner with Maintenance and Engineering teams to improve machine uptime, process consistency, and overall production efficiency.
• Straw Manufacturing Operations:
• Oversee the manufacturing of multiple straw product lines including Milk, Spike, Stirrer, Jumbo, Super Jumbo, Giant, Flex, and Colossal straws.
• Manage production operations involving both single-head and dual-head extrusion equipment.
• Oversee packaging processes including hand pack, handbag, auto-bag, and chip pack operations.
• Ensure product quality, color consistency, and packaging accuracy for customer-specific straw programs.
• Kitting & Packaging Operations:
• Lead operations for automated and manual kitting and packaging processes supporting customer-specific product kits.
• Oversee five robotic automated kitting lines supporting single-wrap and 3-piece cutlery kits.
• Manage four Intellifeed kitting machines along with manual, horizontal, and vertical kitting equipment.
• Cookstaffing production priorities to maximize robotic automation and Intellifeed machine efficiencies while utilizing manual lines during peak demand periods.
• Oversee assembly of customized kits containing cutlery, condiments, straws, moist wipes, napkins, and other customer-required components.

Leadership & Team Development

• Coach, mentor, and develop Shift Supervisors and Maintenance Technicians to strengthen leadership capabilities and operational performance.
• Conduct performance evaluations, corrective actions, and employee development planning.
• Foster a culture focused on accountability, communication, teamwork, and employee engagement.
• Support employee retention initiatives and workforce development efforts.
• Partner with HR regarding staffing, attendance management, employee relations, and performance concerns.

Safety & Compliance

• Promote and maintain a strong safety-first culture throughout all manufacturing areas.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA regulations, GMPs, food safety standards, and company policies.
• Conduct safety audits, incident investigations, and corrective action follow-up.
• Ensure employees consistently follow safe work practices and PPE requirements.

Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Partner with Quality teams to ensure products meet customer specifications and food packaging standards.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on operational efficiency, waste reduction, scrap reduction, and process optimization.
• Utilize Lean Manufacturing and problem-solving methodologies to improve manufacturing performance.
• Support investigations related to quality concerns, customer complaints, and process deviations.