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.
• Maintain strong floor presence while providing hands-on leadership and operational support within the manufacturing environment.
• Coordinate staffing, labor allocation, 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. Coordinate 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

• 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.