Production Supervisor (Industrial)

About the role

Brooks Instrument, an industry leader in flow and pressure instrumentation for critical applications, is seeking a Production Supervisor (Industrial Products) based at company headquarters in Hatfield, Pennsylvania (suburban Philadelphia). The company has manufacturing locations in Pennsylvania, California, Hungary, Malaysia, and Korea, with sales and service offices worldwide. Products serve laboratory and process applications in oil & gas, petrochemical, medical devices, waste water, life sciences, and analytical instruments. Brooks is a division of ITW (Illinois Tool Works), a Fortune 200 company with operations in 56 countries and over 50,000 employees.

The 1st shift Production Supervisor provides direct leadership and operational oversight for first- and second-shift employees manufacturing Industrial products at the Hatfield facility. Working a schedule designed to provide meaningful coverage across both shifts, the supervisor ensures consistent execution of safety, quality, delivery, productivity, inventory, cost, housekeeping, and employee-performance expectations. This role serves as the primary connection between shifts, maintaining clear priorities, effective handoffs, and consistent application of policies. The supervisor works closely with the Production Operations Manager, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Materials, Supply Chain, Human Resources, and other partners to resolve issues, develop employees, meet customer requirements, and drive continuous improvement through ITW Toolbox and Lean Manufacturing methods.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct supervision, daily direction, coaching, and performance management for assigned first- and second-shift employees supporting Industrial production.
• Maintain a regular work schedule that overlaps first and second shifts sufficiently to provide leadership visibility, employee access, direct observation, communication, and accountability across both shifts.
• Establish and communicate daily production priorities, staffing assignments, schedules, output requirements, and operational expectations based on customer demand and business needs.
• Coordinate effective handoffs between first and second shifts, including status of production, staffing, materials, equipment, quality issues, safety concerns, and open actions.
• Ensure production plans, procedures, quality requirements, and performance expectations are applied consistently across both shifts.
• Create and maintain a healthy and safe work environment; ensure employees understand and follow all safety requirements, personal protective equipment rules, cleanroom or gowning procedures, and incident-reporting expectations.
• Lead daily management and gemba activities; review results against plan, identify gaps, assign corrective actions, remove obstacles, and ensure timely follow-through.
• Monitor, analyze, and communicate key performance indicators, including safety, quality, output, on-time delivery, productivity, labor efficiency, yield, scrap, rework, cycle time, overtime, inventory accuracy, and attendance.
• Organize work, allocate available labor, and adjust priorities throughout the day to address changing demand, staffing constraints, material availability, equipment issues, and production interruptions.
• Maintain thorough working knowledge of assigned Vacuum and Pressure products, manufacturing processes, equipment, work cells, documentation, and operating requirements.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to troubleshoot production issues, identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and sustain approved process or product changes.
• Coordinate with Materials and Supply Chain to address component shortages, inventory discrepancies, work-in-process concerns, and other constraints affecting the production schedule.
• Ensure employees accurately complete required production, inventory, quality, training, timekeeping, and other business-system transactions and documentation.
• Promote 5S, visual management, standard work, flow, mistake-proofing, waste reduction, and other ITW Toolbox and Lean Manufacturing practices throughout assigned production areas.
• Evaluate production operations, workflows, staffing, and methods to identify opportunities to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and employee effectiveness.
• Ensure assigned employees are appropriately trained and qualified; maintain training plans and records and provide cross-training to build flexibility and coverage across both shifts.
• Provide ongoing feedback, conduct performance discussions and reviews, recognize strong performance, and address attendance, conduct, or performance concerns in partnership with Human Resources.
• Support employee hiring, interviewing, selection, onboarding, training, engagement, development, and retention activities.
• Coach, mentor, and develop employees and emerging leaders; identify development opportunities and support succession planning for critical production roles.
• Communicate company information, policy changes, production updates, and business priorities accurately and consistently to employees on both shifts.
• Ensure established company policies, work rules, procedures, quality standards, and regulatory requirements are communicated, understood, and followed.
• Collaborate with other supervisors and functional partners to coordinate shared resources, resolve cross-functional problems, and support overall site and customer priorities.
• Support customer complaint investigations, corrective actions, audits, and other quality-system activities as assigned.
• Prepare and communicate production, staffing, overtime, attendance, quality, delivery, and operational updates to the Production Operations Manager and other stakeholders.
• Promote a respectful, inclusive, accountable, and team-oriented work environment across both shifts.
• Support company continuous improvement initiatives and perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, technology, operations management, business administration, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of three years of supervisory or team-leadership experience in a manufacturing or production environment required.
• Experience supervising employees across multiple shifts or working a split-shift schedule strongly preferred.
• Experience with vacuum, pressure, flow-control, instrumentation, semiconductor, electromechanical, or other complex technical products preferred.
• Demonstrated experience implementing Lean Manufacturing, daily management, 5S, visual management, standard work, or other continuous improvement methods preferred.
• Experience working within an ISO 9001 or similarly regulated quality-system environment preferred.

Skills

• Proven ability to lead, motivate, coach, and hold employees accountable while maintaining positive working relationships.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing operations, production scheduling, labor allocation, inventory processes, quality requirements, and performance metrics.
• Ability to maintain consistent communication, expectations, and follow-through across first- and second-shift teams.
• Strong decision-making and problem-solving skills, including the ability to assess priorities and respond effectively to production disruptions or escalations.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively with employees, peers, managers, and cross-functional partners.
• Strong organizational, time-management, documentation, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to handle confidential employee and business information with discretion and sound judgment.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint; experience with ERP, manufacturing execution, quality, timekeeping, or data-reporting systems preferred.
• Ability to work onsite in Hatfield on a split-shift schedule and adjust working hours periodically to support operational needs, employee meetings, training, or critical issues.

Benefits

• Competitive, merit-based salary
• Health and dental insurance
• Company Paid Life Insurance
• Short and Long Term Disability
• 401K plan with generous company match
• Vacation, personal days and holidays
• Continuing education reimbursement program
• Flexible spending accounts
• Opportunity to join a well-established (80 years in business) yet dynamically changing organization that works together as a team to meet the challenges of satisfying customers' needs and managing rapid growth to better compete in a global marketplace.