Production Manager

Description

Unbox Your Potential: Our customers see us as the industry leader for trusted, high quality food service essentials and supply chain solutions - and our employees see the value in what they do each day. We offer a culture supported by integrity, growth, relationships, and excellence. We're looking for a Production Manager at Ross & Wallace - are you ready to explore your career with us?

The Production Manager is the primary production leader responsible for daily manufacturing execution and the performance of production supervisors, team leaders, and operators. This position ensures the production team operates safely, builds quality product, follows the schedule, meets productivity targets, controls labor and overtime, and drives continuous improvement on the production floor. Success in this role is measured by consistent floor leadership, clear accountability, strong communication, improved production performance, and the ability to coach the team to meet Safety, Quality, Delivery, Productivity, and Cost goals.

This is an on-site position Monday through Friday at our Hammond, LA facility.


How you will make an impact:

• Spend a significant amount of time on the production floor coaching supervisors, team leaders, and operators while verifying that production is operating correctly within Safety, Quality, Delivery, Productivity, and Cost goals.
• Lead daily production execution by reviewing the production schedule, staffing plan, machine readiness, line change requirements, material availability, and priority customer orders.
• Hold production supervisors and team leaders accountable for shift performance, schedule attainment, line efficiency, downtime response, labor utilization, and follow-through on assigned actions.
• Ensure responsibilities and accountabilities are clearly defined for all production team members. Establish expectations, monitor progress, provide feedback, and coach employees to meet department goals.
• Drive a teamwork mindset so employees understand the importance of helping across lines, areas, and shifts to meet customer needs and plant goals.
• Respond professionally to oral and written communication. Provide clear direction, actively listen, communicate expectations respectfully, and ensure production updates are timely and accurate.
• Coordinate production line changes required by sales forecast changes, customer demand, production schedule changes, R&D runs, material constraints, or operational priorities.
• Support and participate in plant continuous improvement activities, including problem solving, root cause analysis, standard work, visual management, one-point lessons, and error proofing.
• Maintain acceptable GMP and housekeeping conditions in all production areas and ensure employees follow required safety, quality, food-contact, and operational standards.
• Plan, organize, and direct production operations to achieve effective use of manpower, equipment, materials, and floor space.
• Initiate actions that reduce manufacturing cost through improved labor utilization, reduced downtime, better changeovers, improved line balance, reduced scrap, and stronger schedule adherence.
• Work closely with Maintenance to address equipment issues, downtime trends, preventive maintenance needs, and machine reliability concerns impacting production performance.
• Work closely with Scheduling, Customer Service, Purchasing, Warehouse, Quality, and Maintenance to ensure production plans are realistic, constraints are communicated, and customer requirements are met.
• Review production KPIs daily and use data to identify gaps, assign corrective actions, and verify that improvements are sustained.
• Ensure production employees are trained, cross-trained, and following current work instructions, standard work, and operating procedures.
• Lead production communication meetings and provide clear updates on safety, quality, schedule adherence, downtime, staffing, priorities, and action items.
• Support annual planning by providing input on production staffing needs, overtime, training, equipment constraints, capacity, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead by example through coaching, teaching, mentoring, and consistent follow-up with supervisors, team leaders, and operators.

PRODUCTION MANAGER MEASURABLES

Metric Area

Expected Focus

Employee Safety

Safe behaviors, incident prevention, hazard correction, and safety participation.

Quality

GMP compliance, defect reduction, first-pass quality, scrap control, and customer requirements.

Build to Schedule

Schedule adherence, priority order execution, and communication of constraints.

Production Line Efficiency

Line performance, output versus target, changeover performance, and labor utilization.

Downtime

Downtime tracking, escalation, root cause follow-up, and repeat issue reduction.

Overtime

Overtime control through staffing plans, schedule coordination, and productivity improvement.

Production Standards

Adherence to standard work, work instructions, training, and expected production rates.

Cost

Labor hours per case, scrap reduction, downtime reduction, and CI savings opportunities.

Requirements

What we are looking for in a successful candidate:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong production floor leadership skills with the ability to coach supervisors, team leaders, and operators
• Knowledge of GMP requirements for manufacturing food customers
• Computer skills including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
• Ability to lead change, coach employees, and implement Lean Manufacturing tools such as problem solving, data collection, running to customer demand, error proofing, visual factory, standard work, and one point lessons.
• Experience planning production processes, training production employees, preparing future-state improvements, and supporting continuous improvement activities.
• Ability to create a positive work environment built on two-way communication, trust, accountability, and teamwork.
• Ability to assess production capacity, labor needs, schedule constraints, product line balancing, and alternative production scenarios.
• Ability to work with Demand Planning, Customer Service, Scheduling, Purchasing, Warehouse, Quality, and Maintenance to support forecasted orders, actual orders, and customer requirements.
• Working understanding of Lean concepts, root cause analysis, corrective action, and daily management systems.

Work Environment & Physical Demands:

• Ability to lift and/or carry a minimum of 50 lbs.
• Comfortable working in a non-temperature-controlled manufacturing environment.
• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods.
• Frequent use of hands and fingers to grasp products.
• Ability to work at a rapid pace.
• Climbing and other consistent physical activity required.

Pre-hire Employment:

All offers of employment are conditional on the results of a successful criminal background check, physical, and drug screening which includes marijuana, regardless of any state-specific medical or recreational laws.

Compensation Range: $85,000 - $110,000 annual salary with a +10% annual cash bonus target, consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position. ACR reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. ACR offers a competitive total rewards package inclusive of health and financial wellness benefits, fringe benefits, paid time off, and an annual bonus program.