Production Lead Cut and Sew

Production Lead

AXL is seeking a hands-on Production Lead with real-world experience in industrial sewn products, sewing quality standards, and daily production coordination.

This is not a generic warehouse lead or assembly-floor position.

We are specifically looking for someone who:

• Understands industrial sewing and sewn-product construction
• Has hands-on sewing experience or strong familiarity with industrial sewing operations
• Understands sewn-product quality and workmanship standards
• Can help reinforce quality expectations and production discipline
• Can support sewing staff, home sewers, and contractors
• Can help maintain daily production flow, WIP visibility, and production readiness
• Understands tactical nylon products, soft goods, bags, apparel, or military-style sewn equipment

The Production Lead is responsible for helping AXL maintain stronger daily production organization, clearer floor communication, improved production follow-through, and better visibility into production status and bottlenecks. This role is designed to support daily production execution while reducing missed handoffs, preventable rework, production confusion, and owner dependency in daily production operations. This is a hands-on production leadership role. The ideal candidate is comfortable:

• Supporting the production floor
• Helping solve production problems
• Tracking production priorities
• Supporting sewing operators and production staff
• Assisting with quality checks
• Coordinating contractor and home sewer work
• Escalating issues early before they become larger problems

Daily Production Coordination:

• Track daily and weekly production priorities
• Maintain visibility into: Work-in-progress (WIP), production status, delays, bottlenecks, material readiness
• Help production team members understand priorities and what work needs to move next
• Follow up on delayed, incomplete, or unclear production work
• Escalate production blockers before they become larger operational issues
• Support communication between: Production, inventory, purchasing, fulfillment, design, leadership

Sewing Quality & Quality Follow-Through:

• Support and reinforce AXL's sewn-product quality standards
• Help identify: Sewing defects, workmanship issues, construction inconsistencies, preventable rework
• Conduct or assist with: Pre-inspection of cut kits, in-process inspections, final inspections
• Help ensure products meet AXL's "Gold Standard"
• Escalate quality concerns, material issues, or unclear instructions immediately
• Help improve consistency across production operations

Sewing Team Support & Floor Leadership:

• Support sewing staff and production operators during daily production
• Reinforce proper workflow discipline, communication, and accountability
• Help train or cross-train team members as assigned
• Assist with maintaining standards for: Quality, cleanliness, documentation, timing, communication
• Communicate staffing gaps, training needs, attendance concerns, and capacity risks to leadership

Home Sewer & Contractor Coordination:

• Help coordinate home sewers and independent contractors
• Support work allocation based on: Capacity, skill level, product type, production urgency
• Monitor turnaround times, quality consistency, and workflow follow-through
• Help ensure external sewing resources follow approved standards and production expectations
• Maintain communication and accountability across distributed sewing operations

Materials & Production Readiness:

• Help confirm materials, kits, hardware, labels, packaging, and instructions are ready before work begins
• Flag shortages, missing materials, BOM discrepancies, or readiness gaps early
• Support inventory organization and production material flow
• Assist with production readiness before launches, dealer pushes, and high-volume production periods

Process Improvement & Documentation:

• Help maintain: SOPs, QC standards, production trackers, checklists, workflow documentation
• Identify repeated production problems and communication gaps
• Support efforts to reduce tribal knowledge and verbal-only production instructions
• Suggest practical workflow and production improvements

Type this code in the question asked when you submit your resume or include it in your cover letter: 3391

Daily production priority tracking, WIP visibility and production follow-through, production blocker escalation, quality issue visibility, rework communication support, production coordination support, materials and production readiness communication, contractor and home sewer coordination support, production tracker and checklist follow-through

Full production department strategy, final production schedule ownership unless delegated, final hiring or firing decisions, payroll, HR, accounting, or legal decisions, final purchasing authority, final product design decisions, full company operations, full P&L responsibility, acting as the owner's replacement

Experience in cut-and-sew manufacturing, tactical gear, apparel, textiles, bags, packs, soft goods, or related sewn-product production, strong understanding of industrial sewing operations and sewn-product quality standards, ability to identify sewing defects, workmanship issues, and production inconsistencies, strong organization, communication, and follow-through, comfortable working onsite in Wylie, Texas, comfortable working in a fast-moving small business environment, comfortable supporting both hands-on production work and production coordination responsibilities

Experience with tactical nylon products, military soft goods, bags, apparel, or outdoor products, experience with: WIP tracking, production scheduling support, BOMs, inventory systems, quality control, time studies, production reporting, ERP/MRP systems, experience working with home sewers, contractors, or distributed production operations, tactical, firearms, military, law enforcement, outdoor, or apparel industry familiarity preferred

First 30 Days: Learns AXL's production workflow and major production handoffs, begins maintaining production visibility and WIP tracking, identifies recurring production bottlenecks and quality concerns, supports leadership with production follow-through and communication

First 60 Days: Production priorities and daily communication become clearer, WIP tracking becomes more useful and consistent, production blockers and material issues are escalated earlier, quality concerns and rework trends are being documented

First 90 Days: Production visibility and follow-through are consistently improved, rework and preventable quality issues begin decreasing, production staff have clearer daily direction, contractor and home sewer coordination improves, leadership has fewer daily production follow-up gaps

Expected compensation range (Depending on experience and capability): Base plus performance incentive bonuses

AXL designs and manufactures high-performance upgrades and stand-alone products for Military and Law Enforcement for use with gear made by Crye Precision, Spiritus Systems, FirstSpear, Velocity Systems, Mayflower, S&S Precision, Ferro Concepts, LBT (London Bridge Traders), Eagle Industries, and other respected Military and Law Enforcement gear brands. AXL is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Compensation: $40,000.00 - $50,000.00 per year