Assistant Production Manager - Manufacturing Operations

Lead Teams. Improve Performance. Make an Impact.

At Rauch North America , successful manufacturing takes more than meeting production targets. It takes strong leaders who develop people, solve problems, and build teams that consistently deliver results.

We're looking for an Assistant Production Manager who is passionate about developing people, driving operational performance, and creating a culture of accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement. In this role, you'll help lead our 24/7 high-speed beverage manufacturing operation, supporting production teams of approximately 30 to 100 employees across assigned areas and shifts.

Working closely with Production leadership and cross-functional partners, you'll turn business objectives into action, develop frontline leaders, improve production efficiency, and help ensure our teams deliver on safety, quality, productivity, and customer commitments.

If you're a hands-on manufacturing leader who knows how to bring out the best in people while driving measurable operational results, this is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

What You'll Do

• Develop people and frontline leaders: Coach and develop Shift Leads, Senior Machine Operators, and production employees to strengthen leadership capabilities, technical skills, accountability, and team performance.
• Drive production performance: Translate production goals into daily execution, monitor key performance indicators, and implement action plans to improve efficiency, throughput, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
• Lead daily operations: Oversee assigned production areas and shifts, support staffing and labor planning, and ensure production schedules and customer commitments are met.
• Build a culture of safety and quality: Reinforce safe work practices, quality standards, company procedures, and employee accountability throughout production operations.
• Use data to solve problems: Analyze production losses, identify root causes, conduct Pareto analysis, and develop targeted improvement plans to reduce waste and recurring operational issues.
• Partner across departments: Work closely with Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Planning, Warehouse, Human Resources, and other teams to resolve challenges and keep production running efficiently.
• Improve equipment reliability: Partner with Maintenance to support autonomous maintenance initiatives, reduce avoidable downtime, and improve equipment performance.
• Strengthen workforce capability: Maintain employee competency matrices, support onboarding and 30-60-90-day reviews, identify training needs, and develop plans that improve employee skills and operational flexibility.
• Maintain operational discipline: Ensure accurate staffing plans, payroll information, production documentation, and administrative processes while meeting customer and compliance requirements.
• Lead continuous improvement: Support Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, and other improvement initiatives while developing standard work and process controls that sustain operational gains.

What Makes This Role Different?

At Rauch North America, you'll have the opportunity to:

• Lead at scale: Influence the performance and development of production teams ranging from approximately 30 to 100 employees.
• Develop future leaders: Build the skills, confidence, and capabilities of frontline leaders while strengthening the organization's leadership pipeline.
• Drive measurable results: Directly influence safety, quality, productivity, waste reduction, equipment reliability, and customer service.
• Make improvements that last: Identify operational challenges, implement practical solutions, and help establish processes that sustain better performance.
• Collaborate across the business: Work with multiple departments to solve complex manufacturing challenges and achieve shared goals.
• Help shape a growing operation: Contribute to a high-volume manufacturing environment where strong leadership, employee engagement, and continuous improvement are essential to success.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of progressive leadership experience in beverage manufacturing, food manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, or another high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience coaching employees, developing frontline leaders, managing performance, and building effective teams.
• Experience using operational metrics such as OEE, production efficiency, throughput, waste, and labor utilization to drive decisions and improve results.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, production planning, staffing, and daily execution.
• Experience partnering with Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Planning, Human Resources, and other cross-functional teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including root-cause analysis, Pareto analysis, and structured continuous improvement.
• Proficiency with SAP and manufacturing reporting tools used to manage labor, production, and operational performance.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to coach employees, manage conflict, influence others, and lead change.
• A demonstrated commitment to safety, employee engagement, teamwork, accountability, and customer-focused execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, or a related field. An equivalent combination of education and progressive manufacturing leadership experience will also be considered.
• Experience in beverage manufacturing or high-speed filling operations.
• Experience supporting a 24/7 manufacturing environment.
• Experience in a consumer packaged goods organization or multinational manufacturing company.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, TPM certification, or equivalent operational excellence training.

Working Environment and Schedule

This is a hands-on leadership position with a combination of office responsibilities and significant time on the production floor supporting employees and daily operations.

• Supports a 24/7 manufacturing operation and may require work on days, nights, weekends, holidays, or alternative schedules based on business needs.
• Requires availability to provide off-shift support during critical production, staffing, quality, safety, or equipment-related events.
• Requires compliance with applicable PPE requirements and established safety procedures.
• Involves frequent walking and standing throughout production areas, along with bending, reaching, climbing stairs, and lifting up to 25 pounds.
• Requires comfort working around manufacturing equipment, production traffic, elevated noise levels, and typical manufacturing chemicals and cleaning agents.

Why Rauch North America?

Rauch North America combines the stability of a global beverage company with the energy and opportunity of a growing manufacturing operation. We value leaders who invest in their people, take ownership of results, and continuously look for ways to improve.

Our team members enjoy competitive benefits, opportunities for professional growth, employee events, referral bonus programs, paid time off, 401(k), medical plan options, and additional employee perks.

If you're ready to develop strong teams, drive operational excellence, and make a meaningful contribution to a high-performing manufacturing operation, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help lead the people and performance behind our production success.