Assistant Plant Manager (2nd Shift)

Company Overview

Bootz Industries, part of American Bath Group, manufactures stamped steel tubs and shower bases for residential and commercial applications. The Evansville, IN facility plays an important role in supporting production demand and customer expectations through safe, efficient, and high-quality manufacturing operations.

The plant operates a multi-shift manufacturing environment where operational execution, quality, safety, and continuous improvement directly impact business performance.

The Opportunity

This role exists because the Evansville operation requires dedicated leadership presence during second shift.

The Assistant Plant Manager will serve as the primary operational leader during evening production hours, providing leadership support to supervisors, overseeing production performance, and driving improvements across throughput, quality, downtime, safety, and continuous improvement initiatives.

This is not a maintenance role. The facility is seeking a leader who can strengthen execution, improve operational consistency, develop front-line leadership, and help elevate overall plant performance.

The successful candidate will have significant ownership and visibility within the operation and will play a key role in helping the facility achieve its performance objectives.

Success in Year One

Success will be measured through operational improvement, stronger execution discipline, and increased accountability across second-shift operations.

Within the first year, the successful hire will establish themselves as the primary operational leader on evenings, improve communication and coordination between shifts, strengthen supervisor effectiveness, and drive measurable improvements in production performance, quality, safety, and continuous improvement execution.

The role will be expected to create sustainable operating improvements rather than temporary fixes.

The Mandate

The Assistant Plant Manager will lead second-shift operations and serve as the primary decision-maker for the facility during evening production hours.

This leader will be responsible for improving operational performance while ensuring safe, efficient, and consistent execution across the production environment. The position requires active floor leadership, rapid problem-solving, strong accountability, and the ability to drive results through supervisors and production teams.

Success requires balancing immediate operational demands with longer-term performance improvement initiatives.

Year One Critical Outcomes

• Improve throughput and overall production efficiency.
• Improve labor productivity performance.
• Reduce operational downtime.
• Improve quality performance and eliminate recurring production-related quality issues.
• Reduce manufacturing scrap and waste.
• Strengthen safety performance and maintain a strong safety culture.
• Establish consistent execution of Continuous Improvement initiatives.
• Develop supervisors and strengthen accountability across second-shift operations.
• Improve responsiveness and decision-making during production disruptions.

Why This Role Is Hard

This role sits at the center of daily manufacturing execution.

The Assistant Plant Manager must manage competing priorities across production, quality, maintenance, safety, staffing, and continuous improvement while maintaining operational stability throughout the shift.

The role requires making decisions in real time, often without immediate access to senior leadership. Success depends on the ability to prioritize effectively, solve problems quickly, hold people accountable, and maintain momentum during operational challenges.

Leaders who prefer to observe from the sidelines or rely heavily on escalation will likely find the role challenging.

Leadership Profile

The strongest candidates will demonstrate:

• A history of leading manufacturing operations and production teams.
• Confidence making operational decisions in fast-moving environments.
• Strong accountability and ownership for business results.
• The ability to develop supervisors and improve team performance.
• Experience improving production, quality, safety, or operational efficiency metrics.
• Strong problem-solving skills within manufacturing environments.
• A track record of leading and sustaining continuous improvement initiatives.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining execution discipline.

Experience Requirements

• Manufacturing leadership experience in a production environment.
• Experience leading supervisors, team leads, or front-line manufacturing personnel.
• Demonstrated ownership of operational performance metrics such as production, quality, labor productivity, downtime, safety, or efficiency.
• Experience making independent operational decisions and managing day-to-day production performance.

Preferred:

• Continuous Improvement leadership experience.
• Manufacturing process troubleshooting experience.
• Experience identifying and removing operational bottlenecks.
• Automated manufacturing environment experience.
• Strong operational data analysis capability.

Why the Right Candidate Will Be Excited

This role offers the opportunity to make a visible impact on plant performance while working directly with senior operational leadership.

The successful candidate will have meaningful ownership, broad operational exposure, and the opportunity to influence the future direction of the facility. The position provides a platform to build leadership capability, drive measurable business results, and gain experience that can support future advancement opportunities within a growing manufacturing organization.

For leaders who enjoy solving operational problems, improving performance, and building stronger teams, this role offers significant responsibility and visibility.

Why This Role Matters

The Assistant Plant Manager is a critical leadership position within the Evansville operation.

The individual hired into this role will directly influence production performance, quality outcomes, safety execution, supervisor development, and overall operational consistency. Their ability to strengthen second-shift execution will allow plant leadership to focus on broader strategic priorities while ensuring the operation continues moving toward higher levels of performance.

This role is an opportunity to lead meaningful operational improvement and leave a measurable impact on the business.