Plant Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Plant Manager

Position Summary

The Plant Manager is the senior day-to-day operating leader for North Freeze Dry's Little Falls, Minnesota, facility and reports to the Director of Manufacturing. The Plant Manager is accountable for daily and monthly plant performance across production, maintenance, sanitation, warehousing, logistics, inventory, safety, quality execution, service, and operating expense. The Production Manager reports to the Plant Manager and owns production-floor execution through production supervisors and hourly teams.

The Plant Manager converts the Director of Manufacturing's strategy, annual plan, budget, and performance expectations into coordinated daily and weekly execution across plant functions. This role resolves cross-functional constraints, allocates plant resources within approved plans, manages operating results, and develops plant leaders. Longer-term capacity, major capital, structural, and organizational decisions are escalated to the Director of Manufacturing.

Role in the Organization

• Reports to: Director of Manufacturing.
• Leads: Production Manager and other assigned plant functional leaders; coordinates all on-site operating functions.
• Primary accountability: Daily and weekly plant-wide results, operating expense, service, safety, quality execution, inventory integrity, and cross-functional coordination.
• Decision horizon: Daily, weekly, and near-term monthly execution within the approved operating plan and budget.

Daily Plant Operations and Continuous Improvement

• Set plant-wide daily and weekly operating priorities across production, processing, packaging, warehousing, maintenance, sanitation, and logistics. The Production Manager translates those priorities into production-floor execution by shift.
• Own plant-wide delivery of the approved production schedule by ensuring labor, equipment, materials, maintenance support, sanitation readiness, warehouse capacity, and logistics are aligned. Resolve tradeoffs that cross departments or affect customer commitments.
• Own daily and weekly plant results for safety, food quality, service, yield, throughput, labor productivity, downtime, schedule attainment, inventory accuracy, waste, and cost. Hold functional leaders accountable for their respective results and the Production Manager accountable for production-floor performance.
• Lead the daily and weekly plant operating review with the Production Manager and other functional leaders; assign corrective actions, verify closure, and escalate material risks, recurring constraints, or plan changes to the Director of Manufacturing.
• Coach the Production Manager and other functional leaders, establish clear ownership across departments, and ensure effective coordination between shifts and support teams.
• Set improvement priorities for line performance, changeovers, yield, labor use, waste, and equipment uptime. Support the Production Manager in implementing floor improvements and the Director of Manufacturing in long-term projects.
• Maintain an organized, clean, efficient, and audit-ready facility; hold production and support leaders accountable for daily standards in their areas.

Operating Results and Expense Management

• Manage total plant operating expenses within the approved budget and be accountable for near-term manufacturing cost performance.
• Track and act on key cost drivers, including labor, utilities, maintenance, sanitation, consumables, waste, freight, and supplies.
• Review operating and financial results with the Production Manager, Director of Manufacturing, and Finance; address unfavorable variances with specific actions and owners.
• Provide the Director of Manufacturing and Finance with plant operating assumptions, forecasts, variance explanations, productivity opportunities, and inputs needed for budgets and longer-term planning.
• Track manufacturing cost per unit or pound and improve throughput and efficiency without compromising safety, quality, or customer requirements.
• Identify plant automation, reliability, and technology needs; define the operating problem and expected benefit; recommend priorities to the Director of Manufacturing; and own site implementation of approved investments.

Food Safety and Quality

• Set expectations for food safety and quality throughout the plant; hold the Production Manager accountable for consistent execution on production shifts.
• Partner with Quality leadership to meet food safety plans, customer and regulatory requirements, good manufacturing practices (GMPs), sanitation and allergen controls, traceability requirements, and certification standards.
• Make clear that production targets do not take precedence over food safety, quality, or regulatory requirements.
• Keep the facility ready for inspections and audits.
• Ensure food safety and quality deviations are investigated promptly, root causes are identified, corrective actions are completed, and their effectiveness is verified.
• Review trends in customer complaints, product holds, nonconforming product, rework, sanitation, and audit findings.
• Ensure manufacturing employees receive the food safety, GMP, sanitation, and quality training needed for their roles.
• Partner with Quality on product disposition and corrective actions while respecting the Quality function’s independent authority.
• Coordinate Maintenance and Engineering priorities with the Production Manager to execute preventive and predictive maintenance plans, minimize unplanned downtime, and restore equipment performance.

Employee Health and Safety

• Lead day-to-day execution of the plant’s employee health and safety programs through the Production Manager and other functional leaders.
• Address unsafe conditions and behaviors promptly and make safe work practices part of daily operations.
• Ensure compliance with applicable OSHA requirements, company policies, and plant safety programs.
• Maintain effective programs for lockout/tagout, confined spaces, hot work, fall protection, machine guarding, personal protective equipment, powered industrial trucks, contractor safety, emergency response, and other applicable hazards.
• Review observations, near misses, first-aid and recordable incidents, and property damage; ensure corrective actions are completed.
• Investigate incidents to identify root causes and address contributing systems, processes, equipment, and behaviors.
• Partner with Safety leadership on audits, risk assessments, training, and improvements.
• Hold managers and supervisors accountable for safety in their departments.

Inventory and Warehouse Management

• Coordinate daily with the Production Manager, Production Planning, Customer Sales Support, Procurement, Quality, and Logistics to maintain material availability and meet customer commitments.
• Resolve constraints in warehouse capacity, dock use, material flow, transportation, and production scheduling.
• Improve material flow to reduce handling, congestion, damage, contamination risk, and wasted effort.
• Maintain lot control and traceability for raw materials, work in process, packaging, rework, and finished goods.
• Oversee cycle counts and inventory reconciliation; investigate variances to their root causes.
• Monitor aging, held, obsolete, damaged, and excess inventory and drive timely disposition.
• Work with Finance and Quality to maintain inventory controls that meet financial, customer, food safety, and traceability requirements.

People Leadership and Daily Accountability

• Direct, coach, develop, and hold the Production Manager and other assigned plant leaders accountable for daily and weekly results, cross-functional coordination, and leadership standards.
• Set clear responsibilities for the Production Manager and other functional leaders, with performance measures and escalation expectations for each area.
• Partner with Human Resources on staffing, recruiting, onboarding, retention, performance management, succession planning, compensation, and employee relations.
• Develop the Production Manager as the primary production leader and build succession depth among supervisors and other emerging plant leaders; align broader succession needs with the Director of Manufacturing.
• Set the facility staffing plan based on production needs, operating schedules, automation, and productivity goals; the Production Manager manages shift coverage within that plan.
• Build a culture of accountability, communication, teamwork, problem solving, and continuous improvement across shifts.
• Ensure employees are trained and qualified before working independently.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring:

• A bachelor’s degree in operations management, engineering, food science, business, supply chain, or a related field is preferred. An equivalent combination of education and progressive manufacturing leadership experience will be considered.
• At least seven years of progressive manufacturing or plant operations experience, preferably in food, pet food, ingredients, agricultural processing, or another regulated manufacturing environment.
• At least five years of experience leading supervisors or managers and hourly manufacturing teams is preferred.
• Experience managing plant budgets and manufacturing costs.
• Strong knowledge of food safety, GMPs, sanitation, traceability, quality systems, and applicable regulations.
• Working knowledge of OSHA requirements and industrial safety programs.
• Experience with ERP or MRP systems, inventory control, production planning, and performance reporting.
• Ability to use operating and financial data to set priorities and deliver measurable improvements.
• Strong leadership, communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to lead through change in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

The conditions and demands below are representative of the role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform its essential functions.

This role works in office and manufacturing environments. Office noise is typically quiet to moderate; noise in the plant may be moderate to loud. The role uses standard office equipment and may use plant or laboratory equipment.

The employee regularly talks or hears and may stand for extended periods, walk, use hands and arms, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee occasionally lifts or moves up to 25 pounds and needs vision for close work. Extended seasonal hours may be required to meet deadlines.

Plant work may involve moving machinery, airborne particles including grain dust, fumes or hazardous materials, adverse weather, heights, and confined spaces. Personal protective equipment, including hearing protection, may be required.

About the Company

North Freeze Dry, LLC, headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, co-manufactures freeze-dried companion animal food and treats. Its Little Falls, Minnesota, facility is one of the industry’s largest and most fully integrated freeze-drying co-manufacturing facilities. North Freeze Dry is a subsidiary of Anchor Ingredients Co., LLC, a supplier of ingredients for the food and pet food industries.

Disclaimer

This job description summarizes the general qualifications, duties, and responsibilities of the position and may be revised as circumstances warrant. Candidates who receive a written offer of employment must successfully pass a background check. North Freeze Dry is an at-will employer: either the employee or the company may end the employment relationship at any time, with or without notice or cause. North Freeze Dry is an equal opportunity employer.