Plant Manager

Plant General Manager

As the key management representative, the Plant General Manager will lead and inspire our division to achieve profitable growth while consistently surpassing the expectations of both internal and external customers. The focus will be on ensuring excellence in safety, quality, on-time delivery, technical support, and total cost of ownership. Through strategic planning, organization, and direction, you will drive our operations towards unparalleled success and customer satisfaction. This role is responsible for the overall P&L.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Optimize operations: Manage throughput, productivity, and overall labor efficiencies to meet revenue objectives and reduce the cost structure.
• Champion continuous improvement: Lead programs to enhance quality, reduce scrap, and lower facility costs, achieving gross profit targets.
• Drive performance excellence: Develop and manage performance goals for employees, boosting the facility's ability to meet corporate objectives while enhancing employee morale.
• Foster customer relationships: Support business development by hosting customer visits and enhancing customer goodwill through active engagement and support.
• Uphold company standards: Actively support company policies, procedures, and workplace rules, including environmental, health, and safety objectives.
• Ensure regulatory compliance: Maintain effective compliance with federal, state, and local laws regarding business operations.
• Implement lean manufacturing: Deploy the Vaupell Lean Manufacturing System (VLMS) across operations, utilizing production health, rate readiness, and risk mitigation tools to meet organizational goals.
• Maintain quality standards: Ensure adherence to process control procedures, operating instructions, and quality control instructions, focusing on safely manufacturing quality products with minimal scrap or rework while meeting customer specifications.
• Provide technical leadership: Lead the development of engineered products, processes, logistics, and material capabilities to meet customer requirements.
• Manage working capital: Provide leadership and direction on the effective application of the organization's working capital in the form of inventory.

• Strategic agility. Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Managerial courage. Does not hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and actionable positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
• Drive for results. Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Building effective teams. Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
• Business acumen. Understands the company's business goals and objectives, the business process, and impact of individual actions on business performance. Applies cost-effectiveness, competitiveness, and profitability to business decisions and initiatives.
• Developing others. Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes direct reports to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental systems in the organization; is a people builder.
• Interpersonal savvy. Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people.
• Motivating others. Creates a climate in which people want to do their best; can motivate many kinds of direct reports and team or project members; can assess each person's hot button and use it to get the best out of him/her; pushes tasks and decisions down; empowers others; invites input from each person and shares ownership and visibility; makes each individual feel his/her work is important; is someone people like working for and with.
• Problem solving. Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and does not stop at the first answers.
• Responsible to follow and ensure compliance with all established Vaupell policies, standard operating procedures, and safety practices.
• Other duties as assigned

Job Qualifications/Requirements

• Experience: 10+ years of progressive managerial experience in a plant ideally as an operations manager with at least 3 years as a Plant Manager/General Manager. Has experience with commercial product line accountability.
• Education: A bachelor's degree is required, and an MBA is preferred.
• Lean Manufacturing Expertise: Proven experience in implementing Lean Manufacturing processes.
• Financial Acumen: Proficiency in understanding and applying financial statements, with a clear grasp of their operational impact.
• Communication and Leadership: Exceptional communication, interpersonal, leadership, and team-building skills.
• Business Acumen: Strong organizational and time management skills, along with general computer proficiency.
• Ethical Standards: Highest level of business ethics in all internal and external relationships.

• Leadership Ability: Demonstrated ability to lead a team towards achieving business objectives.
• Candidates must be a "US Person" (i.e. US Citizen or Permanent Resident) to ensure Vaupell's compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations)

Environmental Condition

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently exposed to moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to fumes, airborne particles, and vibrations. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to occasionally loud. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Requirements

This position requires prolonged sitting (60% or more of the workday), with standing and walking performed regularly (20–60%). Frequent use of hands and fingers is required for grasping, handling, keyboarding, and coordination, along with routine sensory demands including hearing and near/far vision, depth, and color perception. Occasional bending, reaching, turning/twisting, stair climbing, and lifting/carrying/pushing up to and over 50 lbs. may be required (20% or less).

Vaupell reserves the right to change, modify or add to the Essential Duties and Responsibilities of any position at any time.

Vaupell is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, belief and spirituality, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity/national origin, pregnancy, genetic information, veteran or disability status.