Manufacturing Plant Manager

Job Description

The Plant Manager is the senior operating leader for the facility and is accountable for predictable performance across Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, Cash and People. The role converts business priorities into daily execution, develops the plant leadership team, and builds the operating discipline needed to serve customers reliably while improving cost, capacity and working capital.

The Plant Manager leads through value stream and functional leaders and is accountable for integrated site results regardless of reporting line. Functional leaders establish standards and governance; the Plant Manager ensures those standards are executed in the plant and resolves conflicts that prevent performance

Responsibilities

Core Accountabilities Safety Environmental and Regulatory Leadership
• Set the expectation that work stops when conditions are unsafe or product integrity is at risk. Lead visible safety routines, incident reviews and verification of corrective actions.

• Ensure compliance with OSHA, EPA and applicable state and local requirements, including required permits, training, recordkeeping and emergency response readiness.

• Integrate ergonomics, industrial hygiene, environmental performance and risk reduction into operating plans and capital priorities.

• Hold every leader accountable for safe work, timely hazard correction and consistent use of the Safety Golden Rules.
Customer Quality and Delivery
• Own the plant's service and delivery performance for external customers and intercompany transfers, including schedule attainment, backlog recovery, complete orders and dependable promise dates.

• Build quality into the process through standard work, quality control plans, layered process audits, first-piece and in-process controls, and disciplined containment when a defect is found.

• Lead cross-functional response to significant customer issues and recurring defects. Require verified root cause, corrective action, effectiveness checks and horizontal deployment where the risk exists elsewhere.

• Partner with Quality, Product Engineering and Customer Care to reduce claims, warranty cost, rework, scrap and cost of poor quality while protecting the customer during recovery.
Operating Plan and Financial Performance
• Translate the annual operating plan into capacity, labor, maintenance, materials, productivity and capital plans for each value stream.

• Own the plant operating budget, conversion cost, productivity, overtime, spending, inventory and working-capital performance within delegated authority.

• Review demand, capacity, constraints and material readiness routinely. Escalate structural gaps early and present fact-based options for load balancing, sourcing, capital or customer commitments.

• Maintain accurate operating data and forecasts. Use common definitions and source systems so plant decisions and enterprise reporting rely on one version of performance.
DOOR Performance System
• Deploy the D.O.O.R. Performance System as the plant's management system, not as a separate improvement program. Connect annual priorities, daily management, leader standard work and problem solving from the value stream to the plant level.

• Lead tiered accountability using visual management, clear targets, timely escalation and documented countermeasures. Confirm actions at the gemba rather than relying only on meeting-room reports.

• Build problem-solving capability through PDCA, Coaching Kata, standard work and structured root-cause methods. Leaders must develop people to solve problems instead of becoming the permanent problem solver.

• Use value-stream thinking to improve flow, reduce waste and shorten lead time. Sponsor focused kaizen activity only when it addresses a defined performance gap and has an owner and sustainment plan.
Materials Flow and Asset Reliability
• Ensure disciplined planning, scheduling, inventory control, material presentation, warehousing and shipping so production can meet the committed schedule with minimal expediting.

• Establish clear ownership for preventive maintenance, constraint management and downtime reduction. Review equipment losses and require permanent countermeasures for chronic failures.

• Improve overall equipment effectiveness where it is a valid constraint measure, with separate visibility to availability, performance and quality losses.

• Maintain site business-continuity plans for critical equipment, utilities, suppliers, systems and weather-related risks.
People Leadership and Organization Capability
• Select, coach and hold accountable a multi-layer leadership team. Set clear expectations, provide direct feedback and address persistent performance or conduct issues promptly and consistently.

• Build succession depth for critical plant roles and maintain development plans for high-potential leaders, front-line supervisors and technical talent.

• Ensure appropriate spans of control, clear role ownership and leader coverage across all shifts. Adjust the organization as volume, mix and technology change.

• Partner with Human Resources on workforce planning, attendance, retention, employee relations, labor strategy where applicable, and consistent policy administration.

• Communicate plant priorities and performance regularly through shift meetings, town halls and direct engagement at the gemba. Create an environment where employees can raise problems without delay.
Engineering Capital and Change Execution
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Product Engineering to ensure design for manufacturability, process capability, tooling, staffing, quality controls and training are ready before launch or transfer.

• Own site readiness for new products, ERP and system changes, automation, line moves and major process changes. Use formal risk review, commissioning criteria and post-launch stabilization plans.

• Prioritize capital using safety, customer, capacity, quality, cost and cash impact. Deliver approved projects to scope, schedule and financial commitment and verify the benefit after implementation.

• Ensure process documentation, routings, bills of material, labor standards and production master data accurately reflect how the plant operates.
Enterprise and Network Leadership
• Act as an enterprise leader, balancing site performance with ASD network requirements. Support fact-based capacity transfers, common standards and rapid sharing of proven practices.

• Maintain effective operating relationships with Sales, Sourcing, Customer Care, Finance, Information Technology and peer plants. Resolve issues at the lowest practical level and escalate when enterprise tradeoffs are required.

• Represent the site in business reviews, audits and transformation initiatives with accurate status, clear risks and recovery commitments.
Decision Rights and Escalation
• Has authority to stop work, shipment or equipment when safety, environmental compliance or product integrity is at risk.

• Sets daily plant priorities and reallocates labor and resources within approved budgets, policies and operating commitments.

• Approves site countermeasures, staffing actions, overtime and spending within delegated authority and recommends capital and structural changes requiring higher approval.

• Escalates material customer risk, capacity shortfalls, prolonged outages, regulatory events and forecast deviations early, with options, impact and a recommended course of action.
Performance Measures
Annual targets are established through the ASD operating plan.

Category Measures Safety and environment Recordable and lost-time performance, high-risk corrective actions, near-miss quality and closure, compliance and environmental events Customer and quality Service, on-time delivery, complete orders, first-pass yield, scrap, rework, cost of poor quality, claims and warranty Flow and reliability Schedule attainment, lead time, backlog, throughput, constraint performance, OEE where applicable, downtime and preventive-maintenance compliance Cost and cash Conversion cost, labor productivity and efficiency, overtime, spending, inventory accuracy, inventory turns, working capital and capital benefit realization People Regrettable turnover, attendance, staffing to plan, training and qualification, succession coverage, engagement and leader standard work

Qualifications

Required Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, operations, supply chain, business or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant manufacturing leadership experience.

• At least 12 years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including leadership through other managers in a large, multi-value-stream or similarly complex operation.

• Demonstrated results improving safety, quality, delivery, cost and organizational capability through a structured operating system.

• Strong financial and operational acumen, including operating budgets, labor planning, working capital, capital investment and performance forecasting.

• Experience with Lean daily management, standard work, problem solving, flow, pull, TPM and change leadership. Formal Lean or Six Sigma certification is helpful but is not a substitute for sustained results.

• Working knowledge of ERP and manufacturing data systems and the ability to use operational data to identify risk, set priorities and verify results.
Preferred Experience
• Leadership in a high-mix manufacturing, engineered-product or building-products environment with intercompany supply relationships.

• Experience with significant product launches, plant transfers, automation, footprint changes, turnaround conditions or ERP deployment.

• Experience leading across matrixed Quality, EHS, Materials, Engineering, Human Resources and Finance functions.

• Master's degree in business, engineering or operations management.
Work Requirements
• This is an on-site leadership role with regular presence across shifts and availability for significant operating or emergency events.

• Travel is required as business needs dictate for enterprise reviews, supplier or customer matters, and cross-plant work.

• The role must comply with all site safety requirements and be able to access active manufacturing and warehouse areas with required personal protective equipment.