Vice President of Production

The Vice President of Production leads the people, processes, equipment, and technology that turn each customer’s design into a finished luxury carpet or rug. This leader is accountable for safe operations, product quality, reliable delivery, capacity, and workforce development across Scott Group Studio’s multi-shift Grand Rapids manufacturing operation while protecting the craftsmanship and customization that define the company.

Scott Group Studio operates a custom job shop at scale. Each order moves through a series of interdependent processes that may include sample and bulk yarn dyeing, sample production and customer approval, stamping, hand or robotic tufting, finishing, and quality inspection. Success requires disciplined scheduling and repeatable processes while accommodating each order’s unique design, color, construction, and craftsmanship requirements.

Emotional and cultural intelligence are essential. The VP must earn the trust of a predominantly Vietnamese-speaking workforce through listening, humility, consistency, and respectful communication. This leader will value the expertise of experienced craftspeople, invite their input, and build commitment to change while maintaining clear expectations and accountability.

Leadership Scope:

Lead Dyehouse, Yarn, Samples, Stamping, Tufting, Finishing, Technical Operations, and Maintenance through department leaders and supervisors. Partner closely with Design, Customer Service/Quality, Sales, Supply Chain, Technology, Finance, and Human Resources to align production priorities with business and customer needs.

Key Responsibilities

Production Planning & Execution

• Own the integrated production schedule from sample production through finished-product readiness, planning against capacity, equipment, skill, shift, order complexity, material availability, and approval requirements.
• Coordinate production workloads, order release, job routings, work instructions, and handoffs to ensure accurate information reaches each affected team.
• Manage bottlenecks, work in process, queue time, and competing priorities across departments.
• Partner with Customer Service and Sales to establish achievable delivery commitments, communicate risks early, and develop practical recovery plans.

Workforce Leadership & Development:

• Coach supervisors to lead with empathy, fairness, accountability, and consistency across shifts while maintaining a strong presence on the production floor.
• Build trust across language and cultural differences through clear, respectful communication and appropriate use of bilingual leaders, interpreters, translated materials, and visual instruction.
• Preserve and strengthen craft knowledge through documented methods, hands-on training, skills development, cross-training, and succession planning.
• Partner with Human Resources on recruiting, onboarding, retention, performance management, and workforce planning.

Quality & Continuous Improvement:

• Build quality into each production stage and partner with Quality on inspection standards, traceability, nonconforming product, and release requirements.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective action related to defects, rework, and customer concerns.
• Improve production flow, schedule reliability, material utilization, and labor productivity while protecting craftsmanship and appropriate flexibility for bespoke work.
• Establish a disciplined problem-solving cadence using production data, visual measures, and continuous improvement practices.

Technical Operations, Maintenance & Safety:

• Lead robotic tufting and the implementation of new production technologies, balancing automation with the craft requirements of each product.
• Develop effective implementation plans for equipment and process changes, including trials, training, documentation, maintenance support, and production ramp-up.
• Oversee preventive maintenance, equipment reliability, critical spare-parts readiness, and downtime response.
• Maintain strong safety practices, effective training, and prompt hazard resolution throughout the manufacturing operation.
• Use ERP, scheduling tools, and production data to improve visibility, resource allocation, capacity planning, and execution.

Required Experience & Capabilities:

• High emotional intelligence demonstrated through self-awareness, active listening, empathy, and composure under pressure, with a record of building employee trust and maintaining respectful accountability.
• Significant progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including responsibility for multiple production departments, frontline supervisors, and shift operations.
• Demonstrated success managing a high-mix, low-volume, custom or made-to-order job shop at meaningful scale, including variable routings, shared resources, specialized labor, and multistep scheduling. Repetitive production experience alone is insufficient.
• Proven ability to leverage ERP systems to translate backlog and order complexity into realistic capacity, staffing, and production plans while improving delivery reliability.
• A record of developing supervisors and skilled production employees, transferring craft knowledge, and building workforce capability through structured training and succession planning.
• Demonstrated success earning trust and leading a multilingual workforce across cultural differences. Experience working effectively with Vietnamese-speaking employees is strongly preferred; Vietnamese language proficiency is valued but does not substitute for emotional intelligence or cultural awareness.
• Practical experience with continuous improvement, quality problem-solving, equipment reliability, production systems, and implementation of automation or other manufacturing technology.
• Strong cross-functional judgment and communication with the ability to resolve competing priorities, communicate constraints clearly, and maintain accountability for execution.
• Continuous improvement mindset with experience in Lean, Six Sigma, and/or 5S practices.

Preferred Background:

• Experience in custom carpet, rugs, textiles, luxury furnishings, or another craft-intensive manufacturing business where appearance, customer approval, and specialized finishing are central to product quality.
• Experience supporting a certified quality management system, including AS9100, and using ERP, production scheduling, and shop-floor performance data.
• Bachelor’s degree in operations, manufacturing, engineering, textiles, or a related discipline preferred. Equivalent relevant production leadership experience will be considered.

Measures of Success:

Success will be measured through schedule attainment and on-time completion, production output and efficiency, lead times, first-pass quality, rework and scrap, bottleneck throughput, equipment reliability, employee trust and retention, workforce development, cross-training, and safety performance.

Work Environment & Quality:

This role requires regular on-site leadership across office and manufacturing environments, visibility across both shifts, and periodic travel to other company facilities or relevant suppliers.

The Vice President of Production will support Scott Group Studio’s AS9100 Rev D-certified Quality Management System through disciplined production processes, training, documentation, traceability, corrective action, and a continued commitment to product conformity and customer requirements.