Fabrication Director

Wanco, Inc. designs and manufactures portable traffic safety, security, and specialty equipment — including message boards, arrow boards, light towers, and mobile surveillance trailers — relied on by government agencies, contractors, and industrial customers nationwide. Our fabrication department spans welding, cutting, forming, and blasting operations. As Wanco continues to scale, we are investing in operational leadership that can modernize our fabrication department, sharpen our cost structure, and build the team and processes needed for our next phase of growth.

Position Summary

The Fabrication Director is a strategic and hands-on operations leader responsible for the full performance of Wanco's fabrication department — people, process, equipment, and results. This role goes beyond running the floor day-to-day: it requires a leader who develops people deliberately, breaks down friction between fabrication and the departments it depends on, drives decisions with data rather than instinct, and thinks at a business level about where and how Wanco should build its products. A central mandate of this role is automation: Wanco is investing in robotic welding, CNC laser cutting, CNC tube cutting, and automated bending, and needs a leader with a proven track record of evaluating this kind of equipment, building the business case for it, and making it actually perform once it's on the floor — not just installed. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable coaching a welder through a skills gap, standing next to an OEM field service engineer during equipment bring-up, presenting a capital equipment business case to executive leadership, and leading a cross-functional evaluation of whether an assembly should be built in-house, automated, or sourced overseas.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership, Coaching & Career Development

• Coach supervisors, leads, and shop-floor associates directly and consistently, using regular one-on-ones and on-the-floor feedback — not just annual reviews — to build capability.
• Build individualized career development plans for direct reports and high-potential associates, identifying skills gaps, training paths (including welding certifications), and next-role readiness.
• Establish a succession and bench-strength plan for key fabrication roles, reducing single-point-of-failure risk on the floor.
• Create a culture of accountability, safety, and continuous improvement, modeling the behaviors expected of the department.

Cross-Departmental Collaboration & Friction Removal

• Proactively identify friction points between fabrication and adjacent departments (engineering, supply chain, quality, assembly, planning, and finance), and drive root-cause fixes rather than workarounds.
• Work hand-in-hand with Supply Chain on material availability, supplier quality issues, lead-time risk, and make/buy trade-offs, jointly owning outcomes rather than working in silos.
• Partner with Engineering early in new product and design-change cycles so fabrication constraints, tooling needs, and manufacturability concerns are addressed before issues hit the floor.
• Serve as the fabrication department's primary voice in cross-functional planning meetings, representing capacity, constraints, and risks clearly to peers and leadership.

KPIs & Performance Management

• Develop, implement, and drive a KPI framework for the department — covering throughput, first-pass yield, scrap/rework, on-time delivery to assembly, safety incidents, labor efficiency, and equipment uptime.
• Build reporting cadences and visual management (dashboards, floor visuals) so performance trends are visible to the team and to leadership in real time.
• Use KPI trends to prioritize corrective action and continuous improvement projects, and report progress against targets to executive leadership on a regular cadence.

Capacity Planning & Capital Investment

• Anticipate department needs — staffing, equipment, tooling, and floor space —ahead of demand, based on sales forecasts, product roadmap, and historical trends.
• Develop and present well-supported capital expenditure (capex) recommendations, including payback period, ROI, and risk analysis, partnering with Finance to prioritize investment.
• Own the business case, vendor evaluation, and implementation plan for approved capital projects from proposal through commissioning.
• Support facility layout improvements, cell-based production design, and manufacturing process optimization to support growth and improve flow.

Automation & Manufacturing Technology Leadership

• Bring a proven track record of assessing and recommending robotic welding cells, automated press brakes/benders, CNC laser cutting tables, and CNC tube cutters — evaluating not just the machine, but the full ecosystem around it (fixturing and tooling, offline/robotic weld programming, material handling, part flow, and software integration) needed to make the investment genuinely effective rather than an expensive island of automation.
• Own the OEM relationship from selection through installation: work hand-in-hand with equipment vendors to plan installation, lead machine bring-up and process qualification, and drive the ramp to full production rate.
• Build and lead operator and technician training programs for new automated equipment — in partnership with OEM training resources — so capability and performance are sustained internally long after the vendor's installation team leaves.
• Own ongoing maintenance strategy for automated equipment, including preventive maintenance planning, spare parts strategy, and OEM service agreements, to protect uptime and equipment life.
• Review part and assembly drawings and actively participate in design reviews with Engineering, assessing Design for Manufacturing and Automation (DFMA) for parts intended for robotic welding, automated bending, or CNC laser/tube cutting, and make clear, well-supported recommendations on design changes that improve automation feasibility, cycle time, or quality.
• Partner with executive leadership and Facilities to plan and implement the infrastructure automation requires — power, ventilation and fume extraction, compressed air, safety guarding, floor layout, and material flow — so new equipment can be installed and run at its intended capability from day one.
• Define, track, and drive Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) — availability, performance, and quality — for automated equipment as a distinct KPI set from general department metrics, and lead root-cause resolution when OEE lags target.

Business Improvement & Data-Driven Decision Making

• Lead structured, well-researched evaluations of business improvement opportunities by partnering with Engineering, benchmarking available technology and vendors in the market, and building a cost-down case backed by data rather than assumption.
• Bring a broader business lens to sourcing strategy: evaluate and recommend when a given assembly or component should be fabricated in-house, automated, outsourced domestically, or manufactured overseas, weighing total cost, quality risk, lead time, IP exposure, and capacity impact.
• Champion lean manufacturing and continuous improvement methods (5S, value stream mapping, root-cause problem solving) to reduce waste and improve flow.
• Stay current on fabrication technology, automation trends, and industry benchmarks, and bring forward proactive recommendations rather than waiting to be asked.

Day-to-Day Operations

• Own daily fabrication scheduling, throughput, and output to meet production plans and customer delivery commitments, balancing labor, equipment, materials, and capacity to maximize throughput and efficiency.
• Develop and maintain standardized work practices, visual controls, work instructions, and production processes across the department.
• Monitor departmental performance and implement corrective actions to address operational challenges, identifying and eliminating bottlenecks using structured problem-solving methodologies (e.g., 5-Why, fishbone/Ishikawa, 8D).
• Administer department budget, labor planning, overtime, and attendance in line with business needs and cost targets.

Safety & Quality Leadership

• Champion a zero-incident safety culture and ensure full compliance with all company safety requirements and applicable regulations.
• Lead investigations, corrective actions, and preventive measures related to both safety incidents and quality issues.
• Partner with Quality and Engineering to improve manufacturing consistency and product quality, and maintain compliance with applicable quality standards (e.g., ISO 9001) and continuous process improvement initiatives.
• Ensure welding output meets applicable workmanship and code requirements, including AWS D1.1 (structural steel) and/or AWS D9.1 (sheet metal) as applicable, and oversee proper management of Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS) and Procedure Qualification Records (PQR).

Inventory & Systems Management

• Manage inventory accuracy and material flow within the department, ensuring proper utilization of ERP/MRP systems and accurate transaction management.
• Partner with Supply Chain, Planning, and Engineering to improve material availability and production readiness, and support kanban and pull-based replenishment systems where applicable.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or a related field is preferred; equivalent experience will be considered.
• 7–10+ years of progressive experience in fabrication or manufacturing operations, including prior experience leading supervisors and shop-floor teams.
• Proven, hands-on track record evaluating, justifying, and implementing manufacturing automation — specifically robotic welding, CNC laser cutting, CNC tube cutting, or automated bending/press brake equipment — from business case through installation and sustained production use.
• Direct experience working with equipment OEMs through the full lifecycle: vendor evaluation, installation planning, machine bring-up/commissioning, operator and technician training, and ongoing maintenance.
• Demonstrated ability to read engineering drawings and participate credibly in design reviews, assessing Design for Manufacturing and Automation (DFMA) and translating findings into clear, actionable recommendations for Engineering.
• Hands-on background in metal fabrication processes such as welding, forming, cutting, blasting, and structural/sheet-metal assembly.
• Demonstrated experience building and tracking KPIs — including OEE — and using data to drive operational decisions.
• Experience developing capital equipment business cases and partnering with Finance on capex approval.
• Comfortable working directly with executive leadership and Facilities to scope and implement the infrastructure (power, ventilation, compressed air, layout, guarding) that automated equipment requires.
• Working knowledge of welding quality standards and AWS-related requirements, including AWS D1.1/D9.1 familiarity and WPS/PQR management.
• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) experience.
• Strong track record of coaching, developing, and retaining manufacturing talent.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills, with the credibility to work effectively with Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Facilities, and executive leadership alike.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with make-vs-buy, outsourcing, or offshore/overseas manufacturing sourcing decisions.
• Working knowledge of ERP/MRP systems and inventory management practices, including kanban or pull-based replenishment.
• Experience with ISO 9001 quality systems.
• SMED/Quick Changeover experience.
• Six Sigma or Lean certification.
• Budget planning and cost management experience.
• Familiarity with offline/robotic weld programming software and vision-guided or sensor-based robotic welding systems.

Work Environment & Physical Requirements

• Primarily based on the manufacturing floor with regular exposure to a fabrication shop environment, including noise, temperature variation, welding operations, and fumes and particulates from welding and blasting; required to wear PPE as applicable, including respirator use and fit-testing where required.
• Able to walk, stand, and move throughout the facility for extended periods, and occasionally lift up to 25–50 lbs.
• Occasional travel may be required for supplier visits, vendor/technology evaluation, training, or (if outsourcing options are pursued) overseas facility assessment.

What Wanco Offers

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Wanco's fabrication department from a position of real influence — reporting directly to executive leadership, with the mandate and support to modernize processes, invest in the right technology, and build a team that grows with the company. Wanco offers a competitive compensation package based on experience, along with benefits and the chance to make a visible, lasting impact on how we build our products.

Reporting: This position has direct reports and reports directly to the COO/President

FLSA Status: Full-Time, Exempt

Location: Wanco Inc. 5870 Tennyson St. Arvada, CO 80003

Key Technology Scope: Robotic welding cells, CNC laser cutting tables, CNC tube cutters, and automated press brakes/benders

Salary Range: $140,000-$190,000 depending on qualifications

Benefits : Insurance (Medical, Dental, Life, 401k). Paid time off and holidays.