Manufacturing Operations Manager

Description

Location: Ypsilanti, MI
Schedule: Second Shift, Monday–Friday, approximately 3:00 PM–11:00 PM, with flexibility for overtime and occasional weekends based on production needs
Employment Type: Full-Time, Salaried

Position Summary

Underground Printing is looking for an experienced Manufacturing Operations Manager to lead our second-shift production operation.

This role is ideal for a leader who enjoys being closely connected to the day-to-day operation, building strong teams, solving problems, and driving results in a fast-paced manufacturing environment. The Manufacturing Operations Manager maintains a strong presence across the production floor while providing leadership and direction to supervisors, leads, and production teams.

This position is responsible for approximately 50–60 team members working across multiple production and fulfillment departments , including Screenprint, Embroidery, DTG, Heat Press, Fulfillment, and Shipping.

The Manufacturing Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring second-shift operations are effectively staffed, organized, and aligned with production schedules and customer commitments. This includes setting priorities, coordinating resources, identifying and resolving obstacles, developing leaders, and ensuring strong communication between shifts.

Success in this role requires someone who can balance people leadership with operational execution and take ownership of the overall performance of the shift.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead all second-shift manufacturing and production operations.
• Provide leadership and direction to supervisors, leads, and production team members across multiple departments.
• Ensure the shift starts with clear production priorities, staffing plans, and expectations.
• Monitor production performance throughout the shift and make real-time adjustments to labor, workflow, equipment, and priorities.
• Drive performance in productivity, labor efficiency, quality, safety, and on-time completion.
• Maintain an active presence throughout production operations to understand challenges, support leaders, and ensure priorities remain on track.
• Establish clear expectations and accountability related to performance, attendance, quality, safety, and workplace standards.
• Identify production bottlenecks and coordinate solutions to keep work moving.
• Coordinate with Fulfillment and Shipping to ensure time-sensitive customer orders and carrier commitments are completed.
• Lead effective shift handoffs so production priorities, equipment concerns, quality issues, and incomplete work are clearly communicated.
• Investigate recurring operational issues, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions.
• Develop and reinforce standard work, training, SOPs, 5S, and continuous improvement practices.
• Partner with Maintenance and Operations leadership to address equipment issues and improve reliability.
• Coach and develop supervisors and leads to strengthen leadership, communication, decision-making, and accountability.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, reduce waste, increase efficiency, and strengthen the overall employee and customer experience.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate has demonstrated success leading teams in a fast-paced manufacturing, production, warehouse, distribution, or fulfillment environment.

We're looking for someone who can manage competing priorities, changing production needs, equipment challenges, staffing issues, and customer deadlines while keeping the operation organized and moving forward.

Preferred qualifications include:

• 5+ years of progressive manufacturing, production, warehouse, fulfillment, or operations leadership experience.
• Experience leading a sizable hourly workforce, preferably including supervisors or team leads.
• Experience managing multiple departments, production areas, or workstreams during a shift.
• Strong people-management skills, including coaching, accountability, performance management, and employee development.
• Demonstrated experience managing production schedules, staffing, productivity, quality, and deadlines.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Kaizen, continuous improvement, root-cause analysis, or similar operating practices.
• Strong organizational, communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
• Comfort using production systems, spreadsheets, reporting tools, technology, and emerging tools to improve planning, communication, and operational efficiency.
• Ability to remain organized and make sound decisions when priorities change or production does not go according to plan.

Experience in apparel decoration, screen printing, embroidery, heat press, printing, packaging, or custom manufacturing is helpful but not required. We are primarily looking for a strong manufacturing and operations leader who can learn our processes and effectively lead people and performance.

What We're Looking For in a Leader

You enjoy being connected to the operation and understanding what's happening across your departments.

You set clear expectations, follow through, and hold people accountable while building strong working relationships with your team.

When production falls behind, you determine why and develop a recovery plan. When an issue continues to occur, you look beyond the immediate fix and work to address the root cause.

You are comfortable making decisions and adjusting priorities as circumstances change. You communicate clearly, stay organized under pressure, and understand when an issue needs to be escalated.

You believe strong operations require both strong processes and strong people , and you invest time in developing supervisors, leads, and team members.

Most importantly, you take ownership of the performance of your shift and work collaboratively with the broader Operations team to deliver results.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Manufacturing Operations Manager will build and maintain a second-shift operation that:

• Consistently achieves production and shipping commitments.
• Starts and ends each shift with clear priorities and communication.
• Responds quickly to staffing, equipment, quality, and workflow challenges.
• Maintains strong standards for safety, quality, productivity, and attendance.
• Develops supervisors and leads who understand expectations and take ownership of their departments.
• Uses labor effectively based on production priorities and business needs.
• Provides effective communication and handoffs between shifts.
• Leaves the operation organized and positioned for continued success.
• Continuously identifies and implements better ways to get work done.

Physical Requirements

This position requires frequent standing and walking throughout an active manufacturing environment, along with occasional bending, reaching, lifting, pushing, and pulling.

The employee must be able to regularly lift and move materials weighing up to 50 pounds and spend extended periods of time working throughout production and operational areas.

Why Underground Printing?

Underground Printing is a national custom apparel company with extensive in-house manufacturing capabilities, including screen printing, embroidery, digital printing, heat-applied decoration, fulfillment, and shipping.

Our operation moves quickly, customer deadlines matter, and production priorities can change throughout the day. We value leaders who can bring structure to a fast-paced environment, develop strong teams, improve processes, and take ownership of results.

If you're an experienced manufacturing or operations leader who enjoys solving problems, developing people, improving processes, and seeing the direct impact of your leadership, we'd like to hear from you.

Our Core Values

• Show Up
• Work Hard
• Be Respectful & Honest
• Strive for Excellence
• Do What You Say
• Promote Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Benefits

This is a full-time, salaried position with:

• Paid time off and paid holidays
• 401(k) plan with a 4% employer match
• Medical insurance options through Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Dental insurance through Delta Dental
• Vision insurance through EyeMed
• 40% Underground Printing employee discount

Underground Printing participates in E-Verify, a program that confirms new hires' eligibility to work in the United States. We are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and equitably.