Production Manager

Overview

About the Role

We are seeking a hands-on, results-driven Operations/Production Manager to lead the day-to-day operations of a manufacturing facility in Ohio.

The ideal candidate is a decisive, highly responsive leader with a strong sense of urgency who can quickly assess changing priorities, mobilize the team, and take action to ensure production targets and customer delivery commitments are met.

This is a high-volume, continuous manufacturing environment with fast-paced production demands and frequent changes in production requirements, so the ability to react quickly, reprioritize resources, solve problems on the floor, and keep production moving is critical.

This is not a sales role. The focus is entirely on operations, production performance, people, maintenance, and budget.

 

Key Responsibilities

Operations & Production

Lead and manage all day-to-day manufacturing operations to achieve safety, quality, productivity, cost, and delivery objectives.
Maintain a strong presence on the shop floor, working directly with supervisors and employees to identify issues and remove obstacles to production.
Ensure production schedules and customer commitments are met, with a strong focus on on-time delivery (OTD).
Monitor production output, capacity, staffing, downtime, scrap, efficiency, and other key performance indicators.
Quickly respond to changing customer demand, production disruptions, staffing issues, equipment problems, and other operational challenges.
Establish priorities and reallocate resources quickly when production requirements change.
Identify bottlenecks and implement practical solutions to improve throughput and overall plant performance.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives that increase productivity, reduce waste, improve quality, and improve delivery performance.
Ensure production processes and procedures are consistently followed and continuously improved.
People & Leadership

Lead, develop, coach, and hold the operations team accountable for achieving performance objectives.
Build a strong culture of accountability, urgency, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
Manage staffing levels and ensure the plant has the people and skills required to meet production demand.
Partner with HR on recruiting, onboarding, employee relations, performance management, training, and workforce planning.
Develop supervisors and frontline leaders to strengthen the overall leadership team.
Foster a hands-on, collaborative environment where leaders are actively engaged on the production floor.
Maintenance & Equipment

Oversee plant maintenance activities to maximize equipment availability and minimize unplanned downtime.
Partner with maintenance leadership to establish preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
Ensure equipment issues are addressed quickly to minimize disruption to production.
Support capital equipment planning and improvement initiatives as needed.
Safety & Quality

Promote a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with all applicable safety requirements.
Work closely with Quality to ensure products meet customer and internal requirements.
Drive corrective actions when quality or production performance falls below expectations.
Ensure operational processes support consistent quality and reliable customer delivery.
What We Are Looking For

Proven experience managing manufacturing operations preferably fast-paced production demands and frequent changes in production requirements.
Demonstrated success managing production KPIs and delivering measurable results.
Proven track record of improving or maintaining on-time delivery, production output, productivity, and operational efficiency.
Strong people-management and leadership experience.
Experience working closely with HR and maintenance functions.
Ability to operate effectively in an environment where priorities and production demands can change rapidly.
Strong sense of urgency and accountability.
Comfortable making decisions quickly and taking action when problems arise.
Hands-on leadership style with a willingness to spend significant time on the production floor.
The Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate is someone who doesn’t wait for problems to solve themselves.

When production falls behind, equipment goes down, staffing changes, or customer demand suddenly increases, this person immediately assesses the situation, establishes priorities, gets the right people involved, and drives the team toward a solution.

We are looking for a leader who can move quickly, make decisions, stay calm under pressure, and take ownership of the numbers.

Most importantly, this person must be able to demonstrate a history of measurable manufacturing results—particularly in on-time delivery, production output, productivity, efficiency, and team performance.