Plant Manager opportunity available
Our client is experiencing significant sales growth and is in need of a Plant Manager who will have full accountability for the processes required to manufacture and deliver high quality vocational truck bodies. The Plant Manager will report to the President/CEO and will have a very strong position as a senior leader within the organization. The company is assembling a strong leadership team within the plant and this Plant Manager will continue the process.
The Reading, PA plant has approximately 525 non-union employees working across three shifts. The manufacturing processes include significant metal fabrication, coating and painting, assembly/welding and finishing. The product lines are split between standard offerings, engineered to order products and customer specific offerings. The successful candidate must have extensive experience leading a heavy manufacturing operation with a combination of high volume/low mix and low volume/high mix processes and scheduling. The plant is led with a Value Stream methodology where the support functions are aligned with three distinct value streams.
The business is financially healthy, yet the available opportunities require the skills generally used in a turnaround situation, including heavy emphasis on the implementation of action plans, follow up programs and metrics designed to encourage and provide leading and lagging indicators to performance.
The individual manufacturing processes themselves are simple and the leader must have a strong technical background with mechanical processes and a willingness to get hands on in problem solving and teaching.
Direct reports to the Plant Manager will be three Value Stream Leaders, managers of maintenance, supply chain, Mfg Engineering Services and Warranty. Dotted line reports will be Safety, HR and Finance. The team has been strengthened over the last six months with the addition of leaders from outside the company who are making an impact on the plant’s results.
The Plant Manager will have accountability for manufacturing operations, maintenance, safety, quality and scheduling to ensure customer demand is met in a safe and efficient manner. The plant has been successful depending on “ground up knowledge” and “working hard” to get product to customers. The current processes are not sustainable to capture the available sales opportunities. The primary focus of the Plant Manager will be to lead the team in the implementation of repeatable processes and correlating key performance indicators (KPI’s).
This is a role for a Plant Manager who wants to be the clear leader on the manufacturing floor. They will be hands on and visible. They must be a teacher and mentor who sets the example and challenges people to match high expectations. They must have relentless and consistent follow up methods that are not dictatorial but are effective. Delegation without follow up will not work.
Finally, the successful candidate cannot assume that reporting systems and management practices that they might expect to see in a market leading, well established business are in place. The successful candidate must be able to run the operation with its current capabilities while they are identifying and implementing the needed management practices and processes.
Qualifications
Needed Experience:
Multi-year top level accountability in a complex manufacturing job shop (make to order) combined with make to stock environment where product flow and scheduling to customer demand are critical drivers.
Prior success in a turnaround or leading a manufacturing organization with an established workforce through significant cultural change is required.
Demonstrated success in assessing skills and competencies of their key leaders
End to end implementation of a management system driven by repeatable and sustainable processes and procedures consistent with the Toyota Production system, Alcoa Business System, Standard Work, etc.
Automotive industry experience helpful by not required
Key Skills and Competencies:
Total System thinking
Accountability Leadership
P&L and cost management skills
Ability to evaluate capital needs including financial justifications and analysis
Talent Assessment
Decision making amongst ambiguity
Prioritization of issues and resource deployment
Problem identification and solving via a structured process
Mastery of Microsoft Office products, Visio and or Microsoft Project.
Qualifications
BS required (preferably in a technical field)
Prior Senior leadership over a discrete manufacturing process with high level of sku’s with a significant engineer and make to order products. First time plant managers will not be considered.
Additional Information
Compensation for this role will be commensurate with experience. To apply with interest, please provide an updated MSWord version of your resume and salary range.