Essential Functions:
Safety, Health & Environmental- Champion a zero-incident safety culture: ensure compliance with OSHA, EPA, and corporate EHS standards across all shifts.
- Ownership: Own site safety performance (TRIR, LTIR) and drive root-cause corrective action on all incidents and near-misses.
- Environmental compliance: Ensure compliance with air, waste, and wastewater permits associated with glass manufacturing (e.g., tempering, coating, cutting operations).
- Audits: Lead readiness for internal, corporate, and regulatory EHS audits, and maintain ISO 14001 / IATF 16949 environmental and safety requirements.
Quality- Customer standards: Maintain IATF 16949 quality system compliance and meet customer quality requirements, including PPM targets and data-driven problem-solving.
- Containment & response: Ensure rapid containment, root-cause analysis, and corrective/preventive action on any customer complaint, line-side issue, or quality escape.
- Systems: Sustain robust in-process controls, error-proofing (poka-yoke), and layered process audits across glass forming, cutting, tempering, and encapsulation operations.
- Customer relationship: Serve as executive-level escalation contact for customer quality and supplier-performance reviews.
Delivery & Customer Service- On-time delivery: Meet 100% on-time, in-full delivery to our customers; manage risk in a just-in-time/just-in-sequence supply environment.
- Scheduling: Oversee production scheduling and capacity planning to align with customer releases and EDI/ASN requirements.
- Contingency planning: Maintain and test contingency and business-continuity plans to protect customer supply in the event of equipment, material, or labor disruption.
Materials & Supply Chain- Inventory management: Oversee incoming and outgoing production inventory levels to balance service level with working capital.
- Supplier coordination: Partner with corporate purchasing and site materials team on supplier performance, premium freight reduction, and material availability.
- Warehouse & logistics: Ensure efficient receiving, staging, and shipping operations, including outbound logistics coordination with customer plants.
Manufacturing Operations & KPIs- Operating rhythm: Lead daily/weekly management system (tiered accountability meetings) driving safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale (SQDCM) metrics.
- Performance metrics: Own plant KPIs including OEE, first-pass yield, scrap rate, throughput, labor productivity, and customer scorecards.
- Continuous improvement: Drive lean manufacturing, kaizen events, and structured problem solving to eliminate waste and variability.
- Capacity & launch: Lead new-program launches and capacity expansions in partnership with engineering, quality, and program management.
Cost & Financial Performance- Budget ownership: Develop and manage the plant's annual operating budget, capital plan, and cost-reduction roadmap.
- Cost control: Monitor and control conversion cost, labor cost, scrap/rework, utilities, and overtime against budget and productivity targets.
- Capital projects: Prioritize and justify capital investment for equipment, tooling, and facility improvements; deliver projects on time and on budget.
Maintenance & Engineering- Asset reliability: Ensure preventive/predictive maintenance programs sustain equipment uptime for tempering furnaces, cutting tables, and coating/encapsulation lines.
- Engineering support: Partner with plant and corporate engineering on process improvement, tooling changes, equipment upgrades, and problem resolution.
- Facilities: Oversee facility infrastructure, energy management, and long-range capital and equipment planning.
People Leadership & Labor Relations- Team leadership: Lead, coach, and develop the plant leadership team (Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Materials, HR, Finance) and build bench strength across the organization.
- Labor relations: Serve as management's primary representative in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) administration, grievance resolution, and day-to-day union relations with hourly employee representatives.
- Culture & engagement: Foster a positive, respectful, high-engagement culture across a diverse hourly and salaried workforce; support employee communication forums and recognition programs.
- Talent management: Drive workforce planning, staffing, performance management, and succession planning to support current operations and future growth.
- Team collaboration & relationships: Create positive working relationships with internal team members, including cross-functional and leadership teams, such that there is teamwork to proactively identify business trends, concerns, and the strategic direction of the Shelbyville plant.
- Adherence to NSG/Pilkington Standards of Business Conduct and its Values and Principles
- Other duties as assigned by manager
Work Environment:This position is based full-time at the Shelbyville, IN manufacturing facility, with regular presence required on the production floor across all shifts, including periodic off-shift, weekend, and holiday coverage to support a 24/7 operation. The plant environment includes exposure to manufacturing conditions typical of automotive glass processing, including heat (tempering/furnace areas), noise, glass handling, forklift and overhead crane traffic, and use of personal protective equipment (safety glasses, hearing protection, cut-resistant gloves, steel-toed footwear) in designated areas. The role requires the physical ability to walk, stand, and move throughout the facility for extended periods, climb stairs/platforms, and occasionally lift up to 25 lbs. Office time is spent in a standard plant administration setting. Some travel (typically less than 15%) may be required for customer visits, corporate meetings, or supplier reviews.
Scope/Dimensions:- This position is responsible for a team of approximately 400 employees including hourly. This position has six direct reports and four direct matrix reports.
- Position interacts with all levels of the organization, including various Global Directors and all NA Leaders in Automotive.
- The Shelbyville plant manager is responsible to build relationships with internal customers as a Tier 2 supplier and external customers as a direct Tier 1 supplier to automotive OEMs.
Top 3 Competencies Needed for Success in the Role: - Innovation and Change: Open to change and actively interested in new developments, technology, emerging market trends
- Engages and Inspires Others: Works collaboratively and builds trust to develop enduring working relationships withs others
- Passion for Excellence: Takes personal responsibility and ownership for achieving results & objectives
Qualifications Required:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Business, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.
- 8+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including 3+ years as a Plant Manager or senior operations leader in automotive components manufacturing.
- Prior experience managing a unionized hourly workforce, including CBA administration and grievance handling, required.
Qualifications Desired: - Direct experience supplying Toyota or another Japanese OEM strongly preferred; working knowledge of Toyota Production System (TPS) and Toyota Business Practices (TBP).
- Automotive glass, tempering, coating, or related glass-processing experience is a plus.
- Familiarity with SAP and other systems
