Production Manager

Position Summary:

The Plant Manager is a hands-on operational leader responsible for full-site manufacturing performance, overseeing all plant activities from inbound chassis and material flow through production, quality, final release, and shipment execution. This role owns daily plant operations with direct accountability for safety, quality, delivery, productivity, labor efficiency, and cost performance, ensuring production commitments are achieved while maintaining operational discipline, lean execution, and a high-accountability culture.

This leader is expected to build and lead high-performing plant teams, drive continuous improvement, rapidly resolve production constraints, and partner cross-functionally with supply chain, quality, engineering, maintenance, and logistics to ensure seamless plant execution. The ideal candidate is a strong, visible manufacturing leader with proven success in high-volume, high-mix automotive or complex production environments, capable of balancing day-to-day operational execution with long-term performance improvement and financial accountability.

Position Responsibilities:

• Provides full-site leadership and end-to-end operational ownership for all manufacturing activities, including body, paint, assembly, quality inspection, rework, final release, material flow, facility operations, and overall plant execution.
• Owns full plant P&L performance, including labor, overhead, production cost, facility operating expenses, capital planning, budget management, and cost reduction initiatives to ensure operational profitability and financial performance targets are achieved.
• Leads daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly plant operations to ensure production output consistently meets forecasted volume targets, customer commitments, OEM requirements, delivery schedules, and overall business objectives.
• Directs all production scheduling, capacity planning, workforce deployment, overtime management, and operational resource allocation to maximize throughput, optimize labor efficiency, and maintain predictable, scalable production flow.
• Drives operational excellence through lean manufacturing principles, standard work, takt-based production systems, waste elimination, bottleneck reduction, continuous improvement initiatives, and disciplined execution focused on productivity, efficiency, and cost control.
• Oversees full inbound-to-outbound manufacturing execution, including chassis receipt, inventory movement, material readiness, line sequencing, production conversion, quality validation, and shipment release to ensure uninterrupted operational flow and efficient asset utilization.
• Leads all plant personnel management activities, including hiring, coaching, performance management, succession planning, organizational development, workforce engagement, and leadership development across managers, supervisors, and plant teams.
• Establishes a high-accountability performance culture centered on safety, urgency, execution discipline, operational ownership, and achievement of defined production, quality, cost, and delivery metrics.
• Owns plant-level KPI management, including throughput, labor productivity, first-time quality, rework rates, on-time delivery, schedule attainment, downtime, inventory turns, chassis aging, scrap, warranty exposure, and operating cost performance.
• Partners closely with supply chain, purchasing, logistics, planning, engineering, and quality leadership to ensure material availability, supplier execution, inbound transportation timing, engineering readiness, and operational support align with production requirements.
• Leads monthly and quarterly production readiness planning to ensure staffing, equipment capacity, facility resources, materials, tooling, and support functions are aligned to achieve volume commitments without compromising safety, quality, or efficiency.
• Drives plant quality performance by embedding ownership throughout operations, ensuring defects are rapidly identified, escalated, root-caused, corrected, and prevented through disciplined corrective action and process control.
• Oversees all facility operations, infrastructure, equipment performance, maintenance coordination, tooling readiness, environmental compliance, and site conditions to ensure a safe, efficient, high-performing manufacturing environment.
• Supports and leads capital investment planning, manufacturing infrastructure improvements, automation initiatives, equipment upgrades, and facility optimization efforts that improve productivity, scalability, safety, and long-term cost structure.
• Maintains strict compliance with OEM production standards, internal operating procedures, regulatory requirements, safety expectations, audit readiness protocols, and controlled process documentation across all plant operations.
• Leads operational recovery and escalation management during production disruptions, rapidly addressing labor shortages, supply constraints, equipment failures, quality concerns, logistics interruptions, or capacity gaps to protect production commitments and financial performance.
• Ensures disciplined inventory and asset management across the facility, driving efficient material usage, reduced working capital exposure, minimized aging inventory, and optimized production conversion efficiency.
• Creates strong operational alignment across production, quality, maintenance, supply chain, logistics, and support functions to remove barriers, improve communication, accelerate issue resolution, and maintain synchronized plant execution.
• Delivers consistent month-over-month operational performance against defined production targets, cost objectives, quality standards, and profitability expectations while continuously improving plant capability and execution discipline.

Skills, Qualifications & Core Competencies:

• Proven manufacturing leadership experience leading plant-level production operations in high-volume, high-mix automotive, manufacturing, or vehicle upfit environments, with direct accountability for safety, quality, delivery, productivity, and cost performance.
• Strong people leadership capability with demonstrated success building, developing, and leading high-performing plant teams, including production supervisors, frontline leaders, and hourly workforce, while driving accountability, operational discipline, and execution excellence.
• Hands-on operational leader with the ability to drive daily plant execution, ensuring production schedules are met, labor is effectively deployed, resources are aligned, and operational issues are resolved quickly to maintain throughput and delivery commitments.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional collaboration at the site level, partnering closely with quality, maintenance, supply chain, materials, logistics, engineering, and planning teams to support uninterrupted plant operations and achievement of production objectives.
• Execution-focused problem solver with strong decision-making skills, capable of rapidly addressing production bottlenecks, labor constraints, quality issues, material shortages, equipment downtime, and other plant-level operational disruptions.
• Demonstrated experience managing production scheduling, workforce allocation, material readiness, inventory flow, chassis sequencing, and plant resource coordination to ensure balanced production flow and on-time completion of vehicles or manufactured products.
• Strong analytical and KPI-driven management approach, with experience using plant performance metrics including throughput, labor efficiency, scrap/rework, downtime, first-pass quality, safety performance, and delivery adherence to drive accountability and improvement.
• Working knowledge of lean manufacturing principles and operational excellence tools, including standard work, waste elimination, root cause analysis, visual management, process discipline, and continuous improvement within a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Effective communicator and visible plant leader, capable of setting clear expectations, driving daily accountability, leading shift and production meetings, and aligning frontline teams and department leaders around operational priorities and performance goals.
• Results-oriented plant leader with a demonstrated track record of consistently delivering daily, weekly, and monthly production commitments through disciplined execution, workforce leadership, and operational rigor.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, Supply Chain, or a related field preferred; equivalent combination of education, technical training, and relevant production leadership experience will be considered.
• Minimum of 3–7 years of progressive manufacturing or automotive production leadership experience, with demonstrated responsibility for production teams, operational performance, scheduling, quality, and delivery execution.
• Proven experience leading production operations within high-volume, high-mix manufacturing, automotive, or vehicle upfit environments preferred.

Work Environment and Physical Requirements:

• Hybrid work environment consisting of office settings and regular on-site presence within active vehicle production and upfit manufacturing facilities.
• Occasional travel required to production facilities in Indiana, Georgia, and Alabama, as well as corporate headquarters in Duluth, GA, with extended time spent in manufacturing and operational environments.
• Daily presence on production floors supporting operational oversight, team leadership, problem-solving, and execution, requiring a combination of indoor and limited outdoor activity, including frequent walking, standing, and movement throughout manufacturing areas.
• Ability to remain stationary for extended periods while performing office-based work, while also maintaining the mobility required to actively navigate production facilities, attend operational meetings, and respond to plant-floor needs.
• Visual acuity and attention to detail sufficient to review production schedules, operational KPIs, quality documentation, and manufacturing data, as well as prolonged use of computers, mobile devices, and related business systems.
• Ability to operate effectively in a dynamic manufacturing environment, including exposure to production noise, moving equipment, varying temperatures, and standard personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements.

Disclaimer:  This list does not represent all physical demands.  Descriptions are representative of those that must be met by employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.  Reasonable accommodation may be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the jobs’ essential functions.