The Senior Manager, Manufacturing Operations, leads a manufacturing area with responsibility for safety, quality, delivery, cost, and culture on 1st Shift.
This role drives daily execution and long-term improvement through strong leadership, disciplined operational routines, and adherence to Lean principles. It oversees cross-functional teams, resolves operational issues, strengthens standardized work, advances quality and safety performance, and champions continuous improvement to deliver stable, efficient, and high-performing production.
Position
Senior Manager, Manufacturing Operations 1st Shift
Location
USA, Decatur, AL

How You'll Create Possibilities

Manufacturing Operations:

• Oversee end-to-end operations for a manufacturing area, ensuring strong performance in safety, quality, delivery, cost and culture.
• Develop the annual operational plan and align area metrics with overall plant objectives. Allocate resources to meet targets.
• Lead and support salaried and hourly production employees within a manufacturing area.
• Use production line boards to track performance, identify issues and drive problem resolution across shifts.
• Maintain a solid understanding of plant operations and follow escalation processes to resolve abnormalities and implement corrective actions.
• Drive adherence to Lean manufacturing practices, standardized work and the site escalation process.
• Track department metrics, manage budgets and deliver daily report-outs during production meetings.
• Establish a consistent operating rhythm including daily meetings with Area Business Leader and Team Leaders.
• Ensure standardized work is implemented, followed and regularly reviewed for stability and compliance.
• Coach Area Business Leaders, Process Improvement Engineers and Team Leaders on standardized work, job instruction methods and effective training practices.
• Maintain 5S standards across the entire manufacturing area.

Continuous Improvement:

• Champion the Appliance Production System and embed continuous improvement into daily operations.
• Lead teams to aggressively identify factory inefficiencies, conduct root cause analysis and implement sustainable solutions.
• Engage cross-functional escalation teams, including Lean resources, to address and resolve issues quickly and effectively.
• Identify and eliminate waste through both short-term countermeasures and long-term improvement initiatives.
• Serve as a second-level responder in the escalation process for operational issues.
• Lead regular reviews of open issues, assign ownership, track actions to closure and communicate updates to stakeholders.
• Drive kaizen events and ensure resulting countermeasures are implemented and sustained.
• Oversee work area rebalancing through tools such as Yamazumi charts.

Leadership:

• Provide hands-on leadership for an integrated, cross-functional manufacturing team.
• Set clear goals for team members and support performance through coaching, feedback, and development opportunities.
• Participate in performance reviews and partner with HR on talent development and succession planning.
• Manage employee relations issues including investigations and disciplinary actions in partnership with HR, ensuring proper documentation and consistency.
• Recruit and allocate resources to meet operational needs.
• Develop and mentor emerging leaders within the organization.
• Ensure fair and consistent application of policies, work rules and workplace processes.

Quality:

• Ensure all products within the manufacturing area meet specifications and are produced defect-free.
• Enforce compliance with the Manufacturing Control Plan and all quality standards.
• Monitor daily quality data and escalate or resolve defects promptly.
• Ensure standardized work incorporates quality requirements to meet design intent and build in quality at the source.
• Collaborate with engineering, quality and production teams to resolve line issues and prevent repeat defects.
• Review scrap data and lead efforts to reduce scrap and prevent recurrence.
• Partner with Plant Quality and engineering teams to improve key quality metrics such as First Pass Yield, Overall Yield and Service Call Rate.

Safety:

• Own overall safety performance and metrics for the manufacturing area.
• Foster a strong safety culture through behavior-based observations, audits, safety meetings and adherence to 5S practices.
• Enforce compliance with all safety rules and procedures while ensuring timely completion of accident investigations, safety contacts and safe start requirements.
• Review and approve all accident investigations, ensuring root cause identification and corrective actions are implemented.
• Maintain and drive closure of the safety action item list, including corrective actions from near misses, accidents and ergonomic assessments.

What You'll Bring to Our Team

• 7+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing, supplier management, and project implementation, with technical expertise across supply chain functions such as warehousing, distribution, materials, quality, procurement, or fulfillment.
• BS/BA degree, ideally in engineering, supply chain management, or business.
• Experience implementing Lean Manufacturing and driving continuous improvement using Lean, DMAIC, work-out, or similar methodologies.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability to teach, facilitate meetings, coach teams, give constructive feedback, and listen effectively.
• Ability to identify, analyze, and solve complex problems across cross-functional teams.
• Track record of achieving business goals, leading change, and delivering measurable results through analytical methods and disciplined execution.

Working Conditions:

• Working conditions are normal for both an office and a manufacturing environment.
• Work may involve lifting materials and products of up to 25 pounds.
• Working in the manufacturing environment requires the use of safety equipment, including but not limited to: safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, work shoes/boots.