The Senior Manager, Manufacturing Operations leads a manufacturing area with responsibility for safety, quality, delivery, cost and culture. 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 Location USA, Louisville, KY 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. • Additionally, partners cross-functionally with Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing to successfully transition reliability builds into full-scale production, ensuring all operational processes, resources, and performance metrics are fully defined and production-ready. Supporting the establishment of standardized work, production processes, quality systems, staffing plans, and operational procedures to support new product validation and launch. 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 Requirements: • 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. Preferred: • BS/BA degree, ideally in engineering, supply chain management or business. • Supply Chain Development Program graduate. • Experience implementing Lean Manufacturing and driving continuous improvement using Lean, DMAIC, workout or similar methodologies. • Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification. • 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 manufacturing environment. • Work may involve lifting materials and products up to 25 pounds. • Working in the manufacturing environment requires the use of safety equipment to include but not limited to: safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, work shoes/boots.