Position Description for Plant Manager, BFC

Company: Buckeye Fabricating Company

Reports to: President, BFC

Location: Springboro, OH

Company Overview:

Buckeye Fabricating is a family and employee-owned company that designs, engineers and manufactures custom ASME pressure vessels and process tanks for various industries throughout the United States and North America.Buckeye and its parent company LT Corporation are committed to excellence - caring for team members, serving customers, and having a positive impact on local communities - is core to its mission.

Buckeye focuses on highly engineered one-off production to meet our customer’s needs, which we are unable to do without first taking care of our Team Members. We are proud to provide our team an extraordinary total rewards package including an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) that enables our team members to think like owners and to help our team plan for their secure futures consistent with our long-term value creation approach.

Founded in 1963, Buckeye Fabricating Company specializes in the engineering and manufacturing of custom fabricated ASME pressure vessels and process tanks. Our customer base is spread out all over the United States serving industries such as chemical, petro-chemical, ethanol, bio-diesel, liquid filtration, steam & power, and many specialty equipment manufacturers needing pressure vessels for their product lines. Buckeye is a privately owned business located in Springboro, Ohio.

Position Summary:

This Plant Manager is an exciting new position. Buckeye is growing and tripling its manufacturing space in early 2025 with a large plant expansion. In this role, the Plant Manager will be responsible for leading the daily operations of the new and existing manufacturing facilities for two shifts, promoting an environment of positive employee relations and a strong focus on safety and quality to achieve the plant goals. This is a hands-on position with the ability to lead and affect change through managing the production operations at a nimble and growth oriented custom steel fabrication facility. The Plant Manager will lead by example and engage team members in nurturing a work environment that reinforces our positive culture and family values and demonstrates passion and urgency for meeting customer expectations. The Plant Manager will help create a culture of Continuous Improvement using lean tools in support of improving teamwork, team member growth, productivity, health and safety, quality, delivery, and cost efficiency goals. The Plant Manager provides direct leadership for approximately 25 team members, team leads and supervisors and up to 50 team members after organizational growth.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead the operation (two shifts), setting and monitoring operational performance. Ensure compliance to the production schedule and manufacturing priorities to achieve or exceed production goals. Ensure effective allocation of resources across all areas of the operation to accomplish customer‐driven priorities.

• Direct daily activities to meet or exceed quality standards and health, safety and environment practices and metrics with Team Member engagement always asking the questions, “How do we make this better”. Dynamically collaborate across the leadership and sales teams to determine production scheduling and capacity planning for the shop floor. Proactively manage production processes, workflow, and statuses of jobs.
• Assist in the 2024 physical expansion of the manufacturing facility. Organize the shop floor layout to enhance manufacturability, maximize productivity and ensure safety, quality and on time completion.
• Collaborate with the sales and engineering teams to ensure company growth by maximizing capacity in the new manufacturing space while improving process efficiency and effectiveness. Provide guidance and operations expertise at the product design phase for manufacturability and to ensure safety, quality and time to completion are achievable resulting in high quality products and customer satisfaction.
• Collaborate across the plant, ensuring reporting of technical and non-conformance issues across operations. Troubleshoot these issues with relevant team members and oversee scheduled or unforeseen maintenance repairs.
• Coordinate and ensure preventative maintenance schedule for vehicles, machinery, chemicals, facilities, and equipment are adhered to.
• Ensure that standard operating procedures and quality control checkpoints are followed and proactively monitors ASME compliance and production quality standards daily.
• Lead safety and OSHA compliance and identify unsafe operations and practices and work to remedy immediately.
• Lead, foster and support a continuous improvement and lean culture. Ensure standardized work processes are followed through daily performance audits, the use of performance boards and visual factory methodology, analyzing metrics, performing root cause analysis, and implementing corrective measures as needed. Continuously improve through Kaizen events and Gemba walks.
• Lead by example, demonstrating LT Corp’s (Buckeye’s parent company) “How we Lead” (servant leader, devoted, resilient, growth mindset, team player, trustworthy, fun-loving) leadership traits and reinforcing LT Corp’s purpose, core beliefs, and values to all team members.
• Lead and direct the operations team, delegating authority and accountability, managing performance and coaching team members in “The Way We Lead” to achieve results and reinforce the positive culture. Provide training as needed and promote a systems perspective to approaching job tasks and increases awareness of how individual performance impacts other areas of production.
• Monitor, coach and counsel production operators for attendance, tardiness, and work performance. Manage, track and report time, hours worked, overtime, vacation schedules and attendance. Tracks jobs to budgeted hours and reports on the status of work in process.
• Participate in hiring and new Team Member orientation/onboarding processes to ensure associates are properly trained for their work.
• Oversee facility and property cleanliness and professional appearance; perform general housekeeping, repairs, and services with third party vendors; make recommendations showing purpose and ROI for new equipment or facility related purchases.
• Perform research, design and development of manufacturing processes including production flow, assembly methods and workflow. Analyze production equipment to increase production speed, manufacturability and/or reduce costs.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in a leadership role in manufacturing operations demonstrating performance improvements and a positive cohesive team culture.
• Experience leading and growing a team of high performing skilled crafts people using a collaborative and inclusive leadership approach, ability to develop relationships, motivate, train, and develop a team.
• Demonstrated experience implementing a continuous improvement culture, utilizing Lean tools, such as: Kaizen events, TPM, standard work, 6S and root cause problem solving.
• Experience managing budgets and reviewing financial statements for a manufacturing facility.
• Demonstrated data-driven decision-making while coaching and educating team ensuring maintaining a healthy and productive culture. Deploys resources and team members to key priorities, sets plans for six to twelve-month horizon.
• Successful experience leading an organization through change and significant improvement.Demonstrated change management capability for driving innovation, continuous improvement, and sustainable change through people.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Servant Leader, lead through influence style and serving others.
• Ability to communicate and build relationships throughout the organization.
• High level of urgency and accountability to meet team and customer needs.
• High self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
• Strong command of the Microsoft Office Suite, especially MS Excel.
• Strong communications skills both verbal and written.
• Ability to analyze data to inform the decision-making process.
• Aligned with highest integrity and family values.

Education and Certification Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Operations Management or related field required. Equivalent work experience in manufacturing will be considered.
• Industry recognized Lean Certification a plus.

Buckeye Fabricating Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, status as a protected veteran, or disability.