Sr. Production Manager

This is a high-level Production Manager role for a natural food manufacturer outside of Asheville, NC. The Sr. Production Manager will be directly responsible for team leadership, safety, environmental compliance, quality, customer service, and the quality/output of the production & packaging team across all shifts. The Production Manager will lead small capex projects and continuous improvement initiatives to drive efficiency and savings across their departments.

Job Responsibilities:

• Manage all aspects of the employee lifecycle for the entire production team including but not limited to interviewing, hiring, training, coaching, reviewing, promoting and when necessary, terminating. You are responsible for staffing across all 3 shifts.
• Develop Succession planning strategies throughout the department with cross training plans and development road maps for employees with high potential.
• Develop Supervisor(s) to be a potential succession candidate by regularly providing training and development opportunities and giving development milestones to achieve.
• Assign supervisors projects and initiatives to meet annual objectives and aid with company growth and cost savings.
• Lead by example, modeling a calm, can do attitude and instilling a collaborative mindset across teams and departments.
• Maintain a consistent feedback loop that recognizes Performance, Attitude, Collaboration, Engagement structuring consistent check ins with objective reviews with your supervisors.
• Build department assets including but not limited to training programs, job descriptions, communication structures etc. This includes proper development of SOP for daily tasks, changeover guidance, machine setting guidance, and development of forms and checklists to ensure these activities are completed correctly.
• Ensure the team follows Standard Operating Procedures and safety regulations and update the safety regulations and SOPʼs as necessary investigating deviations and providing Root Cause Corrective actions when deviations occur.
• Troubleshoot any problems brought to you by production staff working to leverage their skill sets when feasible and escalating to Senior management when the problem is beyond your scope of responsibility.
• Collaborate with other department managers as needed to guide use of resources and personnel where necessary to generate win/win outcomes.
• Ensure the set-up, breakdown and cleaning of the lines is efficient while maintaining quality and safety standards. Ensures on-time startups, shutdowns, and changeovers minimizing downtime and overtime.
• Develops strategic staffing and training plans to ensure the department is staffed and trained to manage volume changes or new product launches.
• Partner with the supply chain team to troubleshoot material issues, qualify new materials, and coordinate with vendors to troubleshoot production issues.
• Partner with the R and D team during new product launches to ensure all customer expectations are met.
• Give directives to Production Supervisors and Line Leads in respect to relevant packaging quotas, problem solving, and continuous improvement efforts.
• Ensure all team members are properly oriented and trained to accomplish assigned tasks successfully, without injury, incident, or exposure.
• Report promptly all incidents involving safety and health, and actively participate in the investigation, root cause determination and elimination of further exposure for any employee.
• Report promptly all incidents involving environmental non-compliance, and actively participate in the investigation, root cause determination and elimination of further exposure for any employee.
• Act as expert resource for continuous improvement efforts.
• Complete root cause analysis and develop corrective actions for all department related holds, quality deviations, and complaints.

Required Skills/Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree is preferred
• 8 years of experience a food & beverage manufacturing environment with proven results is needed
• Must have experience in beverage manufacturing
• Management experience in food & beverage manufacturing environment is needed
• Experienced in lean manufacturing and CI processes
• Able to regularly lift, push or pull 65 lbs as needed
• Proficient with pallet jacks and forklifts
• Awareness and ability to teach body mechanics when lifting or performing repetitive tasks
• Must have a proactive growth mindset