Production Manager

The Production Manager is accountable for all production output, quality, labor efficiency, and cost performance at a ramping wire harness manufacturing facility. This role manages Area Leads and production operators through startup, ramp-up, and full-capacity operations while ensuring production targets, quality standards, and operational KPIs are consistently achieved.

The Production Manager owns production scheduling as well as the capacity and headcount planning models maintained in Excel to support labor forecasting, production scalability, and operational readiness. This position plays a critical leadership role in establishing manufacturing discipline, driving continuous improvement, and supporting rapid operational growth in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

This role reports directly to the Plant Manager and partners closely with Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Warehouse, and HR to support safe, efficient, and scalable manufacturing operations.Essential Functions:

• Lead daily production operations across assigned manufacturing lines and shifts
• Drive attainment of production schedules, labor efficiency, throughput, and scrap reduction targets
• Monitor KPIs including safety, productivity, downtime, first-pass yield, OEE, labor utilization, and on-time delivery
• Ensure compliance with OSHA, company safety procedures, and manufacturing best practices
• Supervise, coach, and develop production supervisors and hourly manufacturing employees
• Partner with Quality to improve first-pass yield, reduce defects, and implement corrective actions
• Coordinate with Supply Chain and Warehouse teams to maintain uninterrupted material flow to production
• Support implementation of lean manufacturing, 5S, Kaizen, and continuous improvement initiatives
• Assist with hiring, onboarding, training, shift structuring, and workforce planning for manufacturing operations
• Collaborate with Engineering during new product introduction (NPI), process improvements, and line setup
• Ensure accurate production reporting and ERP/SAP transaction compliance
• Participate in capacity planning and support manufacturing scale-up activities
• Maintain production documentation, SOPs, work instructions, and labor standards
• Support inventory accuracy and reduction of manufacturing waste
• Drive accountability and performance management within the production team

Qualifications: Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing, Operations, Engineering, Business, or related field preferred; equivalent combination of education and 10+ years of relevant manufacturing leadership experience may be considered in lieu of a degree
• 7+ years of manufacturing or production leadership experience