Plant Manager – Manufacturing
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Position Type: Full-Time
Position Summary
The Plant Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and day-to-day operations of the manufacturing facility. This position oversees production, quality, safety, maintenance, materials, staffing, and operational performance while ensuring the facility meets customer requirements, production schedules, quality standards, and financial objectives.
The Plant Manager will provide hands-on leadership to the plant management team and workforce, drive continuous improvement initiatives, monitor key performance indicators, and ensure employees have the resources, training, and direction necessary to operate safely and efficiently.
The ideal candidate is an experienced manufacturing leader with a strong background in plant operations, production management, lean manufacturing, employee leadership, quality systems, and cost control.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide overall leadership and direction for manufacturing operations, including production, quality, maintenance, materials, shipping/receiving, and workforce performance.
- Manage daily plant operations to ensure production schedules, customer requirements, quality standards, and delivery expectations are consistently achieved.
- Develop and execute plant operating plans aligned with company goals, customer requirements, and financial objectives.
- Lead, coach, and develop department managers, supervisors, team leaders, and production employees.
- Establish clear expectations and accountability for safety, quality, productivity, attendance, cost, and delivery performance.
- Monitor plant performance through key performance indicators such as production attainment, scrap, downtime, labor efficiency, overtime, quality, safety, and on-time delivery.
- Identify operational problems and implement corrective actions to improve productivity, quality, throughput, and profitability.
- Maintain a strong presence on the manufacturing floor and work directly with leadership and employees to address production and operational issues.
- Promote a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with OSHA requirements, company safety policies, environmental regulations, and established work procedures.
- Ensure manufacturing processes meet internal quality standards and applicable customer requirements.
- Partner with Quality leadership to address customer complaints, internal quality issues, corrective actions, containment activities, and root-cause investigations.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives using Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Kaizen, root-cause analysis, standardized work, and other operational improvement methodologies.
- Evaluate production capacity, staffing requirements, equipment utilization, workflow, and manufacturing processes to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Oversee labor planning and ensure appropriate staffing levels are maintained to meet production requirements.
- Monitor overtime, absenteeism, turnover, and overall workforce utilization.
- Partner with Human Resources on recruiting, employee relations, performance management, training, disciplinary matters, and workforce planning.
- Develop supervisors and managers to strengthen leadership capability throughout the facility.
- Coordinate with Materials, Supply Chain, Purchasing, and Production teams to ensure raw materials and components are available to support production schedules.
- Maintain appropriate inventory levels while minimizing shortages, excess inventory, and material-related production disruptions.
- Work closely with Maintenance to improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and support preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
- Participate in capital equipment planning, facility improvements, equipment installations, and manufacturing expansion initiatives.
- Review plant financial and operational performance and identify opportunities to reduce labor, scrap, downtime, material, and operating costs.
- Develop and manage plant budgets and control expenses within established targets.
- Ensure production and operational reporting is timely and accurate.
- Maintain strong communication with executive leadership regarding plant performance, risks, staffing, customer concerns, and operational priorities.
- Support customer visits, audits, quality reviews, and operational meetings as required.
- Ensure compliance with company policies, customer requirements, regulatory standards, and applicable local, state, and federal regulations.
- Foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, communication, continuous improvement, and employee engagement.
- Perform other duties and responsibilities as required
Preferred Qualifications
- Automotive, metal fabrication, machining, plastics, assembly, stamping, or other high-volume manufacturing experience.
- Experience working within an automotive Tier 1 or Tier 2 manufacturing environment.
- Knowledge of IATF 16949, ISO 9001, APQP, PPAP, 8D, and corrective-action processes.
- Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement certification.
- Experience with plant turnaround, operational improvement, new product launches, or manufacturing expansion.
- Experience managing union and/or non-union manufacturing environments.
- Experience managing multiple shifts.
Leadership Expectations
The Plant Manager is expected to be a visible, hands-on leader who understands what is happening on the manufacturing floor rather than managing solely through reports. This individual must be comfortable making decisions, addressing performance problems, developing leaders, working across departments, and creating accountability throughout the operation.
Success in this position requires the ability to balance people, production, quality, safety, delivery, and cost while maintaining a strong focus on customer expectations and long-term operational improvement.
Physical and Work Environment
- Must be able to work in a manufacturing environment and spend significant time on the production floor.
- Must be able to stand and walk throughout the facility for extended periods.
- May occasionally be required to lift or move materials consistent with the manufacturing environment.
- Must be able to work around manufacturing equipment, noise, machinery, and varying temperatures.
- May be required to work extended hours or respond outside normal business hours when operational issues arise.
- Must be able to support multiple shifts as business needs require.
