Manufacturing Production Manager
Location: Kennedale, TX
Department: Manufacturing / Operations
Reports To: CEO
Employment Type: Full-Time
Compensation: Competitive Base Salary + Performance-Based Bonus
Team Size: Approximately 40–50 employees across multiple production departments
Position Summary
HumCap's client is seeking a highly driven, hands-on Manufacturing Production Manager to lead daily production operations in the manufacturing of
heavy-duty trailers, skids, and fabricated products. This individual will be responsible for executing established production schedules, leading shop-floor personnel, improving labor productivity, maintaining a safe working environment, and consistently delivering high-quality products on time and within budget.
The ideal candidate has at least 10 years of leadership experience in heavy fabrication, industrial manufacturing, or a similar production environment. This person must be a decisive problem solver who can think critically, identify inefficiencies, challenge the status quo, and implement practical solutions that improve production performance.
This is a
floor-focused leadership position, with approximately 80% of the role spent on the production floor actively directing supervisors and team leads, monitoring work progress, evaluating production performance, removing obstacles, and ensuring employees remain focused on daily production goals.
The successful candidate will lead by example, establish clear expectations, hold the team accountable, and foster a culture of safety, quality, urgency, ownership, and continuous improvement. This person must possess a strong can-do attitude and the ability to find solutions rather than accept excuses.
The Production Manager reports directly to the CEO and is entrusted with the leadership, personnel decisions, and operational accountability necessary to achieveclient's production objectives.
Key Responsibilities
Shop-Floor Leadership & Daily Execution- Lead and coordinate production activities across six primary departments: Small Parts, Tack-Up, Welding, Blasting, Painting, and Finishout
- Provide clear direction to department supervisors and team leads regarding daily priorities, job assignments, production targets, and deadlines
- Establish a consistent daily operating rhythm, including production kickoff meetings, progress reviews, shift handoffs when applicable, and end-of-day accountability
- Monitor work in progress and ensure employees and departments remain focused on the highest-priority production requirements
- Identify bottlenecks, idle time, labor imbalances, material shortages, equipment issues, and other obstacles affecting production
- Quickly deploy resources and coordinate with other departments to address constraints and keep work moving
- Maintain visibility into every active job and understand what is required to complete each job on schedule
- Create a sense of urgency and ensure supervisors and employees understand their responsibilities and impact on overall production
- Develop recovery plans for late or at-risk jobs and communicate material schedule risks to the CEO and relevant stakeholders
- Lead from the front by being accessible, engaged, decisive, and willing to get involved when problems arise
Labor Productivity, Time Tracking & Cost Control- Establish and enforce consistent procedures for tracking employee labor hours and time spent at individual production stations
- Monitor actual labor hours against budgeted or estimated hours for each job, department, and production stage
- Identify labor overruns, excessive cycle times, unproductive activities, and opportunities to improve employee efficiency
- Evaluate station-level productivity to determine where labor, equipment, processes, or training may be limiting output
- Ensure supervisors accurately record production progress, labor time, downtime, and other required shop-floor information using existing spreadsheets and tracking tools
- Use production data to identify trends, measure performance, and make informed operational decisions
- Reduce avoidable overtime, material waste, scrap, rework, and other controllable production costs
- Implement practical improvements that increase output per labor hour and improve overall manufacturing efficiency
Safety & Risk Management- Establish safety as a non-negotiable requirement across all production departments
- Maintain a visible shop-floor presence and actively identify unsafe conditions, behaviors, and work practices
- Ensure employees follow company safety policies, applicable OSHA requirements, and relevant equipment-specific procedures
- Partner with designated safety personnel and company leadership on inspections, safety meetings, incident investigations, and corrective-action reviews
- Ensure employees receive required safety training and understand the safe operation of equipment, tools, cranes, lifting devices, welding equipment, blasting systems, and painting equipment applicable to their roles
- Enforce appropriate use of personal protective equipment and required safeguards
- Promptly address identified hazards and ensure corrective actions are completed
- Investigate incidents and near misses, identify root causes, and implement measures to prevent recurrence
- Reinforce accountability and develop a culture in which employees take responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their coworkers
- Ensure schedule pressure or production targets never override required safety practices
Quality Control & Rework Reduction- Ensure production work meets applicable engineering drawings, specifications, workmanship standards, and customer requirements
- Establish accountability for quality at each production stage rather than relying exclusively on final inspection
- Partner with engineering, quality personnel, and department supervisors to resolve manufacturing issues and prevent recurring defects
- Monitor rework, scrap, defects, and customer-reported quality concerns
- Identify root causes of quality problems and implement corrective and preventive actions
- Ensure nonconforming work is identified, appropriately controlled, and corrected before advancing when required
- Promote employee ownership of workmanship and reinforce the expectation that work is performed correctly the first time
- Balance production speed with consistent quality and long-term product reliability
Production Reporting & Communication- Maintain accurate, timely production tracking using company-approved spreadsheets and shop-floor reporting tools
- Provide the CEO with regular updates on production status, schedule performance, labor efficiency, safety, quality, staffing, and major operational risks
- Communicate anticipated delays, resource constraints, and corrective-action plans before they materially affect customer commitments
- Ensure production records reflect actual work completed, labor consumed, and outstanding requirements
- Establish consistent communication between department supervisors, team leads, production planning, engineering, purchasing, and other relevant functions
- Lead regular production reviews focused on performance against plan, current constraints, upcoming priorities, and required decisions
- Escalate issues requiring leadership intervention while taking ownership of problems that can be resolved at the production level
- Maintain a fact-based, solutions-oriented approach to reporting and decision-making
Whatthe clientIs Looking For
- Minimum 10 years of leadership experience in heavy fabrication, industrial manufacturing, trailer manufacturing, or a comparable production environment
- Strong hands-on understanding of shop-floor manufacturing operations
- Proven ability to identify bottlenecks, improve workflow, and increase labor productivity
- Experience leading supervisors, team leads, and production employees
- Strong problem-solving skills with a practical, solutions-oriented approach
- Ability to establish accountability while earning the respect of an experienced production workforce
- Comfortable using spreadsheets and production data to track performance and guide decisions
- Strong commitment to safety, quality, cost control, and on-time delivery
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, growing manufacturing environment
