Manager Production

Forum Energy Technologies•Broussard, LA

About The Position

The Production Manager is a key operational leader responsible for driving safety, efficiency, and continuous improvement across all areas of the manufacturing floor. This role combines strategic oversight with hands-on execution to ensure production goals are achieved while fostering a culture of safety, quality, accountability, and collaboration. The Production Manager leads cross-functional initiatives, optimizes planning and resource allocation, standardizes best practices, and implements waste-reduction strategies to support long-term operational excellence. Strong leadership, communication, project management, and problem-solving skills are essential to align daily operations with broader business objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field preferred; equivalent experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in a manufacturing or production environment, including at least 2 years in a leadership role.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to use data to drive results.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across functions.
Proven project management experience with a record of successfully leading operational or system improvement initiatives.

Responsibilities

Enforce all health, safety, and environmental requirements across the production floor.
Promote a strong safety culture by encouraging open communication, near-miss reporting, and recognition of safe behaviors.
Develop, implement, and maintain site-specific safety programs, including lockout/tagout, PPE requirements, and emergency response procedures.
Lead incident investigations, including root cause analysis, documentation of findings, and implementation of corrective and preventive actions.
Evaluate equipment, labor, and facility capacity to ensure production goals are realistic and achievable, including planning for peak demand and maintenance downtime.
Monitor raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods to maintain appropriate inventory levels and support efficient production flow.
Partner with cross-functional teams to understand production requirements and translate them into effective schedules and execution plans.
Allocate labor and material resources to meet production targets, quality expectations, and customer commitments.
Work closely with sales, logistics, engineering, and quality to align production plans with business priorities and customer needs.
Identify and implement opportunities to optimize processes, improve efficiency, and reduce lead times.
Apply Lean Manufacturing principles to eliminate non-value-added activities and improve workflow.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives, including kaizen events and value stream mapping activities.
Drive improvements in material flow, resource utilization, bottleneck reduction, and overall operational performance.
Establish strong communication channels between production, procurement, logistics, engineering, and quality teams.
Translate strategic goals into clear, actionable expectations for supervisors and frontline employees.
Implement structured shift handover practices to improve continuity, issue escalation, and accountability.
Create feedback mechanisms to gather frontline input and support engagement and continuous improvement.
Lead communication during unplanned events such as equipment failures or safety incidents, ensuring timely updates and alignment across stakeholders.
Promote employee engagement through regular meetings, team communication, and consistent reinforcement of company values.
Develop and maintain standardized work procedures that improve consistency, safety, quality, and efficiency.
Collaborate with operators, engineering, and quality teams to define and document best-known methods for critical tasks.
Ensure standard work remains current by incorporating improvements identified through kaizen, safety reviews, and quality findings.
Identify and implement strategies to reduce waste, including excess inventory, overproduction, material movement, and inefficiencies in process flow.
Monitor key performance indicators to measure the impact of waste-reduction efforts.
Partner with engineering to support design-for-manufacturability initiatives that simplify production and reduce waste at the source.
Lead cross-functional projects involving process improvements, equipment upgrades, and facility expansion efforts.
Develop project plans, timelines, budgets, and resource requirements to ensure successful execution.
Coordinate with engineering, maintenance, procurement, and external vendors to align project deliverables with operational needs.
Facilitate project reviews, status updates, and stakeholder communication throughout the project lifecycle.
Oversee commissioning, validation, and operational handoff of completed projects.