Production Manager

Pratt Industries•Newnan, GA

About The Position

The Production Manager reports to the Plant Manager and directs and manages plant operations, with overall responsibility for production, quality, and related activities. The role requires significant time on the production floor, working with direct reports to identify process improvements, reduce downtime and waste, lower costs, and improve quality safely. The manager develops future leaders through coaching, mentoring, training, and teaching structured problem-solving and change leadership. The position oversees day-to-day plant operations and production performance, including output, product quality, waste reduction, schedule adherence, asset utilization, and operating costs. It sets direction for production employees, monitors performance, implements corrective actions and continuous improvement, and communicates operational needs and company objectives. The manager also develops Production Supervisors and plant staff, promotes a customer-focused culture, and ensures compliance with safety protocols, GMPs, SOPs, and applicable regulatory requirements. The role involves regular exposure to moving mechanical parts and frequent exposure to wet or humid conditions. Occasional exposures include high or precarious places, fumes or airborne particles, and vibration; the work environment is usually loud. Physical duties include talking and hearing regularly; standing, walking, and sitting frequently; occasional handling, reaching, climbing or balancing, and stooping, kneeling, crouching, or crawling; and lifting or moving up to 50 pounds.

Requirements

A minimum of 3 to 5 years of related experience and/or training in a plastics manufacturing environment, or equivalent experience in place of the preferred degree.
Proven technical and leadership ability to use structured problem-solving to deliver results.
Ability to work effectively with minimal supervision at all levels of the organization.
Effective communication skills with people at all organizational levels.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and willingness to learn new systems.
Strong problem-solving and coaching capabilities.
Ability to create accountability and lead by example.
Strong team-building, decision-making, and people-management skills.
Knowledge of business and management principles, including budgeting, strategic planning, resource allocation, and human resources.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret complex documents and statistical information.
Strong organizational, prioritization, and time-management skills.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Ability to read and interpret business, professional, technical, and governmental materials; write reports, correspondence, and procedure manuals; and present information and respond to questions.
Ability to work with mathematical concepts and numbers.
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, draw valid conclusions, and interpret technical instructions in written and diagram form.
Working knowledge of equipment design and capabilities, cost issues, budget development and analysis, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.
Knowledge of regulatory requirements including wage and hour rules, environmental and waste minimization requirements, company policies, personnel requirements, OSHA, DEQ, and EEO.
Ability to talk and hear regularly; stand, walk, and sit frequently; perform occasional manual handling, reaching, climbing or balancing, and stooping, kneeling, crouching, or crawling; and lift or move up to 50 pounds.
Vision abilities including close, distance, color, peripheral, and depth vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, or a related field.
Experience with extrusion, plastic bag converting, or paper converting.

Responsibilities

Commit to the overall safety of the plant and its procedures.
Plan, organize, direct, and run day-to-day operations to exceed customer expectations.
Increase production and asset capacity, reduce waste, improve flexibility, and minimize unnecessary costs while maintaining quality standards and improving uptime across extruding and converting lines.
Manage production output, product quality, waste reduction, and schedule adherence.
Develop Production Supervisors' leadership, operational, and technical skills and identify employees who can assume greater responsibilities.
Allocate resources effectively and utilize assets to achieve optimal results.
Implement strategies aligned with Division initiatives and provide direction and focus for production employees.
Monitor operations and initiate corrective actions.
Recruit, manage, and develop plant staff; lead training initiatives; and coach and mentor direct reports.
Collect and analyze data to identify waste or overtime and implement improvements.
Develop systems and processes to track and optimize productivity, standards, metrics, performance targets, asset returns, quality, and safety.
Participate in monitoring, managing, and controlling expenses.
Engage in strategic planning and participate in plant and company processes.
Conduct employee meetings to communicate company goals, objectives, initiatives, and progress.
Build and retain a customer-focused environment for internal and external customers.
Ensure adherence to plant GMPs and SOPs and manage continuous improvement programs.
Communicate production operations needs to the Plant Manager, Regional Manager, and management team as needed.
Develop and analyze methods to reduce or avoid costs, improve products, and support innovation while ensuring a safe workplace.
Create a departmental vision and turn it into action items with completion dates and delegated responsibilities.
Ensure Plant Operations meets or exceeds safety goals by communicating and enforcing safety protocols and OSHA standards, including lockout/tagout.
Participate in or assist the Management Safety Team or Plant Safety Committee.
Promote safety as a strategic initiative and hold Operations managers and Supervisors accountable for safety expectations.
Act as a safe-work role model and drive continuous safety improvement.
Request or build computer-generated reports that measure and track departmental performance.