Production Manager

Northern Pipe Products • Fargo, ND

14d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Production Manager will lead, coordinate, and supervise daily production operations for PVC pipe extrusion lines and related downstream processes. This role involves planning staffing, production schedules, and line priorities to meet safety, quality, output, and customer delivery expectations. The manager will oversee bulk material handling, resin compounding, and blending operations, ensuring accurate recipe formulation, consistent material quality, and uninterrupted supply to extrusion lines. Driving reliable plant performance by ensuring extrusion lines are properly staffed, set up, supplied, and operated according to established standards is a key responsibility. The role also includes overseeing extrusion operations to ensure product quality meets specifications, monitoring daily production results, and taking action to improve performance. Collaboration with operators, leads, maintenance, and quality personnel for troubleshooting, and ensuring adherence to process settings and standards are crucial. The Production Manager will promote a culture of reliability and responsibility, lead root cause analysis, and partner with Maintenance and Quality for continuous improvement. Support for new product trials, raw material management, and maintaining safe production areas are also part of the role. Communication of production data and KPIs to leadership, leading assigned supervisors and employees through coaching and development, and supporting HR functions are essential. Collaboration with other departments to align production with customer demand and support for after-hours needs are also required.

Requirements

• Minimum of 5 years of manufacturing, production, or process operations experience, preferably in plastics, extrusion, pipe, or other continuous manufacturing environments.
• Minimum of 3 years of supervisory or production leadership experience in an industrial setting.
• Experience leading teams in a safety-sensitive, quality-driven manufacturing environment required.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, production scheduling, labor planning, and process discipline.
• Ability to analyze downtime, scrap, throughput, and quality trends and implement effective corrective actions.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills related to production equipment, process performance, and team execution.
• Strong leadership and accountability skills with the ability to build team capability and maintain performance expectations.
• Effective communication skills with the ability to work across Maintenance, Quality, Planning, Shipping, and leadership teams.
• Strong commitment to safety, quality, reliability, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing, engineering, operations, industrial technology, or a related field preferred; equivalent manufacturing leadership experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Experience with extrusion equipment, process troubleshooting, product quality systems, and manufacturing performance metrics preferred.
• Working knowledge of PVC pipe extrusion processes, downstream handling, and quality requirements preferred.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and experience with ERP, production reporting, or manufacturing systems preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coordinate, and supervise daily production operations for PVC pipe extrusion lines and related downstream processes.
• Plan staffing, production schedules, and line priorities to meet safety, quality, output, and customer delivery expectations.
• Oversee bulk material handling, resin compounding, and blending operations to ensure accurate recipe formulation, consistent material quality, and uninterrupted supply of compound to the extrusion lines.
• Drive reliable plant performance by ensuring extrusion lines are properly staffed, set up, supplied, and operated in accordance with established standards.
• Oversee extrusion operations to ensure pipe dimensions, appearance, belling, print, packaging, and overall product quality meet company and customer specifications.
• Monitor daily production results, labor usage, scrap, downtime, changeovers, and throughput, and take action to improve performance.
• Work closely with operators, leads, maintenance, and quality personnel to troubleshoot process variation, equipment issues, and product nonconformances.
• Ensure process settings, work instructions, setup requirements, and production standards are followed consistently across shifts.
• Promote a culture of reliability and responsibility by holding team members accountable for safe work, product quality, attendance, housekeeping, and operational discipline.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions related to scrap, downtime, quality defects, customer complaints, and production inefficiencies.
• Partner with Maintenance to improve equipment uptime, preventive maintenance coordination, startup readiness, and long-term extrusion line reliability.
• Coordinate with Quality to maintain compliance with product standards, testing requirements, documentation expectations, and nonconformance response processes.
• Support new product trials, process improvements, tooling changes, and operating parameter adjustments to improve extrusion performance and product consistency.
• Ensure raw materials, regrind usage, packaging materials, and line support resources are available to sustain production requirements.
• Maintain safe and organized production areas, including compliance with OSHA requirements, company safety rules, machine guarding, lockout/tagout, and good housekeeping practices.
• Review production data and key performance indicators and communicate results, priorities, and performance gaps to plant leadership.
• Lead assigned supervisors, leads, technicians, and operators through coaching, training, performance feedback, and development.
• Support hiring, onboarding, training, scheduling, performance management, and employee development within the production team.
• Collaborate with Shipping, Planning, and Customer Service to align production output with customer demand and delivery commitments.
• Support after-hours and off-shift production needs, including urgent operational issues, startup support, and critical plant coverage when required.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of manufacturing operations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager