VP, Manufactruring

VanTran Industries LLC•Waco, TX

About The Position

Position Summary: The VP, Manufacturing provides enterprise leadership for manufacturing operations across three plants, ensuring safe operations, highest quality, shortest lead time, best on-time delivery, and strong cost performance. This role sets the operating cadence, standards, and talent strategy required to achieve annual business objectives through disciplined execution, continuous improvement, and cross-functional alignment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations Management, or related field required.
15+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership, with at least 5 years in a multi-site or Large Plant (500+ headcount) environment.
Proven experience in matrixed organizations (working with both corporate operations and business unit leadership)
Deep expertise in High-Mix/Low-Volume environments.
Agility: Ability to pivot between high-level strategy and shop-floor tactics.
P&L Management: Full ownership of manufacturing costs, absorption, and margin expansion.
Change Management: Experience leading large-scale cultural or operational transformations.
Digital Literacy: Leveraging ERP and CRM tools for data-driven decisions.

Responsibilities

Lead manufacturing strategy and execution across three plants to achieve Safety, Quality, Delivery, Lead Time, and Cost (SQDLC) targets.
Build a unified "One Team" culture across the Waco sites to improve talent retention, shared services efficiency, and community presence.
Establish operating plans, KPIs, and management routines (tier meetings, standard work, visual management) that drive consistent performance and accountability across all sites.
Own manufacturing performance to budget, including labor and overhead, productivity, scrap/rework, inventory, and absorption; identifies actions to close gaps and improve profitability.
Partner with Finance and plant leadership on forecasting, monthly operating reviews, and corrective action plans to address variances and drive sustainable improvements.
Ensure a strong safety culture and regulatory compliance across all sites (OSHA and other applicable local/state/federal requirements) with visible leadership and disciplined follow-through.
Champion Lean/Continuous Improvement and 5S standardization across departments and plants; deploys problem-solving (root cause, corrective action) to improve throughput, quality, and lead time.
Lead and develop plant leaders and cross-functional manufacturing teams, drives talent selection, succession planning, performance management, training, and engagement.
Partner with Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, and Sales to align demand, capacity, materials, and labor plans to meet customer commitments and growth objectives.
Own equipment uptime and plant readiness across all sites through maintenance strategy, reliability initiatives, and capital planning; prioritizes automation and process capability improvements with clear ROI.
Ensure each plant sustains strong housekeeping and visual standards through routine Gemba walks, 5S audits, and leader standard work.