Lean Plant Manager

Our organization is a recognized leader in the design and manufacture of custom soft goods serving Fortune 500 industrial, health, safety, and defense customers. We are in the midst of transforming our operations from reactive, tribal-knowledge-driven processes to a standardized, data-driven, continuously improving manufacturing environment.

The Senior Plant Manager will play a key leadership role in this evolution—overseeing day-to-day plant operations while driving operational excellence, accountability, and performance improvement across the site. This individual will balance hands‑on operational leadership with strategic improvement initiatives to strengthen quality, delivery, cost, and workforce engagement.

This is a highly visible, onsite leadership role responsible for building structure, developing people, and ensuring sustainable operational performance.

• Lead daily manufacturing operations, ensuring safe, efficient, and high-quality production.
• Oversee Production, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, and related support functions.
• Translate company objectives into clear operational priorities and measurable goals.
• Drive consistent execution through structured communication, performance reviews, and visual management systems.

• Champion Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives across the plant.
• Identify and address operational bottlenecks impacting quality, lead time, and productivity.
• Implement and sustain standard work, SOPs, and accountability systems.
• Lead Kaizen events, root cause analysis efforts, and cross-functional problem solving.

• Establish and monitor KPIs including on-time delivery, scrap/rework, cycle time, downtime, and labor efficiency.
• Use data and shop floor insights to drive improvements and inform decision-making.
• Report plant performance to senior leadership and ensure follow-through on action plans.

• Support implementation of digital tools, ERP enhancements, and shop floor reporting systems.
• Promote movement toward a more paperless and data-enabled manufacturing environment.
• Ensure processes are documented, standardized, and scalable.

• Maintain compliance with AS9100 standards and customer requirements.
• Proactively reduce quality escapes and strengthen preventive systems.
• Develop supervisors and frontline leaders through coaching and accountability.
• Foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Support workforce planning and skills development aligned with business growth.

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• Strong background in Lean Manufacturing and process improvement.
• Experience in AS9100 environment.
• Onsite presence required; flexibility for non-standard hours as needed.

• Six Sigma (Green or Black Belt) certification.
• Experience with ERP systems implementation
• Background in aerospace, defense, heavy fabrication, or complex assembly environments.
• Strong working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing (5S, Value Stream Mapping, SMED, Poka-Yoke, Visual Management), Six Sigma (DMAIC, root cause analysis), and process mapping.
• Track record of driving real improvements, measurable cost savings, cycle time reductions, quality improvements.
• Experience creating and implementing Standard Work, SOPs, and operator-level training.
• Familiarity or experience with digital tools for shop floor (Power BI, Excel, Power Automate, digital checklists, etc.).
• Excellent communication, coaching, and facilitation skills; able to work at all levels from shop floor to leadership.