Manufacturing Lead

status: Non-Exempt

reports to: Production Manager

location: Salinas, CA

days/shifts: B Shift, Monday - Saturday, must be able to work any shift

Wage range: N/A, Hourly Rate: $27.00

Manufacturing Lead

Under the direction of the shift or area supervisor, lead the process and equipment setup for production in a safe environment for hourly employees, while producing a high‑quality product according to daily production requirements from processing to packaging (PRDIN-PRDOUT).

• Ensure and motivate employees to work together to maintain quality control and high productivity levels.
• Establish good working relationships with all employees.
• Oversee all production workers, safety rotation, supplement staffing gaps, break and lunch rotation coordination, production machinery and activities to meet or exceed all production goals.
• Direct production workforce such as but not limited to line crewing, line crew balancing and re‑assigning employees to different work areas/job tasks based on daily production requirements and priorities.
• Responsible for production orders coordination including changeover & split orders. Responsible for implementing and executing efficient changeovers by enforcing teamwork and having multiple employees assisting to reduce downtime during this process.
• Meet and exceed all production goals, including but not limited to yields, downtime, schedule attainment, product waste and production schedule attainment.
• Complete routine reports, logs, forms assigned to include but not limited to down time reports, paddle usage, knife usage, wholeleaf pre‑wash setup, Springmix usage, plant trial, weight control assessment, etc.
• Daily interfacing with quality assurance technicians, production machine operators and maintenance personnel on assigned production lines.
• Comply and follow established guidelines for quality and safety including all company policies and procedures.
• Maintain cleanliness of production areas and in compliance with GMP and human safety policies and procedures.
• Enforce that assigned employees comply with our company human safety, food safety, GMP, quality and production policies and procedures.
• Attend and participate in training. Assign mentors to new recruits or employees in cross training as needed based on individual skills, capabilities and experiences.
• Participate in execution of daily tailgates, company communications affecting or pertaining to the union employees.
• Enforce and adhere to Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
• Manage and comply with seniority per CBA as it applies or pertains to the union employees such as but not limited to work areas de‑crewing.
• Perform daily attendance check utilizing company provided rosters. Mark employees who are absent. Utilize roster for seniority check.
• Ensure that lines setup is done accordingly at the start of shift and perform inspection of work areas and equipment throughout the shift.
• Daily perform pre‑operational safety inspection and submit completed paperwork to the manufacturing supervisor.
• Ensure materials and supplies are available to support nonstop daily line operations.
• Maintains a quality service by helping to establish and enforce organization standards.
• Completes production plan by analyzing schedule before execution. Monitor production flow on an hourly basis and measures results against key operating indicators. Promotes root cause analysis to correct issues and establish priorities.
• Report any food safety incidents or concerns to quality assurance immediately such as but not limited to material contamination.
• Report quality issues, concerns or incidents to quality assurance.
• Report any unsafe conditions, acts, injuries, near misses to manufacturing supervisor.
• Ensure operation of equipment by calling for repairs to maintenance. Safeguards operations by measuring down time and enforcing food safety practices by following Sanitation requirement before re‑starting operations after repairs or line incidents have taken place.
• Operate manufacturing equipment including but not limited to blending equipment, vision sorters, automated wash/dry lines, non‑powered pallet jacks, blending…