Plant Operations Manager

SUMMARY: The Plant Operations Manager provides strategic and hands-on leadership over a manufacturing facility with 70+ employees, driving operational excellence, financial performance, and organizational culture across all plant functions. Reporting to the Plant Director, this role is accountable for the long-term, profitable growth of LAPP Cable Works through Lean transformation, continuous improvement, and strong cross-functional partnerships.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES – include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Operational Leadership

Lead manufacturing functions - Production, Facilities/Maintenance and Continuous Improvement - to deliver profitable, safe, and efficient 24x5 or 24x7 operations. Drive performance through capacity optimization while ensuring schedule adherence, asset reliability, and sustained improvement in OEE and machine uptime. Champion structured daily management systems and maintain a clean, organized, and safe working environment across all shifts.

People Leadership & Culture

Lead, coach, and develop the plant leadership team using LOS (LAPP Operating System) principles, establishing clear performance goals and standards. Build a culture of accountability, engagement, and operational discipline while driving genuine frontline engagement across all shifts. Develop succession planning and leadership bench strength to ensure long-term organizational capability. Collaborate with the Process Engineering group to translate improvement priorities into executable plant initiatives, including operator training programs, standard work, OEE improvement, machine uptime, and productivity gains.

Lean & Continuous Improvement

Lead plant-wide Lean transformation through structured problem-solving, root cause analysis, and standard work to improve OEE, reduce waste, and optimize productivity. Oversee new product development to ensure designs align with manufacturing capabilities. Drive change management initiatives that support business growth strategy.

Maintenance Operations

Oversee preventive and predictive maintenance systems, and technical upgrades across the site. Partner with Engineering to optimize processes, reduce downtime, and improve overall equipment reliability.

Supply Chain & Planning

Collaborate with production planning and materials management, driving inventory optimization and working capital improvement. Align capacity planning with demand forecasts and partner with Supply Chain to ensure material availability and service performance.

Quality, EHS, Compliance & Legal

Ensure implementation and maintenance of the Quality System and compliance with ISO 9001 and 14001 standards, Corporate Directives, and environmental requirements. Drive a proactive safety culture through risk identification, incident prevention, employee involvement, and continuous improvement initiatives. Follow all applicable federal, state, local and OSHA regulations. Confer with legal counsel and appropriate functional leads on matters including product liability, health and safety, environmental law, and data protection.

Cross-Functional Partnership

Partner with HR and Accounting on workforce planning, performance management, budgeting, forecasting, cycle-counts and cost control. Ensure compliance with company policies, labor regulations, and safety standards while translating corporate strategy into executable plant-level actions.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: Lapp Cable Works Leadership Team member with full accountability for the Production, Continuous Improvement and Maintenance team members. Overall responsibility for providing direction, coordination, and evaluation of the individuals within their team and carrying out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include training, planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems; setting budgets and developing operational/business plans.

COMPETENCIES

• Strategic yet operationally hands-on
• Strong decision-making under pressure
• High accountability with high engagement leadership style
• Structured and disciplined execution mindset
• Excellent communicator across frontline to executive levels
• Change agent with resilience and adaptability

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

REQUIRED

• Minimum 3+ years of experience as a Plant Operations Manager with full cross-functional responsibility.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited college or university
• Experience leading a manufacturing facility with minimum 60+ employees.
• Experience managing multi-shift (3–4 shifts) 24x5 or 24x7 operations.
• Proven success leading Production, Maintenance, Continuous Improvement functions.
• Demonstrated strength in people leadership and coaching plant leadership teams.
• Strong experience driving Lean manufacturing and change management initiatives.
• Experience managing external stakeholders, including government officials and executive leadership teams.
• Strong financial acumen and P&L ownership experience.

PREFERRED

• Lean/Six Sigma certification.
• Experience with ERP and advanced planning systems.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS : n/a

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: Domestic and International travel as required.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions and risk of electrical shock. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 70 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, procedure manuals, and ability to interpret and execute order requirements for receipt and shipment of finished goods, raw materials, and supplies. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization. Proficient in the English language and ability to communicate in Spanish or German language is a plus.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.

REASONING ABILITY: Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form. Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.

COMPUTER SKILLS: To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of SAP and MS Office tools.