Position Summary The Production Manager oversees day-to-day manufacturing activities across assigned production areas within a transportation and specialty manufacturing environment. This role ensures the safe, compliant, and efficient execution of production plans while driving continuous improvement, material flow stability, and operational discipline. The Production Manager maintains high quality standards, optimizes labor and equipment resources, and fosters a high-performance culture. This position plays a critical role in meeting delivery, cost, and quality expectations for automotive and transportation customers. Key Responsibilities Production Oversight and Operational Execution Oversee day-to-day production performance across assigned departments, ensuring targets for safety, quality, delivery, and cost are consistently achieved. Manage labor allocation, staffing adjustments, and equipment utilization to meet changing production demands and customer schedules. Evaluate short-interval control metrics and production KPIs, including throughput, downtime, and variances, to identify improvement opportunities. Coordinate with Maintenance to ensure equipment reliability, minimize unplanned downtime, and support preventive maintenance activities. Maintain accurate reporting of daily production results and escalate issues affecting performance. Quality Compliance and Continuous Improvement Ensure production processes meet

ISO 9001, IATF

16949, and VDA 6.3 requirements, including documentation accuracy, traceability, and process controls. Partner with Quality to analyze nonconformances, conduct root cause investigations, and implement corrective and preventive actions. Support layered process audits and ensure production readiness for customer audits, internal audits, and quality system reviews. Apply lean manufacturing principles to reduce waste, improve flow, and optimize production layouts. Promote continuous improvement and structured problem solving aligned with customer-specific requirements. People Leadership and Development Manage, develop, and coach production supervisors and team leads to ensure consistent expectations, accountability, and communication across shifts. Promote a respectful workplace that values growth, inclusion, innovation, operational excellence, and accountability. Conduct performance reviews, identify training needs, and manage cross-training to support staffing flexibility and capability retention. Support a safe work environment through daily safety walks, training, OSHA compliance, and proactive hazard mitigation. Champion employee engagement, recognition, and communication efforts that support retention and high performance. Planning Inventory and Resource Coordination Collaborate with Scheduling, Materials, and Supply Chain teams to align production plans with customer demand and inventory requirements. Optimize material flow to reduce bottlenecks, minimize work in process, and maintain accurate inventory levels. Review production cost drivers, labor efficiency, and productivity to support operational budgeting and resource planning. Support capital project planning and equipment justifications that improve capacity, safety, or quality. Maintain alignment with Engineering on new product introductions, process changes, and production launch readiness. Customer and Cross Functional Collaboration Partner with Customer Service, Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, and Supply Chain to resolve production issues affecting delivery or quality. Communicate production status, risks, and recovery plans during daily and weekly cross-functional meetings. Participate in customer visits, process reviews, and readiness assessments as needed to support key customer relationships. Provide operational input on APQP deliverables to ensure manufacturability, scalability, and production readiness for new programs. Qualifications Education and Experience Bachelor's degree in Operations Management, Business, Engineering, or a related field strongly preferred; an associate degree with equivalent manufacturing leadership experience will be considered. Five to seven years of production leadership experience, ideally within automotive, heavy transportation, seating, foam, or specialty manufacturing. Demonstrated success managing multi-shift or high-mix production operations. Hands-on experience with

ISO 9001, IATF

16949, and VDA 6.3 quality systems and process audit structures. Technical and Process Knowledge Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, value stream mapping, takt-time alignment, and continuous improvement methods. Experience with ERP or MRP systems and the ability to interpret production data for decision-making. Working knowledge of fabrication, assembly, foam molding, sewing, hardware installation, or related manufacturing processes. Familiarity with APQP, control plans, FMEA, PPAP elements, and customer-specific requirements used across transportation manufacturing. Understanding of equipment troubleshooting principles and coordination with maintenance teams. Leadership and Interpersonal Skills Demonstrated ability to develop supervisors, leads, and hourly associates through coaching, accountability, and performance feedback. Strong communication skills across hourly, cross-functional, senior leadership, and customer-facing environments. Ability to adapt leadership style to fast-paced and changing production needs while maintaining discipline and stability. Proven ability to collaborate across departments to achieve operational goals and remove barriers. Commitment to fostering growth, respect, innovation, inclusion, accountability, and resilience in daily operations. Safety and Compliance Strong understanding of OSHA requirements, risk assessments, machine guarding standards, and incident investigation methods. Experience supporting safety committees, leading daily safety engagement activities, and reinforcing safe behaviors and compliance. Ability to recognize, report, and mitigate unsafe conditions or work practices. Travel Requirements Travel of up to 25 percent may be required to support cross-site alignment, customer engagements, supplier visits, audits, and operational initiatives.

Pay:

From $78,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) 401(k) 3% Match 401(k) matching Dental insurance Employee assistance program Flexible spending account Health insurance Health savings account Life insurance On-the-job training Paid time off Professional development assistance Referral program Tuition reimbursement Vision insurance Ability to

Relocate:

Hickory, NC 28602: Relocate before starting work (Preferred)

Work Location:

In person