Job Description
The Plant Manager is accountable for the safe, reliable, efficient, and profitable operation of Airspeed's U.S. manufacturing facility, including production, quality, maintenance, workforce leadership, cost control, and compliance. The Plant Manager must build and sustain practical operating systems, including standard work, daily management, maintenance, dashboards, escalation, training, and disciplined problem-solving. The role applies Lean principles to improve flow, eliminate waste, reduce variation, and create repeatable results. This position leads plant personnel and works closely with executive leadership and global teams. Success requires strong floor presence, data-based decisions, sound judgment, and consistent follow-through. Essential Duties and Responsibilities 1. Plant Leadership and Operating Systems Own plant performance and translate company priorities into clear operating plans, metrics, responsibilities, and execution rhythms. Build, document, implement, and sustain systems for production, maintenance, quality, training, staffing, inventory, safety, and management accountability. Establish a daily management system using tiered meetings, visual controls, KPI reviews, action tracking, escalation rules, and leader standard work. Maintain a strong presence on the production floor and ensure problems are identified, assigned, escalated, and driven to closure. 2. Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement Lead Lean manufacturing using 5S, standard work, valuestream mapping, visual management, root cause analysis, mistakeproofing, SMED, and Kaizen. Improve plant flow, capacity utilization, labor productivity, cycle time, yield, scrap, changeover performance, and ontime delivery. Require teams to solve recurring problems at the rootcause and system level rather than rely on temporary fixes. Develop a prioritized continuousimprovement roadmap with measurable savings, owners, deadlines, and sustainment controls. 3. Production, Maintenance, and Technology Ensure production schedules are achieved safely and consistently while meeting quality, delivery, and cost requirements. Implement production planning, capacity management, staffing, and contingency processes that support changing customer demand. Implement and sustain Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), preventive and predictive maintenance, spareparts and tooling controls, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) metrics to improve equipment availability, performance, quality, and uptime. Lead equipment, automation, process, facilitylayout, infrastructure, and capacity projects through readiness reviews, validation, training, handoff, and ROI tracking. 4. Safety, Quality, and Compliance Champion a safetyfirst culture and ensure compliance with OSHA, company policies, and applicable environmental and regulatory requirements. Partner with Quality to sustain
ISO 9001
compliance, audit readiness, and effective corrective actions; actively support customer, registrar, regulatory, and internal audits. Ensure processes, work instructions, training, inspections, and controls are documented and followed; support company quality and environmental objectives. Stop or correct unsafe, noncompliant, or outofcontrol operations and ensure leaders respond appropriately to incidents and quality concerns. 5. Financial and Business Performance Own the plant operating budget, cost controls, labor planning, overtime, capital expenditures, and financial performance. Use accurate operational and financial data to prioritize resources, evaluate tradeoffs, and protect profitability. Develop business cases for capital investments and verify that approved projects deliver the expected operational and financial return. Report plant performance, risks, recovery plans, and resource needs to the Executive Leadership Team. 6. Workforce Development and Cross-Functional Leadership Build an accountable leadership team and develop succession, crosstraining, skillmatrix, and backup plans for critical roles. Partner with Human Resources on workforce planning, recruiting, retention, performance management, discipline, and engagement. Set clear expectations, provide timely feedback, conduct performance reviews, and address performance or conduct concerns consistently. Coordinate with domestic and international teams, suppliers, and vendors to resolve issues and support business priorities. Required Skills and Abilities Demonstrated ability to build, implement, document, and sustain manufacturing operating systems. Advanced working knowledge of Lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, root cause analysis, and change management. Strong understanding of production, equipment reliability, quality systems, safety, labor planning, and cost control. Ability to convert data into priorities, actions, accountability, and measurable business results. Strong leadership presence with the ability to coach, influence, decide, and hold others accountable. Strong written and verbal communication skills for productionfloor, technical, and executive audiences. Ability to manage competing priorities, urgent issues, and organizational change with sound judgment. Key Outcomes and Performance Expectations The Plant Manager is expected to produce measurable results in the following areas: 1. Safety, Quality, and Delivery The plant operates safely, meets customer and qualitysystem requirements, and achieves reliable ontime delivery. 2. Lean and Operational Performance Lean practices are embedded in daily operations and produce measurable improvement in flow, uptime, yield, labor productivity, and cost. 3. Equipment and Process Reliability Preventive maintenance, spareparts, tooling, and equipmentmanagement systems reduce unplanned downtime and operational risk. 4. Leadership and Workforce Capability Plant leaders understand expectations, own results, and consistently address performance and operational issues. 5. Financial Performance and Accountability The plant operates within approved budgets and demonstrates disciplined management of labor, overtime, scrap, maintenance, and capital spending. Education and Experience Minimum Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Business, or a related field; substantial relevant manufacturing leadership experience may substitute for the degree. At least 10 years of progressive manufacturing experience, including at least 5 years leading a plant or major manufacturing operation. Documented success implementing Lean manufacturing practices and delivering measurable improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity. Documented success building and sustaining operating systems, management routines, standard work, and accountability processes. Experience managing budgets, capital projects, maintenance, workforce planning, and crossfunctional operational priorities. Experience with ISO 9001, OSHA
requirements, ERP systems, manufacturing metrics, and structured quality or environmental systems such as IATF 16949 or ISO 14001.
Preferred Qualifications Experience with plastics, injection molding, tooling, automated assembly, sensors, machinevision or CCD inspection systems, pokayoke controls, equipment integration, or highvolume precision manufacturing. Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent practical continuousimprovement leadership experience. Experience leading a plant through rapid growth, operational stabilization, new equipment installation, or systems transformation. Work Environment and Schedule This position operates in office and manufacturing environments and requires frequent presence on the production floor. The schedule is generally during normal business hours; flexibility is required to support multiple shifts, emergencies, production issues, and global teams. Domestic and international travel is required as business needs dictate. Physical Requirements Ability to work at a computer and participate in meetings for extended periods. Ability to regularly walk production, warehouse, tooling, and equipment areas; stand, bend, reach, and visually inspect operations. Ability to occasionally lift up to 25 pounds. Ability to travel by car and airplane, including international travel. Other Requirements Must comply with all company policies, safety rules, confidentiality requirements, and applicable qualitysystem requirements. Must be able to manage confidential employee, financial, operational, customer, and business information. Must communicate professionally with Team Members, customers, suppliers, global teams, and executive leadership. About Airspeed LLC Airspeed produces high-end components through plastic injection molding, sheet metal fabrication, CNC machining, die casting, and custom cable assemblies. We also manage sub-assembly across a range of components, streamlining assembly under a single manufacturing partner. At our facilities, we design and build the tooling that supports your projects. This end-to-end process allows us to match program requirements, sourcing strategy, and total landed cost goals while reducing supply chain complexity. We deliver stable execution and measurable follow-through.
