Production Manager

Job Description

The Production Manager plans, organizes, directs, and controls the plant production function across Packaging and Processing. The role translates business priorities into executable operating plans; ensures compliance with food safety, quality, safety, labor, and regulatory requirements; and owns performance across Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People, and Sustainability. This leader is expected to understand the economics of the operation, make fact-based tradeoffs, and proactively remove barriers to performance.

What Business Ownership Means in This Role:

· Own results, not activities: understand the drivers behind performance and close gaps with speed and discipline.

· Run Packaging and Processing as one integrated value stream, balancing throughput, labor, material flow, maintenance needs, quality, and customer service.

· Make decisions using data, plant economics, operational risk, and consumer impact.

· Build strong operating routines so performance is visible, abnormalities are escalated, and actions are completed on time.

· Develop the organization: create clear expectations, coach leaders, strengthen succession, and hold the team accountable for standards and results.

Key Responsibilities:

KHMS and Operating System Leadership:

· Lead KHMS as the way the operation is managed, not as a separate initiative. Establish and sustain Daily Management Systems, leader standard work, tiered accountability, visual management, standard work, and structured problem solving.

· Assess KHMS maturity across Packaging and Processing, identify priority gaps, and build a practical roadmap that strengthens capability and delivers measurable business results.

· Ensure KPIs, losses, actions, ownership, and due dates are clearly understood at every operating tier.

· Use PDCA, root-cause analysis, and loss elimination to prevent recurrence rather than repeatedly managing symptoms.

· Create a culture of continuous improvement in which employees identify abnormalities, solve problems at the right level, and protect standards.

Safety, Food Safety, Quality, and Compliance:

· Own a zero-loss safety culture through visible leadership, risk identification, timely escalation, corrective action, and consistent adherence to Life Saving Rules and plant safety standards.

· Ensure all production activities comply with GMPs, SOPs, Kraft Heinz specifications, food safety requirements, and applicable regulatory standards.

· Lead operational readiness for audits and support the development, execution, and sustainment of corrective actions.

· Partner with Quality to reduce defects, consumer complaints, rework, holds, giveaway, and repetitive failures through robust problem solving and process control.

· Maintain high standards for sanitation, housekeeping, product protection, and process discipline.

Operational Performance and Reliability:

· Own execution of the production plan across roasting/processing and packaging, delivering schedule attainment, service, throughput, yield, labor productivity, and cost targets.

· Lead daily and weekly operating reviews, identify the critical constraints, and ensure recovery plans are specific, resourced, and time-bound.

· Partner with Maintenance and Engineering to improve OEE, strengthen basic equipment care, prioritize planned maintenance, reduce chronic losses, and improve startup reliability.

· Optimize labor and production schedules based on demand, line capability, changeovers, maintenance requirements, material availability, and cost.

· Ensure effective shift handoffs, escalation, and cross-functional communication across the 24/7 operation.

Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement:

· Apply Lean principles and tools to improve flow, eliminate waste, reduce variability, shorten changeovers, stabilize processes, and increase asset utilization.

· Use value-stream thinking to connect Processing, Packaging, Quality, Maintenance, Warehouse, and Supply Planning decisions.

· Build a prioritized loss pipeline and convert improvement opportunities into sustained productivity, capacity, quality, and cost results.

· Coach teams in standard work, 5S, visual management, centerlining, SMED, problem solving, and Kaizen methods.

· Validate that improvements are embedded in standards, training, ownership, and management routines before benefits are closed.

Financial and Business Management:

· Own departmental budget performance and explain variances related to labor, overtime, productivity, yield, materials, packaging supplies, product weights, sanitation, and operating losses.

· Understand conversion cost and the operational levers that influence margin, service, inventory, and working capital.

· Develop annual operating plans and productivity commitments, track benefits, and take corrective action when performance is off plan.

· Build clear business cases for capital, resources, and improvement work based on risk, return, capacity, and strategic value.

People and Organization Leadership

· Lead, coach, and develop production leaders with clear expectations for safety, standards, decision quality, urgency, executive presence, and accountability.

· Build a high-performance, inclusive team with strong succession plans, technical capability, and ownership at every level.

· Partner effectively with hourly employees and union leadership while maintaining consistent standards, contractual compliance, and respectful employee relations.

· Ensure employees are qualified for their roles through structured training, skills development, and verification of capability.

· Recognize strong performance, address gaps promptly, and create an environment where constructive challenge and problem escalation are expected.

Cross-Functional Leadership

· Partner with Supply Planning, Quality, Maintenance, Engineering, R&D, Procurement, Warehouse, Finance, HR, and suppliers to solve end-to-end business problems.

· Communicate operational risks, decisions, tradeoffs, and recovery plans clearly to plant and business leadership.

· Lead change effectively by connecting the reason, operating expectation, capability plan, and accountability required for adoption.

Required Qualifications:

· Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, Food Science, Supply Chain, or a related field; equivalent relevant manufacturing leadership experience may be considered.

· Minimum 7 years of progressive manufacturing experience, including significant leadership responsibility

· Demonstrated experience leading both people and performance across multiple production areas, shifts, or value streams.

· Strong working knowledge of Lean manufacturing, daily management systems, standard work, structured problem solving, OEE, and loss elimination.

· Demonstrated ability to manage safety, quality, service, cost, labor, and reliability as an integrated business system.

· Ability to lead in a 24/7 operating environment and respond to critical business needs outside normal working hours.

Strongly Preferred Qualifications:

· Hands-on experience implementing or advancing KHMS in a manufacturing operation.

· Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent record of leading Lean transformation and sustained productivity delivery.

· Experience in both packaging and processing operations, including high-speed filling, material handling, thermal processing/roasting, or comparable technologies.

· Experience working in a union manufacturing environment.

· Financial acumen, including budgeting, variance management, productivity validation, and capital justification.

Role Requirements:

This position is based at the Maxwell House Jacksonville Plant. The role requires regular presence on the production floor and flexibility to support a multi-shift, 24/5 manufacturing operation.

Our Total Rewards philosophy is to provide a meaningful and flexible spectrum of programs that equitably support our diverse workforce and their families and comp