Manufacturing Manager

Manufacturing Manager

Adept Life Sciences Chandler, Arizona, United States

Adept Life Sciences is a strategic supplement manufacturer trusted by fast-growing brands that demand innovation, speed to market, and uncompromising quality. From formulation and sourcing to manufacturing and scale, we help brands launch faster and grow with confidence.

The Manufacturing Manager leads both the operations and production sides of manufacturing at Adept Life Sciences, making sure products are produced safely, efficiently, on schedule, and to the highest quality standards. This role sets the strategic direction for the department, turning business goals into capacity, staffing, and improvement plans, and builds the people and systems behind it: hiring the team, developing and overseeing training, and creating the work instructions that define how the work gets done.

The Manufacturing Manager drives a culture of operational excellence built on Lean manufacturing, 5S, and Six Sigma principles, and partners closely with Quality, Supply Chain, Maintenance, R&D, HR, and Sales. We welcome candidates from a wide range of manufacturing backgrounds, including food, consumer products, pharmaceutical, medical device, chemical, and general or discrete manufacturing.

• Develop and carry out the short- and long-term production strategy, aligning capacity, staffing, equipment, and capital investments with company growth plans and sales forecasts.
• Lead annual operating plans, production budgets, and capacity models, and present recommendations to executive leadership.
• Set departmental goals and KPIs that support company objectives, and cascade them into clear targets for supervisors and teams.
• Evaluate automation, facility layout, and make-versus-buy opportunities, and build business cases for capital projects.

• Plan, schedule, and direct daily manufacturing and packaging operations to meet customer orders and delivery commitments.
• Translate the master production schedule into shift-level plans, balancing labor, equipment capacity, and material availability.
• Monitor production in real time and adjust priorities, staffing, and line assignments to resolve bottlenecks and keep orders on track.

• Champion a Lean operating system, applying tools such as value stream mapping, standard work, SMED/quick changeover, kanban and pull systems, visual management, and Gemba walks.
• Establish and sustain a 5S program across all production areas, including regular audits, scoring, and accountability.
• Lead Six Sigma and DMAIC projects that reduce variation, defects, scrap, and rework, using statistical process control and data analysis.
• Run kaizen events and daily tiered huddles that engage frontline employees in solving problems and making improvements.
• Establish and track production KPIs, including OEE, schedule attainment, yield, throughput, labor efficiency, scrap, cost per unit, and right-first-time quality.

• Ensure all production activities comply with company SOPs, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and applicable regulatory and customer requirements (e.g., FDA 21 CFR Part 111, ISO 9001, or industry equivalents).
• Ensure production records are completed accurately and on time, following good documentation practices.
• Partner with Quality to investigate deviations, nonconformances, and customer complaints, and lead root-cause analysis and CAPA within Production.
• Maintain audit readiness on the production floor and represent Production during regulatory, third-party, and customer audits.
• Oversee hiring for the manufacturing department, including workforce planning, writing job requirements, interviewing, selecting candidates, and onboarding, in partnership with HR.
• Lead, coach, and develop supervisors, lead operators, and manufacturing and packaging staff across all shifts.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement, including succession planning and cross-training.
• Set clear performance expectations, conduct performance reviews, and address performance and conduct issues in partnership with HR.
• Plan staffing levels, shift coverage, overtime, and temporary labor to meet demand while controlling labor cost.

• Develop and maintain a department training matrix that maps required skills, SOPs, equipment, and…