Graveyard & Prefinish Production Mentor

Position: Graveyard Central & Prefinish Production Mentor
The Graveyard Central & Prefinish Production Mentor provides day-to-day floor leadership, training, technical expertise, and operational support for the Central and Prefinish Departments during Graveyard shift.

The Central Department includes panel saws, repair/putty stations, calibration sanding, grading, material handling, and associated production equipment. The Prefinish Department includes Prefinish production lines, coating and finishing processes, grading and quality inspection, material handling, and associated production equipment.

The Mentor works closely with the Central VSM and Prefinish VSM to execute the established priorities and expectations for each department and support achievement of departmental goals for safety, quality, production, on-time delivery, labor utilization, waste, training, and continuous improvement.

This position serves as a hands-on leader and subject matter expert on the manufacturing floor and is expected to actively support production while developing employees, reinforcing standards, identifying problems, and driving improvements. The Mentor plays a key role in training and employee development using Training Within Industry (TWI) principles and Job Instruction (JI) methods.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Ensure all employees work in a safe, productive, and quality-focused manner and follow established safety policies, procedures, and work practices.

Serve as a floor-level leader, trainer, and technical resource for employees within the Central & Prefinish Departments.

Support the VSM in achieving departmental goals for safety, quality, production, on-time delivery, labor utilization, waste, cost, and employee development.

Coordinate employees, work assignments, equipment, and material flow throughout the shift to support production requirements and customer needs.

Monitor production performance and adjust work priorities or resources as needed to maintain efficient product flow.

Work directly in critical production areas when needed to support production requirements, quality, training, or staffing needs.

Monitor product quality throughout the manufacturing process and take appropriate action when products do not meet established specifications or quality standards.

Serve as a primary quality control resource on the manufacturing floor, helping employees understand and consistently meet internal and customer quality requirements.

Central Operations Develop and maintain strong working knowledge of Central Department processes and equipment, including:

Panel saws Putty and repair processes

Calibration sanding

Grading and quality standards

Material handling and associated Central equipment

Monitor product quality throughout Central operations and take appropriate action when material does not meet established specifications or quality requirements.

Identify mismanufactured, damaged, nonconforming, or questionable product and ensure appropriate segregation, communication, follow-up, and disposition.

Support efficient movement of material through Central and into downstream operations while minimizing unnecessary WIP, handling, rework, and delays.

Prefinish Operations Develop and maintain strong working knowledge of Prefinish processes, equipment, materials, and quality requirements.

Monitor Prefinish productivity and material flow to ensure scheduled production and customer requirements are achieved.

Monitor Prefinish quality and work with appropriate resources to ensure finish, color match, appearance, and other customer specifications are consistently achieved.

Coordinate with Quality, Paint Lab, and other appropriate resources when finish or color concerns are identified.

Ensure employees understand and consistently follow established SOPs, Job Breakdown Sheets, quality standards, and process requirements.

Identify and respond to nonconforming or questionable finished product before it moves downstream or into finished goods inventory.

Monitor labor utilization within Prefinish and effectively deploy available employees based on production priorities.

Leadership & Employee Support Serve as a primary quality resource on Graveyard shift for Central and Prefinish employees.

Develop and maintain a thorough understanding of customer specifications, grading requirements, finish requirements, and quality expectations applicable to both departments.

Reinforce quality standards at the point of production and coach employees when standards are not consistently achieved.

Identify recurring quality losses, defects, rework, or process failures and communicate trends to the appropriate VSM and Quality resources.

Participate in root cause analysis and corrective action related to safety, quality, production, downtime, waste, and other operational concerns.

Maintain a thorough understanding of Training Within Industry (TWI) principles and the States Industries training process.

Train new and existing employees using Job Instruction (JI) methods and established training standards.

Develop, review, and…