Production Manager – Manufacturing Operations

We have an immediate opening for a Production Manager. The Production Manager is responsible for leading and overseeing daily manufacturing operations across three core production departments:
Straws, Kitting & Packaging, and Injection Molding within a fast-paced food packaging and plastics manufacturing environment. This role provides direct leadership and oversight to four Shift Supervisors to ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality production operations across all shifts. The Production Manager will drive operational excellence by focusing on safety, productivity, quality, employee engagement, equipment reliability, and continuous improvement initiatives. This position plays a key role in achieving production goals, improving efficiencies, minimizing downtime and waste, and supporting a culture of accountability and teamwork throughout the facility.

The role reports to the Plant manager.

• Lead and oversee daily manufacturing operations for the Straws, Kitting & Packaging, and Injection Molding departments across all shifts.
• Directly manage and support four Shift Supervisors and Maintenance Technicians to ensure operational effectiveness and equipment reliability.
• Ensure production schedules, efficiency goals, quality standards, and customer demands are consistently achieved.
• Monitor and analyze operational metrics including productivity, downtime, scrap, labor utilization, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
• Maintain strong floor presence while providing hands‑on leadership and operational support within the manufacturing environment.
• Coordinate staffing, labor allocation, and production priorities to meet changing business needs and customer demands.
• Drive accountability and operational discipline throughout all production departments.

• Oversee the production of plastic cutlery products including knives, forks, spoons, soup spoons, soda spoons, taster spoons, and sporks.
• Manage operations involving polystyrene and polypropylene resin materials.
• Support and optimize production performance across three injection molding machines.
• Partner with Maintenance and Engineering teams to improve machine uptime, process consistency, and overall production efficiency.

• Oversee the manufacturing of multiple straw product lines including Milk, Spike, Stirrer, Jumbo, Super Jumbo, Giant, Flex, and Colossal straws.
• Manage production operations involving both single-head and dual-head extrusion equipment.
• Oversee packaging processes including hand pack, handbag, auto-bag, and chip pack operations.
• Ensure product quality, color consistency, and packaging accuracy for customer‑specific straw programs.

• Lead operations for automated and manual kitting and packaging processes supporting customer‑specific product kits.
• Oversee five robotic automated kitting lines supporting single-wrap and 3‑piece cutlery kits.
• Manage four Intellifeed kitting machines along with manual, horizontal, and vertical kitting equipment.
• Coordinate production priorities to maximize robotic automation and Intellifeed machine efficiencies while utilizing manual lines during peak demand periods.
• Oversee assembly of customized kits containing cutlery, condiments, straws, moist wipes, napkins, and other customer‑required components.

• Coach, mentor, and develop Shift Supervisors and Maintenance Technicians to strengthen leadership capabilities and operational performance.
• Conduct performance evaluations, corrective actions, and employee development planning.
• Foster a culture focused on accountability, communication, teamwork, and employee engagement.
• Support employee retention initiatives and workforce development efforts.
• Partner with HR regarding staffing, attendance management, employee relations, and performance concerns.

• Promote and maintain a strong safety‑first culture throughout all manufacturing areas.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA regulations, GMPs, food safety standards, and company policies.
• Conduct safety audits, incident…