Plant Manager

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Full Time Senior Management Little Falls, MN, US

The Plant Manager is the senior day-to-day operating leader for North Freeze Dry's Little Falls, Minnesota, facility and reports to the Director of Manufacturing. The Plant Manager is accountable for daily and monthly plant performance across production, maintenance, sanitation, warehousing, logistics, inventory, safety, quality execution, service, and operating expense. The Production Manager reports to the Plant Manager and owns production-floor execution through production supervisors and hourly teams.

The Plant Manager converts the Director of Manufacturing's strategy, annual plan, budget, and performance expectations into coordinated daily and weekly execution across plant functions. This role resolves cross-functional constraints, allocates plant resources within approved plans, manages operating results, and develops plant leaders. Longer-term capacity, major capital, structural, and organizational decisions are escalated to the Director of Manufacturing.

• Reports to:
  
  Director of Manufacturing.
• Leads:
  Production Manager and other assigned plant functional leaders; coordinates all on-site operating functions.
• Primary accountability:
  Daily and weekly plant-wide results, operating expense, service, safety, quality execution, inventory integrity, and cross-functional coordination.
• Decision horizon:
  Daily, weekly, and near-term monthly execution within the approved operating plan and budget.

• Set plant-wide daily and weekly operating priorities across production, processing, packaging, warehousing, maintenance, sanitation, and logistics. The Production Manager translates those priorities into production-floor execution by shift.
• Own plant-wide delivery of the approved production schedule by ensuring labor, equipment, materials, maintenance support, sanitation readiness, warehouse capacity, and logistics are aligned. Resolve tradeoffs that cross departments or affect customer commitments.
• Own daily and weekly plant results for safety, food quality, service, yield, throughput, labor productivity, downtime, schedule attainment, inventory accuracy, waste, and cost. Hold functional leaders accountable for their respective results and the Production Manager accountable for production-floor performance.
• Lead the daily and weekly plant operating review with the Production Manager and other functional leaders; assign corrective actions, verify closure, and elevate material risks, recurring constraints, or plan changes to the Director of Manufacturing.
• Coach the Production Manager and other functional leaders, establish clear ownership across departments, and ensure effective coordination between shifts and support teams.
• Set improvement priorities for line performance, changeovers, yield, labor use, waste, and equipment uptime. Support the Production Manager in implementing floor improvements and the Director of Manufacturing in long-term projects.
• Maintain an organized, clean, efficient, and audit-ready facility; hold production and support leaders accountable for daily standards in their areas.

• Manage total plant operating expenses within the approved budget and be accountable for near-term manufacturing cost performance.
• Track and act on key cost drivers, including labor, utilities, maintenance, sanitation, consumables, waste, freight, and supplies.
• Review operating and financial results with the Production Manager, Director of Manufacturing, and Finance; address unfavorable variances with specific actions and owners.
• Provide the Director of Manufacturing and Finance with plant operating assumptions, forecasts, variance explanations, productivity opportunities, and inputs needed for budgets and longer-term planning.
• Track manufacturing cost per unit or pound and improve throughput and efficiency without compromising safety, quality, or customer requirements.
• Identify plant automation, reliability, and technology needs; define the operating problem and expected benefit; recommend priorities to the Director of Manufacturing; and own site implementation of approved investments.

• Set expectations for food safety and quality throughout the plant; hold the Production Manager accountable for…