Plant Head

Placebo Fabtech; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct MD relationship

Competitive compensation

Exposure to marquee projects

Job summary

Placebo Fabtech Private Limited is seeking a Plant Head to lead the manufacturing facility. You will be accountable for tonnage, on-time despatch, quality, cost, safety and people, working through department heads to meet commitments and drive profitability.

You will set targets, lead governance routines, and partner with MD, Projects, Design and Commercial teams to convert orders into a reliable and scalable production engine, ensuring compliance with railway, highway and industrial client

Qualifications

• B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical, Production or Industrial Engineering with a related qualification.
• Experience: 15–20 years in fabrication, with at least 5 years in Plant Head/GM roles.
• Hands-on experience in heavy steel fabrication and ERP/MIS systems.

Responsibilities

• Own plant performance against plan: tonnage, on-time delivery, quality, cost, safety and manpower.
• Translate business plan into dept targets and KPIs; hold heads accountable.
• Run governance rhythm: daily ops review, weekly cross-functional review, monthly performance.
• Be single point of accountability to MD; represent plant with clients and authorities.
• Resolve cross-functional conflicts and escalations.
• Approve master production plan and capacity strategy; commit delivery dates.
• Review plan vs actual; ensure schedule adherence and recovery.
• Make capacity decisions to protect delivery commitments.
• Drive productivity improvements; set and reset productivity norms.
• Ensure quality systems, audits, and traceability; ensure inspection readiness.
• Oversee stores, procurement, maintenance, and asset readiness.
• Plan and drive CAPEX for capacity expansion and upgrades.
• Align dispatch with project erection sequences; ensure delivery readiness.
• Manage HR/Administration: recruitment, governance and compliance.
• Drive ERP adoption and data discipline; promote standard operating procedures.
• Sponsor Lean, Kaizen, 5S; build plant capability roadmap.

Skills

Leadership

Plant operations

Strategic planning

Stakeholder mgmt

Cost management

Education

B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical/Industrial Eng

Post-grad in Operations Mgmt

Tools

ERP systems

MIS reporting

Lean/Kaizen

Job description

About Us

Placebo Fabtech Private Limited is a leading engineering and fabrication company specializing in structural steel fabrication, heavy engineering, industrial fabrication, and customized metal fabrication solutions. The company serves infrastructure, construction, industrial, power, and engineering sectors with a strong focus on quality, execution excellence, and timely project delivery.

With modern manufacturing facilities, skilled manpower, and a commitment to operational excellence, Placebo Fabtech delivers reliable fabrication and engineering solutions that meet diverse customer requirements and industry standards.

Role Overview

The Plant Head is the senior-most leadership position at Placebo Fabtech's manufacturing facility and carries end-to-end accountability for plant performance across Production, Production Planning & Control, Stores, Quality Control, Maintenance, Logistics & Dispatch, and HR & Administration. The role owns the plant's commitments on delivered tonnage, on-time despatch, quality, cost, safety and people, and delivers them through department heads rather than by executing departmental work directly.

The Plant Head will set targets and standards for each function, run the plant's review and governance rhythm, intervene on exceptions and cross-functional conflicts, and build the organisation, systems and capacity required for the next phase of growth. Working closely with the Managing Director and the Projects, Design and Commercial teams, the Plant Head will convert the order book into a reliable, predictable and profitable production engine while meeting the inspection and documentation requirements of railway, highway and industrial clients.

Key Responsibilities

1. Plant Leadership & Governance

• Own overall plant performance against the annual business plan: tonnage, on-time delivery, quality, cost, safety and manpower.
• Translate the business plan into departmental targets and KPIs, and hold each department head accountable for them.
• Establish and run the plant's governance rhythm: daily operations review, weekly cross-functional review and monthly performance review.
• Act as the single point of accountability to the Managing Director for the plant, and represent the plant with clients, third-party inspection agencies and statutory authorities.
• Resolve cross-functional conflicts and take decisions on priorities, trade-offs and escalations that individual departments cannot settle.

2. Delivery Assurance Production & Planning

• Approve the master production plan and shift/capacity strategy proposed by PPC and Production, and commit delivery dates to the business.
• Review plan-versus-actual performance and hold Production and PPC accountable for schedule adherence and recovery of slippages.
• Take decisions on capacity levers additional shifts, contract manpower, subcontracting, bay reallocation or capex to protect delivery commitments.
• Intervene on chronic bottlenecks, repeat delays and productivity shortfalls; ensure root causes are addressed rather than managed around.
• Set and periodically reset productivity norms for the plant and drive improvement against them.

3. Quality & Compliance Oversight

• Ensure the plant operates to an adequate quality system (ISO 9001 / ISO 3834 / EN 1090 or equivalent) and that it is followed in practice, not just documented.
• Ensure QC is adequately staffed, equipped and empowered, and protect the independence of its inspection and release decisions from production pressure.
• Review quality performance first-pass inspection rate, rework and repair levels, NCRs, client and TPI observations and drive closure and corrective action.
• Ensure the plant is always inspection-ready and audit-ready in terms of records, traceability and documentation.

4. Material, Asset & Infrastructure Readiness

• Ensure Stores and Procurement coordination delivers material availability ahead of production, and hold the function accountable for stock accuracy, traceability and reconciliation of client-supplied material.
• Review inventory levels, material yield and scrap generation, and set targets for improvement.
• Ensure the Maintenance function delivers required equipment availability and reliability through a functioning preventive maintenance regime; review breakdown trends and act on recurring failures.
• Approve maintenance shutdown windows, spares strategy and equipment replacement priorities.
• Plan, justify and drive capital expenditure for capacity expansion, equipment upgrade and plant infrastructure.

5. Dispatch & Delivery to Site

• Ensure dispatch planning is aligned to project erection sequences and customer delivery commitments.
• Review on-time-in-full delivery performance and hold Logistics accountable for transport readiness, ODC movement and documentation accuracy.
• Resolve escalations on delivery, damage in transit and site coordination with the Projects and Commercial teams.

6. People & Organisation

• Own plant manpower planning and organisation design; build and develop the plant leadership team and their successors.
• Set the standard for performance management, incentives, discipline and workforce culture across the plant.
• Ensure the plant retains and develops critical skills welders, fitters, operators and supervisors – through structured qualification, multi-skilling and training programmes.
• Ensure HR & Admin are accountable for recruitment, contractor governance, statutory compliance and plant administration.
• Address attrition, industrial relations issues and contractor performance before they affect output.

7. Safety, Statutory Compliance & Risk

• Own safety performance for the plant and set a visible, non-negotiable standard for safe working.
• Ensure all statutory licences, approvals, returns and inspections are current, and that compliance is verified rather than assumed.
• Review incidents and near-misses personally; ensure investigation, corrective action and closure.
• Identify and manage operational risks to delivery, compliance and reputation, and escalate material risks to the Managing Director.

8. Cost, Budget & Business Performance

• Prepare and own the plant operating budget and control spend across manpower, consumables, power, maintenance and overheads.
• Own conversion cost per MT and drive it down through productivity, yield, process and sourcing improvement.
• Review project-wise plant performance against estimates and feed realistic productivity norms back into estimation and costing.
• Present monthly plant performance to management with clear analysis, decisions required and improvement commitments.

9. Systems, Capability Building & Growth

• Drive ERP adoption and data discipline across all plant functions so that decisions are made on reliable numbers.
• Institutionalise standard operating procedures and management systems so plant performance is not dependent on individuals.
• Sponsor lean, kaizen and 5S initiatives and hold departments accountable for improvement outcomes.
• Build and execute the plant capability roadmap – people, processes and equipment – required to scale output and take on more complex fabrication scopes.

Qualifications & Experience

• B.E. / B.Tech in Mechanical, Production or Industrial Engineering. Post-graduate qualification in Operations Management is an added advantage.
• 15-20 years of experience in structural steel fabrication, heavy engineering or bridge / PEB / industrial fabrication, of which at least 5 years as Plant Head, Factory Manager, Works Manager or GM – Operations of a fabrication plant.
• Mandatory hands-on experience in a heavy steel fabrication plant handling railway bridge girders, highway steel structures, pre-engineered buildings, or similar project-based fabrication with third-party inspection (RDSO / RITES / TPI).
• Demonstrated experience of scaling plant output (tonnage, shifts, manpower) and running multi-shift operations.
• Working knowledge of welding processes and qualification (WPS / PQR / WPQ), NDT, surface preparation and painting systems.
• Experience of running a plant on ERP / MRP systems and management systems such as ISO 9001, ISO 3834 or EN 1090.
• Familiarity with Factories Act, contract labour and other statutory requirements applicable to a manufacturing plant.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong leadership presence and the ability to hold experienced department heads accountable without taking over their work.
• Sound technical grounding in fabrication processes, sufficient to challenge, verify and make decisions on shop-floor proposals.
• Commercial and cost orientation; comfort with budgets, conversion cost and plant P&L.
• Structured, data-driven decision-making; proficiency in MS Excel, ERP systems and MIS-based review.
• Strong stakeholder management with clients, inspection agencies, contractors and statutory bodies.
• Ability to build systems and organisation, not just deliver month-to-month output.
• High ownership, execution focus and resilience in a project-driven, deadline-intensive environment.

Why Join Us

• Opportunity to lead the entire manufacturing operation of a growing heavy engineering and fabrication organisation.
• Direct working relationship with the Managing Director and a mandate to build the plant for the next phase of growth.
• Exposure to marquee railway, highway and industrial infrastructure projects.
• Competitive compensation and long-term career growth opportunities.