Plant Head -Dahej

Merino Group; Bharuch District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Merino Group in Dahej, Gujarat, is seeking an experienced Head of Manufacturing to lead operating strategy and day-to-day plant performance. You will drive production planning, maintenance, quality, and safety while directing people development and resource deployment across shifts.

The role emphasizes cost optimization, OTIF delivery, and continuous improvement through Lean/ IMS & ISO processes, with accountability for plant capital and operating budgets.

Qualifications

• 20+ years of total experience in production/manufacturing.
• Deep understanding of manufacturing and operations; decisive decision-making.
• Strong leadership, management and interpersonal skills.
• Technical certification preferred or required where applicable.

Responsibilities

• Direct and oversee Dahej plant operations with emphasis on efficiency and capacity utilization.
• Lead planning of Capex and Opex; manage production budgets and headcount planning.
• Drive process improvements, OEE goals, safety and ISO compliance.
• Coordinate procurement, logistics and maintenance to ensure uptime and on-time delivery.
• Monitor KPIs, prepare regular performance reports and act on deviations.
• Develop and mentor staff; ensure safe, compliant and productive work environment.

Skills

Leadership

Analytical skills

Manufacturing/operations knowledge

Technical certification

Education

Bachelor’s in Engineering (Mechanical/ Electrical/ Production/Chemical)

MBA/ degree in business administration

Tools

IMS

QMS

ISO Standards

Job description

To spearhead Dahej manufacturing operations and drive innovative strategic thinking, manage Company resources productively, direct the people development and deployment process, maintain quality & planned capacity utilization and oversee day to day operations. Drive overall operational efficiency and ensure optimal returns on investments. Plan and undertake initiatives for high machine uptime & lead process improvement initiatives. To contribute in planning for production, maintenance, dispatch and raw material. Drive cost savings through improvement projects and support new product development initiatives.

Process Excellence & Customer Centricity

Support Quality Control & Assurance

• Assure reliability and consistency of production; Ensure monitoring of manufacturing processes and output
• Participate in quality audits and customer inspections; Support resolution of all complaints and findings related to Quality issues in collaboration with quality assurance

Process & Engineering Improvements

• Ensure implementation and adherence to process improvement initiatives across the plant
• Oversee execution of OEE improvement initiatives in coordination with Engineering & Maintenance head
• Monitor consumption of general consumables, scrap production across products in plant; Develop and drive initiatives to reduce additional costs incurred in plant
• Ensure maximum market servicing basis demand projections - Ensure OTIF; Drive production in line with outlined production plan
• Maintain high level of quality control in production to minimize defects

Strategy and planning

• Direct and lead planning of Capex and Opex for the plant (e.g., machinery, raw materials) in coordination with respective leads.
• Support development of plant manufacturing budget in coordination respective leads; Plan and allocate production budget and capacity in coordination with production planning department
• Oversee manpower planning, deployment and mobilization across production lines and shifts
• Oversee implementation of people strategy at plant.
• Prepare an annual manufacturing plan and policy guidelines to drive the performance of key result areas on production activities and continuous implementation monitoring.
• Implements, drives, and sustains key initiatives that support plant strategic goals.

Manufacturing Operations

• Plan and supervise manufacturing
• Support Production head in managing manufacturing operations
• Liaise with procurement head to ensure availability of required raw materials
• Ensure adherence to dispatch plan outlined in coordination with logistics manager
• Ensure regular maintenance of equipment as per outlined schedule across plant
• Ensure compliance with safety, quality and regulatory standards for the plant
• Liaise with engineering & maintenance head to ensure maintenance and availability of utilities e.g., electricity; Drive civil and mechanical projects at plant
• Oversee management of stores and spares at plant across products
• Oversee planning and implementation of maintenance schedules and shutdowns to enhance machine uptime, reduction in mean time between repetitive failures and contingency planning while ensuring production continuity
• Monitors the facility’s equipments needs and ensures that the technical team is working to keep the Company’s equipment and physical facility are properly maintained.
• Optimally make sure that manufacturing units improvise on the standard efficiencies in terms of Machine efficiencies, material yields, labor and overhead costs versus budget.

Performance monitoring and reporting

• Monitor performance and plant costs along key production metrics outlined by management; Drive correction of negative deviation vs budgeted if any
• Identify and highlight key deviations from plan; Suggest initiatives to resolve issues
• Perform operational audit in conjunction with process excellence head to determine manufacturing efficiency
• Work with plant finance controller to measure and track financial performance of plant
• Works to ensure that the facility’s OEE, OTIF, production targets; monitor target achievements are met through periodic reviews.
• Review daily, weekly and monthly production MIS reports to match actual performance vis-à-vis the targets and provide action steps to minimize variance
• Provides information to Corporate with SLA, including daily/weekly/monthly reporting requirements and other ad hoc information requests.

Procurement

• Monitor management and coordination of procurement related to plant including preparation of procurement budget for plant, evaluation of suppliers, contract negotiation, delivery and quality of raw materials
• Ensure adherence to inventory norms and minimize cost of inventory for all material types (RM, Consumables, etc.)

Logistics

• Oversee planning and coordination of timely movement of goods from plant including preparation of budget, managing inventory levels, tracking shipments, evaluation of vendors and contract negotiation

Strategic:

• Directs all aspects of the business operations, including purchasing, scheduling, manufacturing, warehousing, dispatch, quality assurance, customer service etc.
• Accountable for plant costs, throughput, utilization, manpower productivity & production costs
• Lead creation of the plant budget by consolidating inputs from various departments; ensure adherence to the approved budget
• Control of all operational aspects including cost & operations, production, quality, plant production improvement, health & safety and compliance.
• Ensure implementation of process improvements across products at plant to ensure improvement in key metrics
• Oversee the cost-effective management of all outsourced transportation service in consistence with budgeted levels of costs.
• Enforces all Company policies, including safety, production, quality, sales, human resources, customer service and accounting policies.
• Understands the technical aspects of the manufacturing facility so as to provide support to departmental personnel.
• Well versed with processes like IMS, QMS, ISO Audit & Compliance
• Constantly assesses the facility’s operational efficiencies and seeks out opportunities to improve processes in an economic manner.
• Ensure that all legal and statutory compliances for the plant are complied as per the required timelines
• Drive lean in every aspect of business practices and operations.
• Any assignment which needs to be done for addressing the Company needs/ objectives / emergencies / criticalities as directed by the Management time to time.

People: Staff + Manpower

• Guide and monitor performance of direct reports, providing timely feedbacks
• Support the identification of training and development to facilitate technical learning and growth of production staff and manpower
• Ensure adequate safety training for production staff and manpower
• Determine and communicate staffing needs to HR, interview candidates as necessary
• Manage and maintain labor and operating costs in accordance with budgets and strategic goals including cost due to rejections and rework etc.
• Ensure smooth coordination between production, quality control and maintenance functions in order to maintain parity/ clear understanding of targets/ expectations at all levels.
• Develop and nurture a dynamic and competent workforce through a robust performance driven culture.

Learning & Development

• Coach and develop staff to build high performing teams. Assigns stretch assignments to further train and enhance staff development.
• Promotes cross training to optimize workforce, ensures functional coverage, reduce labor costs, and supports succession planning.
• Oversees the hiring and training of facility personnel. Works with Human Resources to drive performance management of employees and seek out ways to motivate and develop employees.

Industrial Relations

• Manage the overall IR climate at the plant and ensure timely awareness and action for managing any labor issues
• Support interactions with unions, labor bodies in coordination with Plant HR + IR Head
• Oversee management of complaints and manage grievance redressal with the labor unions
• Build constructive relationships with all stakeholders both internally and externally (Govt. bodies, other industries bodies and external parties/ vendors.)
• Coordinate with external stakeholders e.g., regional administrative bodies, industry bodies, and labor unions; Ensure prompt issue resolution
• Meeting all statutory, regulatory & admin at plant site
• Oversee environmental health and safety - Ensure compliance with health and safety standards and industry codes
• Oversee and extend full support for compliance to all statutory government regulations.

Employee health & safety

• Oversees all employee management, while being a champion for safety at the facility.
• Support development of employee health and safety procedures and policies
• Ensure regular safety inspections, and training of employees on safety procedures
• Drive reporting and investigation of accidents and incidents pertaining to employee safety and health
• Ensure compliance with employee health and safety standards, and regulations
• Drive Kaizen and other improvement initiatives.
• Monitor and ensure strict adherence to all safety & environment norms and drive safety as a culture in the plant Digital First
• Employ digital tools to ensure accurate scheduling and tracking of production operations
• Leverage digital tools to maintain quality standards in production and manufacturing
• Develop and report monthly performance reports on production, including updated forecasts for the rest of the year to support production and logistics planning

Key Performance Indicators

• Plant Capex RoI
• Fixed expenses vs Budgeted

Operational Performance

• Quality (customer returns and complaints)
• OTIF
• Throughput
• Manufacturing process cycle time
• Capacity utilization (%)
• Worker productivity - Output per plant worker FTE
• Inventory days (# of days inventory held in warehouse)
• Scrap rate (% of raw material lost in production)

Compliance

• # Reported compliance (Safety, Quality, Regulatory) violations
• Cost of compliance violations
• Average compliance violations closure time
• Industrial Relations - # of grievances reported, average complaint closure time

Desired Position Qualification

• 20+ years of total working experience, ideally in production and manufacturing in Tyre/Rubber/Polymer/Chemicals, Consumer electronics /Electrical ( industrial /Automotive Components Parts
• Deep understanding of manufacturing and operations, with ability to make decisions
• Strong leadership, management and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Technical certification required, if any or soft skills needed to be mentioned here.

Desired Education Qualification

• Bachelor’s in Engineering (Mechanical/ Electrical/ Production/Chemical) preferable MTech.
• MBA/ degree in business administration will be an added advantage.