Manufacturing Operations Leader — Lean & Continuous Improvement

twiceasnice Recruiting; Town of Wausau (WI); On-site; USD 100,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Bonus

Full Benefits

Job summary

Client is seeking a hands-on Manufacturing Operations Manager to lead the next phase of operational improvement in a custom fabrication environment. You will drive listening, learning, and trust-building to identify opportunities for smarter, more repeatable workflows while preserving craftsmanship.

The ideal candidate is curious, collaborative, and action-oriented, ready to challenge the status quo and guide teams through change to sustain growth and profitability.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive manufacturing operations experience.
• Strong process/continuous improvement background.
• Experience in custom fabrication or engineered-to-order manufacturing.
• Strong job costing, COGS, and manufacturing profitability experience.
• Production scheduling, capacity planning, and labor utilization experience.
• ERP/MRP and data-driven manufacturing experience.

Responsibilities

• Oversee manufacturing workflow, productivity, quality, costs, and profitability.
• Analyze job costing, COGS, labor hours, material usage, and job margins.
• Review estimated vs. actual job performance and identify cost variances.
• Improve fabrication methods to reduce labor, waste, rework, and production bottlenecks.
• Implement lean manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Develop standardized, repeatable manufacturing processes and work instructions.
• Capture and document knowledge from experienced fabrication employees.
• Partner with Engineering/Drafting to simplify designs and improve manufacturability.
• Forecast workload, labor requirements, materials, and production capacity.
• Evaluate equipment, tooling, automation, and technology investments.
• Monitor KPIs including profitability, labor efficiency, scrap, rework, and throughput.
• Partner with Finance on COGS, gross margin, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Build accountability around productivity, quality, costs, and schedules.

Skills

Lean Manufacturing

Continuous Improvement

Job costing

COGS

Manufacturing profitability

Production scheduling

Capacity planning

Labor utilization

ERP/MRP

Data-driven manufacturing

Tools

ERP/MRP systems

Job description

Client is seeking a hands-on Manufacturing Operations Manager to lead the next phase of operational improvement in a custom fabrication environment. You will drive listening, learning, and trust-building to identify opportunities for smarter, more repeatable workflows while preserving craftsmanship.

The ideal candidate is curious, collaborative, and action-oriented, ready to challenge the status quo and guide teams through change to sustain growth and profitability.