Plant Operations Manager

Interactive Resources; Arkansas; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Interactive Resources is seeking an Operations Manager to lead the manufacturing plant, ensuring safety, efficiency, and profitability. You will direct the production team, drive continuous improvement, and align operations with business objectives.

The role focuses on safety, cost management, capacity planning, and OEE improvement within a plastics manufacturing environment in Arkansas. You will lead staffing, budget adherence, and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum of 3 years of manufacturing/operations experience.
• Fundamental understanding of plastic manufacturing processes.
• Basic understanding of corporate finance and financial management.

Responsibilities

• Oversee plant safety and OSHA compliance.
• Manage plant P&L and expense control.
• Monitor key operational and financial metrics.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Problem-solving

Organizational skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or related field

Job description

The Operations Manager is responsible for the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of the manufacturing plant. This position provides leadership and direction to the production team while driving operational excellence through effective planning, resource management, performance management, and continuous improvement.

The Operations Manager will ensure compliance with safety, quality, and regulatory requirements while achieving production targets, controlling costs, improving equipment effectiveness, and supporting overall business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Plant Operations & Financial Management

• Oversee overall plant safety and OSHA compliance.
• Maintain responsibility for plant P&L and expense control.
• Monitor and report key operational and financial performance metrics.
• Develop and manage budgets and investment plans.
• Conduct capacity planning to support production and customer requirements.
• Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities and eliminate non-value-added activities.
• Support customer service objectives and maintain strong customer relationships.
• Maintain existing customer accounts in partnership with Sales.
• Establish and maintain plant policies and procedures.
• Lead plant production activities to achieve safety, quality, delivery, and cost objectives.
• Monitor production performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Drive implementation and effective utilization of OPEX/continuous improvement initiatives.
• Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by identifying and addressing root causes of downtime.
• Develop and implement waste-reduction initiatives.
• Maintain production waste at or below established plant targets.
• Support machine and infrastructure maintenance activities.
• Ensure appropriate resources are available to meet production and capacity requirements.
• Lead, motivate, and develop plant personnel.
• Partner with Human Resources to recruit and onboard new employees.
• Administer disciplinary actions when necessary.
• Identify employee training and development needs and ensure training is completed.
• Foster a culture of employee development, knowledge sharing, teamwork, and accountability.
• Conduct annual employee performance evaluations.
• Build and maintain effective teams across plant operations.

Quality, Safety & Compliance

• Maintain a strong safety culture and proactively identify and mitigate workplace safety risks.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Support quality assurance initiatives and maintain established quality standards.
• Develop and implement corrective actions when performance or compliance issues are identified.

Warehouse & Support Functions

• Provide oversight of warehouse operations, where applicable.
• Coordinate with supporting departments to ensure efficient plant operations.
• Maintain effective communication across Production, Maintenance, Quality, Human Resources, Sales, and other functional areas.

Key Performance Metrics

Safety

• Proactively identify and mitigate safety risks.
• Implement documented safety improvements and action plans on a quarterly basis.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

• Monitor OEE performance against established annual targets.
• Identify root causes of downtime and implement corrective actions to improve equipment performance.
• Maintain production waste at or below established plant targets.
• Implement initiatives designed to reduce scrap and improve manufacturing efficiency.

Cost Control

• Maintain adherence to departmental and plant budgets.
• Identify cost-reduction opportunities.
• Reduce non-value-added activities while maintaining safety, quality, and productivity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Minimum of 3 years of related manufacturing/operations experience.
• Fundamental understanding of plastic manufacturing processes.
• Basic understanding of corporate finance and financial management.
• Strong technical aptitude.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Proven ability to build and lead effective teams.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities in a manufacturing environment.