Production Leader - Safety-First & Continuous Improvement

Westrock Coffee; Little Rock (AR); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Westrock Coffee is seeking a Production Manager to lead the production team and ensure safety, quality, and efficiency across operations. You will drive continuous improvement, manage supervisors, and align manufacturing activities with planning, quality, and maintenance functions.

The role requires extensive manufacturing leadership experience, strong problem-solving skills, and a focus on GMP and OSHA compliance.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years experience in a Manufacturing environment.
• Minimum of 5 years experience managing a team in a Manufacturing environment.
• Associate degree in Management or Business preferred.
• Ability to communicate effectively with co-workers, including speaking, writing, active listening and taking instruction.
• Good leadership and training skills.
• Excellent mechanical skills, including comfort with using tools to make simple repairs.
• Advanced knowledge of following specifications and manuals.
• Quick troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to run multiple types of machinery proficiently.
• Self-directed and able to recognize and pursue opportunities not identified by others.

Responsibilities

• Establish leadership goals and set the strategic direction for the Production team.
• Establish a Safety First culture and support all guidelines of GMP's, HARP-C, FDA, the Environmental Control Act, and OSHA standards to ensure that the plant is in compliance.
• Communicate the company mission, vision and values through words and actions.
• Display enthusiastic drive in order to encourage better business performance. Set high goals and standards of performance for peers and direct reports. Interact effectively to foster teamwork
• Play a strategic role in the training and development of all direct reports. Manage a staff of direct reports through regular performance reviews and developmental activities to ensure movement towards a high-performance organization, while assuring effective performance of the department. Function as a mentor to build a positive and productive working environment.
• Apply CI manufacturing principles to improve the operational systems, processes, and policies in support of organizational and departmental metrics.
• Develop, recommend, and implement measures to improve production methods and equipment performance in order to produce a quality product.
• Develop capital justification for the factory to improve safety, quality, costs and efficiency. Implement effective systems to monitor, control and reduce operating expenses.
• Analyze production reports including production numbers, downtime, and labor/overtime to develop improvement plans. Communicate required actions based on production data to plant management and production staff with regards to performance, process improvements, safety and quality.
• Align production activities with other functional areas in the plant including Planning, Quality and Maintenance to optimize resources. Assist with product development by working with the commercialization team, engineering resources and the finance team in order to ensure capabilities of the production process and projects.
• Oversee the development and establishment of standard operating procedures and work instructions through the training supervisor and assigned resources. Ensure proper training and implementation throughout all production areas.
• Hire, train, coach and review performance of hourly employees. Work with HR on employee disciplinary issues, terminations and recruitment.
• Assume duties and responsibilities of plant manager as needed. Willing to serve as interim plant manager should the need arise.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Safety culture

Continuous improvement

Troubleshooting

Mechanical skills

Team management

Problem solving

Quality awareness

Education

Associate degree in Management or Business

Job description

Westrock Coffee is seeking a Production Manager to lead the production team and ensure safety, quality, and efficiency across operations. You will drive continuous improvement, manage supervisors, and align manufacturing activities with planning, quality, and maintenance functions.

The role requires extensive manufacturing leadership experience, strong problem-solving skills, and a focus on GMP and OSHA compliance.