Shipping Supervisor

Decko Products LLC; Sandusky (OH); On-site; USD 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Decko Products, LLC is seeking a hands-on Shipping Supervisor in Sandusky, OH to own outbound execution from order to trailer departure. The role reports to Production Control & Customer Service and collaborates with Warehouse, Planning, and logistics partners to meet customer delivery windows.

The ideal candidate will supervise dock operations, verify loads, coordinate carrier schedules, and drive on-time performance while maintaining GMP and safety standards on the dock.

Qualifications

• Experience leading shipping or outbound teams in a food manufacturing or distribution setting.
• Knowledge of GMPs, dock safety, and lot traceability.
• Familiarity with shipping documentation, BOLs, and carrier coordination.

Responsibilities

• Own the daily outbound plan: what ships today, which carrier, window, and loader.
• Direct picking, staging and load building to ensure correct product, lot, quantity and pallet count.
• Verify loads before leaving: product, count, lot, pallet condition, and trailer condition; stop erroneous shipments.
• Coordinate dock scheduling, carrier appointments, and driver check-in to avoid dock congestion.
• Lead the shipping team across shifts, with training and performance management.

Skills

Shipping supervision

Outbound operations

GMP knowledge

Lean TPM

Team leadership

ERP/WMS familiarity

Tools

ERP system

WMS

Job description

Decko Products, LLC is a private label manufacturer based in Sandusky, Ohio, specializing in a variety of edible products for baking and decoration. We offer a wide range of products, including extruded royal icing decorations, butter cream icings, piping gel, and various fillings for cakes and desserts. We also provide special packaging services in the baking industry, ensuring high-quality standards and safety in our products. Decko Products operates an FDA-inspected facility, and our team is dedicated to meeting the demands of the food industry.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. Equal employment opportunities will be extended in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, transfer, demotion, compensation, benefits, layoff, and termination. In addition, Decko Products LLC will make reasonable accommodation to known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant with a disability, unless the accommodation imposes an undue hardship on the operation of our business.

Miss Jones Baking Co. / Decko Sandusky, Ohio Full-time

Position

Reports to

Director, Production Control & Customer Service

Location

Direct reports

Shipping and handling clerks and shipping floor personnel across shifts

Scope

Outbound execution: pick, stage, load, dock and carrier coordination, shipping documentation, customer routing compliance and on-time delivery performance

Not in scope

Receiving, put-away, storage, material staging to production and cycle counting — owned by the Warehouse Manager, who reports to the Chief Operating Officer

Key partners

Warehouse Manager, Customer Service, Planning, third-party logistics providers and off-site warehouses

Operating pattern

Supports two production shifts; weekend and early-start shipping as customer delivery windows require

Compensation

Competitive base salary; range confirmed with the final candidate

POSITION SUMMARY

We are hiring a shipping supervisor to own everything that happens between a customer order and the trailer leaving our dock — picking, staging, loading, documentation, carrier coordination and on-time departure against customer delivery windows.

The role sits under Production Control and Customer Service on purpose. Our largest customers hold us to must-arrive-by dates and routing guides, and deduct against us when we miss. Putting shipping next to the people who own the customer relationship means the person loading the trailer knows what the customer committed to, and the person answering the customer knows what is actually on the dock.

This is a hands-on supervisory role on the floor, not a desk job. We want someone who walks the dock, checks the load before it leaves, catches the wrong pallet before the customer does, and raises a shortage the morning it appears rather than the afternoon the truck was supposed to go.

Shipping is separated from warehousing and inventory control by design — the Warehouse Manager owns receiving, storage and the counts. This role owns outbound execution and the accuracy of every transaction that leaves the building.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Own the daily outbound plan: what ships today, on which carrier, against which delivery window, and who is loading it.
• Direct picking, staging and load building so that what goes on the trailer is the right product, the right lot, the right quantity and the right count of pallets and cases.
• Verify loads before they leave — product, count, lot, pallet condition, load security and trailer condition — and stop a load rather than ship a known error.
• Coordinate dock scheduling, carrier appointments and driver check-in so trailers turn without the dock backing up.
• Manage the dock as a controlled space: staging lanes marked and respected, nothing shipped from an unverified stage, no mystery pallets.

Customer compliance and on-time delivery

• Own on-time performance against customer must-arrive-by dates, and elevate a date at risk the day it becomes at risk — not when the window closes.
• Execute customer routing guide requirements exactly: labeling, pallet configuration, case marking, appointment rules and carrier selection.
• Ensure shipping documentation is complete and accurate — bill of lading, pallet and case counts, lot detail and customer references — so that what is invoiced matches what shipped.
• Drive down chargebacks, shortages, damages and compliance deductions; own the investigation when one lands and bring back the root cause, not an explanation.
• Work with Customer Service so that the customer hears about a short shipment from us before they find it on their dock.

Working with the warehouse and with planning

• Give the Warehouse Manager accurate and timely shipping transactions — every shipment recorded, every quantity right, so the inventory record holds.
• Raise inventory discrepancies found at pick time immediately; a pick shortage is an inventory signal, not a shipping workaround.
• Support cycle counts and physical inventory: freeze and count discipline on the dock, and no unrecorded movement during a count.
• Work with Planning and Customer Service on allocation when there is not enough to ship everyone, and execute the priority that is agreed rather than the one that is easiest.
• Coordinate with third-party warehouses and logistics providers on transfers, direct shipments and inventory visibility.

Food safety, safety and compliance

• Maintain GMP, sanitation and pest control standards in the shipping and dock areas, audit-ready every day.
• Enforce trailer inspection before loading — cleanliness, odor, damage, pests and temperature where required — and refuse a trailer that fails.
• Maintain lot traceability on everything that ships, and support mock recalls within the required window.
• Own dock safety: powered industrial truck practice, trailer restraint and chocking, pedestrian separation, dock plate and leveler condition, and safe load practice.
• Ensure held or quarantined product cannot ship — physically and in the system.

People and daily management

• Lead, schedule, train and develop the shipping team across shifts, including temporary workers, with a skills matrix and a qualification standard for every role.
• Run shipping on standard work and daily management: shift start-up, a visible outbound board, defined staging lanes, 5S and end-of-shift handover.
• Ensure training is completed and documented — PIT licensing, GMP, load securement, documentation and system transactions — before anyone works independently.
• Hold attendance and start-time accountability, and administer the collective bargaining agreement consistently in partnership with HR.

Improvement and cost

• Apply Lean and TPM discipline to outbound: attack loading delays, rework, re-picks, dock congestion and documentation errors at root cause using 5-why and A3, and standardize the fix.
• Improve trailer utilization, pallet configuration and load planning to take cost out of freight without putting service at risk.
• Own shipping-area cost: labor, overtime, temporary staffing, pallets, dunnage, supplies and accessorial freight charges, with variance explained in the month.
• Maintain dock equipment and lift trucks to a preventive plan with operator-owned daily inspection.
• Report daily on shipments made, shipments missed and why, on-time performance and open exceptions.

WORKING WITH THE WAREHOUSE

Shipping and warehousing are separated on purpose. The boundary works like this:

Activity

Warehouse Manager

Pick, stage, load and ship

Owns

Provides accurate stock and locations

Shipping documentation and BOL

Owns

Not involved

Carrier and dock scheduling

Owns

Informed

On-time delivery and chargebacks

Owns

Supports where caused by stock accuracy

Receiving and put-away

Not involved

Owns

Storage, locations and staging to production

Not involved

Owns

Consulted on staging lanes

Owns

Inventory records and cycle counting

Transacts accurately; supports counts

Owns

Inventory variance investigation

Accountable for fixing shipping-side causes

Owns the investigation

Both roles work the same floor and the same inventory. Neither can succeed by blaming the other, and both are expected to raise a problem the day it happens rather than let it settle into the count.

HOW THIS ROLE IS MEASURED

Measure

• On-time shipping
  Trailers depart in time to meet the customer delivery window; at-risk dates escalated same day
• On-time and in-full delivery
  Customer OTIF performance improving quarter over quarter to target
• Shipping accuracy
  Correct product, lot, quantity and pallet count; mis-ships driven toward zero
• Documentation accuracy
  Bill of lading and counts match what shipped and what is invoiced
• Chargebacks and claims
  Compliance deductions, shortages and damage claims reduced, with root cause on each
• Transaction integrity
  Every shipment recorded the day it ships; no inventory variance traced to shipping
• Safety and compliance
  Zero dock and truck incidents; trailer inspections documented; audit-ready
• Training
  Training and PIT licensing complete and documented for every shipping employee, temps included

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Three or more years supervising shipping, dock or outbound operations, with direct accountability for on-time performance and shipping accuracy.
• Food plant or food distribution experience is required — GMPs, trailer inspection, lot traceability and allergen awareness.
• Retail customer compliance experience: routing guides, must-arrive-by dates, appointment scheduling, labeling requirements and chargeback management.
• Working knowledge of shipping documentation, bills of lading and carrier processes, and of an ERP or WMS for shipment transactions.
• Lean and TPM exposure applied to a dock or warehouse: standard work, 5S, visual management and structured problem solving.
• Experience leading an hourly team, including scheduling, training, performance management and training records.
• Willing and able to flex hours to the needs of the business, including weekends, early starts and late finishes when customer delivery windows require it.
• Powered industrial truck certified, or able to certify; able to train and evaluate operators.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience shipping to national retail accounts with formal compliance programs and deduction exposure.
• EDI and transportation management system experience.
• Load planning and trailer utilization improvement experience.
• Working with third-party logistics providers and off-site warehouses.
• Bilingual English/Spanish.

SCHEDULE AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

• The operation runs two production shifts, and outbound activity is driven by customer delivery windows rather than by the clock. This role flexes its hours to the business — weekends, early starts and late finishes when the shipping schedule, a peak week or a recovery requires it.
• Regularly on the warehouse and production floor: standing and walking for extended periods, climbing stairs and platforms, and occasional lifting to 35 lbs.
• Exposure to food manufacturing and warehouse conditions — noise, moving equipment, powered industrial trucks, flour and sugar dust, dock temperatures and cold storage.
• Full GMP compliance including hairnets, beard nets, hearing protection, safety footwear and the plant garment policy.
• This is an on-site role. Remote or hybrid work