Indirect - Plant Manager I

Job Overview

The Plant Manager is the senior site leader for Jamco Products in South Beloit, Illinois, with responsibility for safe, compliant, and profitable metal-fabrication operations across the site’s production areas. Reporting to the Business VP, this role leads the Jamco team in delivering safety, quality, delivery, cost, people, and customer commitments for product lines that include cabinets, carts, and related fabricated products. The Plant Manager owns site financial performance, capacity and staffing plans, daily operating discipline, and execution of Jamco’s strategic priorities, including improved on-time delivery, production efficiency, customer diversification, automation, cost reduction, and workforce stabilization. The role partners closely with Commercial, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance, EHS, Finance, and Human Resources to meet the needs of customers and employees while living the Company Values of Integrity, Customer Focus, Deliver Results, and Continuous Improvement. Other duties may be assigned or reassigned at any time

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide visible, hands-on leadership that makes employee health and safety the site’s first priority; ensure compliance with applicable EHS requirements and close corrective actions from incidents, audits, and risk assessments.
• Own Jamco’s site operating plan, budget, forecast, capital priorities, and financial results, including labor, material, overtime, scrap, maintenance, and other controllable costs.
• Translate business and customer demand into executable capacity, staffing, production, maintenance, and shipping plans across Jamco’s metal-fabrication operations.
• Establish and sustain daily management routines and KPIs for safety, quality, on-time delivery, past-due orders, schedule attainment, throughput, production efficiency, labor utilization, scrap/rework, and cost.
• Improve customer service and on-time delivery by identifying constraints, balancing capacity, setting priorities, and coordinating recovery plans with Planning, Supply Chain, Customer Service, and Commercial teams.
• Lead continuous-improvement and cost-reduction activity in welding, machining, forming, paint/powder coat, assembly, material flow, and shipping using standard work, 5S, visual management, root-cause problem solving, and value-stream thinking.
• Sponsor automation and capital projects, including robotic welding and other investments that increase capacity, reduce reliance on scarce skilled labor, improve ergonomics and safety, and deliver validated financial returns.
• Maintain strong quality systems and ISO discipline; ensure containment, root-cause analysis, corrective action, and communication for internal or customer quality issues.
• Partner with Commercial and Product teams to support key customers, new-customer growth, customer diversification, product launches, and service commitments while protecting margin and operational feasibility.
• Build a capable, accountable leadership team with clear roles across production, quality, engineering, maintenance, EHS, planning/materials, and shipping; coach leaders and hold them accountable for measurable results.
• Develop workforce plans that address hiring, onboarding, training, cross-training, skilled-trade capability, attendance, retention, succession, and leadership coverage in Jamco’s competitive labor market.
• Communicate business priorities, performance, organizational changes, and expectations consistently to all shifts; create an environment of employee involvement, recognition, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure appropriate review, documentation, and escalation of employee-relations and compliance matters in partnership with Human Resources.
• Partnering with the workforce through shared understanding of the roles and responsibilities to understand and document role functions.
• Other duties may be assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated leadership in a metal-fabrication or similarly complex discrete-manufacturing environment; experience with welding, machining, forming, coating/paint, assembly, and material flow is strongly preferred.
• Strong command of plant financials and the ability to connect operational decisions to revenue, margin, working capital, labor productivity, and cash performance.
• Proven ability to recover delivery performance in a high-demand environment through capacity analysis, constraint management, production control, and cross-functional execution.
• Strong background in lean manufacturing, daily management, 5S, standard work, value-stream improvement, and structured root-cause problem solving.
• Ability to lead automation, capital, and process-improvement projects from business case through implementation, stabilization, and benefit validation.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing safety, environmental, quality, and ISO management-system requirements.
• Ability to analyze and interpret operational and financial data, identify leading indicators, and convert insights into clear countermeasures and ownership.
• Strong workforce-planning and people-leadership capability, including organization design, selection, onboarding, coaching, performance management, cross-training, retention, and succession planning.
• Executive-level communication skills with the ability to present site performance, risks, recovery plans, and investment recommendations to business leadership.
• Ability to build trust and alignment with employees, customers, and cross-functional partners while making timely, fact-based decisions consistent with Company Values.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Minimum of 7 years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including at least 3 years leading a plant or a comparably broad operation with full responsibility for people, safety, quality, delivery, and cost.
• Experience leading a multi-shift operation and salaried functional leaders is required.
• Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent demonstrated continuous-improvement experience is preferred.

Working Conditions

• Plant floor and office environments; able to work in hot humid environment for extended periods of time as well as around loud noises are required 

Physical Requirements

Need to be able to stand, walk, and sit for prolonged periods of time throughout the day within a manufacturing floor and office environment; occasionally lifting of parts weighing up to 49 pounds alone and parts more than 50 pounds with assistance; must be able to operate power tools and equipment.  Required to be physically present at the facility.