Director of Manufacturing (GM)

THE COMPANY

We have been retained by a growing privately owned Wiring and Harness assembly company serving clients globally. For the last couple of years, they have been undergoing high double-digit growth and as a result seek a General Manager to lead the manufacturing operations growth and continue to elevate customer satisfaction.  Our client maintains their position as an industry leader by continuously providing customers with excellent quality and value, innovative products and solutions, and superior customer service.  They currently have two labor intensive manufacturing sites in Nogales, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona and the General Manager works out of the corporate offices in Nogales, Arizona.

THE POSITION

We are looking for a self-motivated and results-driven Director of Manufacturing (“GM”) to direct and manage our organization’s business activities and to develop and implement effective business strategies and programs. The General Manager serves as the top executive for the two assembly plants and is responsible for overall leadership and management of the organization, ensuring the highest standards of safety for our employees, delivering the highest quality products with exceptional service and On-Time Delivery to our customers, maximizing P&L and maintaining optimal performance and productivity within all phases of the manufacturing process. The GM will also work closely with the CEO to develop the strategic vision to achieve key business objectives, formulate company policies, implement and oversee KPI’s, allocate company resources, drive profitability, identify business opportunities, and execute key initiatives. Reports to CEO and owner.

Essential Job Functions:

• Provide business leadership that demonstrates commitment to production goals on a day-to-day basis, and which promotes a safe, empowered, and highly productive organization.
• Lead, coach, counsel and develop the management team and the manufacturing work group to ensure they can deliver results and achieve company goals with respect to safety, production volume, cost, and quality of production to meet production schedules and delivery dates.
• Conduct regular meetings with plant employees in Nogales, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona to ensure operational issues are being communicated and addressed expediently with a common understanding of goals.
• Develop and maintain a short-term and long-term development plan focused on safety, quality, cost, and productivity.
• Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of operations in the company, by developing, implementing, and monitoring the key indicators (KPIs) of the company.
• Develop and lead strategies to identify continuous improvement opportunities in cost reduction, productivity, quality, safety, service, and all phases of the manufacturing operations to ensure efficiencies and eliminate waste, and implement such plans through people, processes, procedures, and equipment.
• Develop operating and capital budgets. Monitor and track performance to ensure operation within these budgets.
• Control and minimize labor overtime, freight, and other expenses.
• Review production costs and production quality and modify production and inventory control programs to maintain and enhance profitable operation of plant.
• Provide guidance and support supply chain responsibilities target material pricing and lead time targets are accomplished.
• Develops and maintains manufacturing operations business plans to include all program requirements, labor hours, production cycle times, and production costs.
• Develop relationships and interact with customers in efforts to determine opportunities to improve service and promote customer retention, loyalty, and additional business.
• Supports sales initiatives to drive sales efforts within the business unit to achieve targeted growth objectives, exceed customer expectations, and optimize profitability
• Presents periodic performance reports and metrics to the chief executive officer.
• Maintains knowledge of emerging technologies and trends in operations management.
• Performs other related duties as assigned

THE CANDIDATE

Candidate Skills:

The ideal candidate for this role will be very organized, have strong business acumen, excellent presentation skills, very hands-on, process-focused and results-oriented, and fast paced with a high sense of urgency.  Possess excellent influencing skills and execution, and able to be an effective change-agent. Must be a team player with excellent leadership skills coupled with empathy; preferably a situational leadership approach and have excellent follow-up skills. Must be fluent in English and Spanish.
The noteworthy candidate will have a thorough understanding of P&L and how to set high performance standards; understands where and how the company needs to be better; understands how to marshal and allocate resources to support competitive strategies; understands the value of a robust talent-management process and gets involved in development of its people; and understands the value of empowering employees and the impact of teamwork and collaboration.

Candidate Experience and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Manufacturing, Engineering, or another industry-related field or equivalent experience required.
• 5+ years’ experience as a Director of Operations, General Manager overseeing a manufacturing entity with single site or multi-sites. May consider a VP of Operations of a small manufacturing company capable to grow into a COO role.
• Familiar with Mexico and Maquiladora program.
• Experience working for a small privately held company (less than $150M in sales) is desired.
• Experience in wiring harness assembly is desired.  Military and Defense experience is a plus.
• Good understanding of P&L Management and must possess good business acumen.
• Experience with supply chain, procurement, planning and inventory control.
• Knowledge of import/export controls compliance as it relates to a US and Mexico customs required. Knowledge of ITAR a plus.
• Kaizen and continuous improvement experience and familiar with problem solving tools.
• Experience dealing with clients is preferred.
• Able to travel internationally and cross to Nogales, Mexico three to four times per week, as needed.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite and MRP/ERP.

COMPENSATION STRUCTURE

• Base salary will be commensurate with experience
• Bonus opportunity will be tied to effectiveness measured by a goal with the amount of opportunity depending on value added to the company and company profitability.