We are seeking a Factory Manager to take operational ownership of King & McGaw’s Newhaven manufacturing facility, estate infrastructure, production machinery, and site team.
Reporting directly to the Head of Operations, your core focus is driving daily production while prioritising the safety, training, and effective deployment of our teams, alongside managing site-wide HSE standards, Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM), and estate management.
Key Responsibilities
- Order Prioritisation & Workflow: Oversee daily output across all departments to ensure strict alignment with production schedules, dispatch dates, and customer priorities.
- Departmental Staffing & Capacity: Dynamically manage shift staffing levels across all operational areas, balancing labor to eliminate bottlenecks and handle peak order spikes.
- Skills Matrix & Workforce Planning: Maintain cross-training initiatives to build a flexible workforce, manage overtime budgets, and drive shop-floor performance and attendance.
- Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement initiatives to optimise production flow, minimise material waste, and maintain high standards.
Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE) Compliance
- HSE Governance: Serve as the operational lead for health and safety across the factory floor and site, ensuring full compliance with UK HSE legislation, fire safety, and COSHH regulations.
- RAMS & SSOW: Maintain comprehensive Risk Assessments, Method Statements (RAMS), and Safe Systems of Work (SSOW) across print presses, framing tools, machinery, and chemical storage.
- Safety Culture & Incidents: Drive a proactive safety culture, oversee site safety inductions, conduct incident investigations, and manage statutory reporting (RIDDOR).
Machinery, Maintenance & Engineering Operations
- PPM System Ownership: Maintain a robust Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) schedule for all machinery and operational assets.
- Downtime Minimisation: Act as the main escalation point for mechanical or operational breakdowns, coordinating rapid internal fixes or managing OEM engineers to protect line availability.
- Tooling & Consumables: Manage relationships with tool sharpening vendors, equipment technicians, and spare parts suppliers to support machine reliability.
- Facilities Ownership: Take charge of the physical estate, including production workshops, framing areas, warehouses, yards, security systems, and site access.
- Environmental & Extraction Controls: Oversee site extraction/ventilation systems, environmental controls, and waste management workflows (recycling, timber, hazardous waste).
- Contractor Oversight: Direct external facilities and machinery contractors, ensuring they hold valid insurance, complete RAMS/Permits to Work, and adhere strictly to site safety protocols.
Key Performance Indicators
- Production Schedule Delivery & Staff Efficiency: Achieving on-time order fulfillment against schedule priorities through effective labor utilisation with zero line stalls due to understaffing.
- Machinery Availability & OEE: Maintaining high uptime across key machinery assets, timely execution of the PPM schedule, and rapid resolution of unscheduled downtime.
- HSE & Regulatory Compliance: Driving low incident/near‑miss rates, maintaining up‑to‑date RAMS/SOP coverage, and ensuring full compliance with UK environmental and workplace safety regulations.
- Compliance & Sustainability: Ensuring seamless operational alignment with relevant supply‑chain legislation, compliance, and sustainability standards.
Candidate Requirements
Experience: 5+ years of proven experience as a Factory Manager, Production Manager, or Senior Workshop Lead within manufacturing, joinery, print, or custom assembly operations.
- Production Scheduling: Strong expertise in floor‑level production planning, labor cross‑balancing, line balancing, and managing multi‑departmental order queues.
- HSE Knowledge: Practical working knowledge of UK Health & Safety regulations. An IOSH Managing Safely or NEBOSH qualification is preferred.
- Technical & Mechanical Aptitude: Practical, hands‑on understanding of manufacturing machinery, tool maintenance, and setting up Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) schedules.
- Leadership & Estate Oversight: Proven ability to lead people directly from the shop floor, paired with experience managing industrial facilities, external maintenance contractors, and extraction/waste systems.
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