Production Manager in Hawarden

Location: Deeside

Job Type: Permanent

Salary: £50,000 - £60,000

Position Summary

The Production Manager is accountable for leading a high-performing Aerospace and Defence manufacturing hydraulics operation, while delivering safe, compliant and efficient Assembly, Test, Development and New Product Introduction (NPI) activities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Utilise your experience or expertise to solve problems, develop and execute objectives for self and others, and effect short-term and some long-term business goals while exceeding daily targets for the Assembly and Testing of customer products.
• Provide department leadership in the attainment of goals with focus on daily SQCDP tiered reviews, KPI targets & ownership and recovery plans to ensure customer satisfaction is exceeded.
• Make data-driven decisions balancing SQCDP to achieve business & customer requirements.
• Coach, support and provide direction to your direct and indirect team members when required, by developing supervisors and teams through coaching, performance management, succession planning, skills matrices, apprenticeships and employee engagement.
• Foster a proactive safety culture through visible leadership, behavioural safety, risk assessments, incident investigation and continuous improvement.
• Ensure compliance with AS9100 and other ISO requirements where applicable (e.g. ISO14001, ISO45001), customer, regulatory and contractual requirements, maintaining product conformity, configuration control and full manufacturing traceability.
• Direct process and product improvement programs and provide process method excellence throughout the organization.
• Drive operational excellence using Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, 5S/6S, Standard Work, waste elimination and structured Root Cause Corrective Action (8D/RCCA).
• Lead your team to achieve goals in asset utilisation, process/manufacturing improvement, inventory controls, achieve quality standards and deliver cost reductions.
• Lead production planning, capacity management, labour planning, inventory optimisation and schedule adherence to meet customer demand.
• Ensure communication of key business and customer issues to employees and maintain an 'open door' policy.
• Responsible for achieving and exceeding business metrics within your area of responsibility through the ownership of departmental performance including OEE, First Pass Yield, On-Time Delivery, productivity, quality, labour efficiency, inventory and cost performance.
• Maintain awareness of import/export controls and trade compliance requirements, ensuring manufacturing activities support applicable export control, customs and defence compliance obligations.
• Support the interface with internal and external organisations and vendors to assure requirements are met on time to satisfaction.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Programme Management and Logistics to support NPI, industrialisation and delivery recovery.

Qualifications / Desired Characteristics

• Minimum five years' manufacturing leadership experience within aerospace, defence or another highly regulated industry.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with demonstrable skills in teamwork and collaboration including strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills.
• Working knowledge of AS9100, Lean Manufacturing, Root Cause Analysis and production planning.
• Proven functional experience of the manufacture (Assembly & Test) of hydro-mechanical and electronic products and appropriate manufacturing tools and equipment.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems such as Syteline or SAP.