PLANT MANAGER 47 PLANT MANAGER 48 It isn’t uncommon for food companies to hire from within and promote individuals who started as floor workers. Along this career path, individuals may begin on production lines, eventually advancing to lead positions, shift managers, and production managers. They may undertake additional training provided by the company or pursue additional college courses on the side between work shifts to prepare them to become a plant manager. 4. Plant Manager Manage Financials and Key Performance Indicators Managers must maintain manufacturing facility performance to ensure company profitability and employment stability. This means plant managers must meet production targets while keeping operating costs below a certain level. Plant managers require a strong understanding of accounting and financials to achieve this. When planning production runs, such as a special Christmas cookie production run, they need to know the cost of labor and manufacturing expenses. They collaborate with upper management to budget and plan production runs well before production days. A plant manager needs to compare day-to-day operations with these plans continually. 5. Plant Managers Ensure Health and Safety Above all, a plant manager must ensure that all employees work safely by leading by example. Plant managers champion a safety-first model, ensuring employees have all the necessary information, training, and supervision to conduct their jobs safely. Plant managers actively participate in safety training and collaborate with the Health and Safety department. In the event of an incident, such as equipment malfunction (e.g., conveyor belt or food slicer), plant managers collaborate with the Health and Safety department to investigate and prevent its recurrence. This includes reviewing equipment maintenance procedures, improving inspection protocols, and enhancing equipment operator training for safe machinery operation and food product quality. Their goal is to make sure that this never happens again. Furthermore, because food plant managers deal with food, they must also ensure that all workers follow food safety and quality assurance programs. They collaborate with food safety teams to ensure adherence to safety programs and balance productivity, safety, and quality. 6. Plant Managers Focus on Continuous Improvement Within Their Plant Continuous improvement is a term used to describe an ongoing improvement process. For example, a food processing plant might wish to improve the number of cookies processed on a manufacturing line. In this case plant managers would collaborate with production staff and data to determine the best way to improve the line. If working at a large company the plan manager will collaborate to see if they have any insights. Continuous improvement activities might include using Lean and Six Sigma methodologies in their day-to-day work, specifically visual management, 5S, statistical process controls, process mapping etc. 7. Plant Managers are Able to Make Decisions, Manage Conflicts and Coach Individuals Being a plant manager requires a wide range of skills. However, there are a few which are more essential than others. These skills include: • Decision-making – In difficult situations plant managers make critical judgments quickly despite having incomplete information. Confidence and expertise gained through experience are prerequisites for being decisive even in uncertain situations. Over time, plant managers can assess what problems are likely to arise during a project and quickly decide on the best solution. • Conflict management – Workers are human and it’s normal that when different personalities come together conflict can occur between groups and individual employees. Plant managers need to actively listen to all parties involved and investigate conflicts from a 3rd person perspective. Knowing how to deal with conflicts is a essential to creating a positive and collaborative environment. • Coaching skills - Plant managers are in many cases responsible for training new staff, and their coaching style can greatly impact the organization. Effective coaching encourages employees to grow and take on responsibilities without being demanded. Effective plant managers can provide specific, constructive and timely feedback to employees. Sheila Jones PMP, Business Consultant, Coach and Owner of Whicked Results Dr. Amy, Proulx Professor & Academic Program Coordinator of Culinary Innovation & Food Technology at Niagara College Evonne Chan, Food, Grocery & Nutrition Data Analyst at Pinto
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