Production Manager
Your Contribution
The Production Manager is responsible for the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of assigned manufacturing areas, ensuring customer requirements for quality, delivery, cost, and volume are consistently achieved.
The position leads supervisors and production teams while driving continuous improvement, standardized work, labor efficiency, scrap reduction, equipment uptime, and compliance with automotive quality systems.
This role is responsible to:
1. Safety
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- Maintain a safety-first culture across all shifts.
- Ensure compliance with OSHA, company EHS policies, PPE requirements, LOTO, ergonomics, and safe work practices.
- Review incidents, near misses, and unsafe conditions.
- Lead corrective actions and verify closure.
- Conduct regular floor safety audits.
- Hold supervisors accountable for daily safety expectations.
2. Production & Delivery
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- Achieve daily, weekly, and monthly production schedules.
- Monitor production against customer requirements and shipping schedules.
- Manage manpower, machine capacity, overtime, and shift coverage.
- Respond quickly to production interruptions and bottlenecks.
- Coordinate recovery plans when production falls behind.
- Manage schedule attainment and on-time delivery.
- Maintain appropriate escalation processes for significant production concerns.
3. Quality
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- Ensure production meets customer specifications and automotive quality requirements.
- Support IATF 16949 and applicable customer-specific requirements.
- Drive compliance with:
- Control Plans
- Standardized Work
- PFMEAs
- Work Instructions
- Process parameters
- Traceability requirements
- Partner with Quality to address internal defects and customer complaints.
- Ensure containment and corrective actions are implemented when quality issues occur.
- Drive reductions in scrap, rework, defects, and customer PPM.
4. People Leadership
Typically responsible for Production Supervisors, Team Leaders, and hourly production employees.
Key expectations include:
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- Coach and develop supervisors.
- Establish clear performance expectations.
- Hold leaders accountable for results.
- Address attendance, performance, and conduct issues consistently.
- Develop succession plans and future leaders.
- Ensure adequate staffing and employee training.
- Promote employee engagement and accountability.
- Conduct regular supervisor meetings and performance reviews.
- Partner with HR on disciplinary and employee-relations matters.
5. Continuous Improvement
Lead improvements using Lean manufacturing principles such as:5S, Kaizen, Standardized Work, Visual Management, Problem Solving, Gemba, Waste elimination, Line balancing, SMED/changeover reduction, Root Cause Analysis, 5 Why, 8D, OEE improvement
The Production Manager should not simply react to daily problems. A major expectation is to identify recurring problems and permanently eliminate their root causes.
Your Experience & Qualifications
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- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or related discipline preferred.
- Approximately 5–10+ years of progressive manufacturing experience, depending on plant size and responsibility.
- Previous automotive manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
- Prior leadership experience managing supervisors and hourly employees.
- Experience operating in a high-volume, fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- Experience working with automotive OEM/customer requirements.
Equivalent combinations of education and extensive manufacturing leadership experience may also be considered.
Technical Knowledge
Strong knowledge of:
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- Automotive manufacturing
- Lean manufacturing
- IATF 16949
- APQP
- PPAP
- PFMEA
- Control Plans
- SPC
- 8D
- Root-cause analysis
- Standardized work
- OEE
- Capacity planning
- Labor planning
- ERP/MRP systems
- Microsoft Excel and production reporting
Specific technical requirements can also include welding, stamping, injection molding, assembly, machining, paint, casting, or other processes, depending on the operation.
Leadership Competencies- The most important distinction between a supervisor and Production Manager is often the ability to lead through other leaders.
Our Offering
We will provide a collaborative environment working on exciting assignments, along with ongoing personal & career development opportunities. We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!
After receiving your online application, the interview process will typically be a screening call followed by Personal Interview(s)
For more information about MAHLE and what a career with us looks like for you, click here. and to learn more about our foundation owned technology group click here.
#DiversityMatters with our inclusive culture, we welcome applications from all social, religious & ethnical backgrounds, disabilities both mental and physical, identities (gender) and neurodivergent people.
MAHLE is not currently hiring individuals for this position who now or in the future require sponsorship for employment-based non-immigrant and immigrant visas. However, as a global company, MAHLE offers many job opportunities outside of USA which can be found through our employment website www.jobs.mahle.com
Do you have any questions?
MEGHA.A.GUPTA@MAHLE.COM
Murfreesboro, TN, US, 37127
Nearest Major Market: Nashville

