- Our client, a leading manufacturing organisation, is seeking to recruit an experienced and results-driven Plant Manager to provide strategic and operational leadership for its manufacturing plant.
- The successful candidate will have a strong background in feed milling operations, with proven experience managing production processes, plant performance, financial resources, equipment reliability, quality, safety and people.
Plant Operations and Financial Performance
- Provide overall leadership and accountability for the safe, efficient and profitable operation of the plant.
- Drive achievement of production targets, operating profit and EBIT contributions.
- Develop, manage and control annual operating (OPEX) and capital (CAPEX) budgets.
- Monitor production costs per metric tonne and implement cost optimisation initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve labour productivity, raw material utilisation, energy efficiency and overall operational costs.
Production Planning and Supply Chain Management
- Lead plant-level Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to align production with procurement, inventory levels and customer demand.
- Ensure effective production planning and maximum utilisation of plant capacity.
- Collaborate with Procurement and Commercial teams to ensure raw material availability and timely customer order fulfilment.
- Optimise inventory levels and minimise obsolete and slow-moving stock.
Plant Performance and Continuous Improvement
- Establish and monitor plant performance dashboards and operational KPIs.
- Conduct regular performance reviews and implement corrective actions to address production losses, downtime, quality deviations and cost overruns.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives using Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and other relevant methodologies.
- Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), production yield, waste reduction and labour productivity.
Asset Reliability and Maintenance
- Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance programmes.
- Ensure equipment reliability and optimal plant performance.
- Monitor equipment performance through indicators such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
- Develop long-term asset replacement and lifecycle management plans.
Quality, Safety and Regulatory Compliance
- Ensure compliance with applicable statutory, regulatory, environmental, health and safety requirements.
- Oversee implementation and maintenance of Food Safety Management Systems, including ISO 22000.
- Ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to feed milling operations.
- Lead operational risk assessments, emergency preparedness and business continuity initiatives.
- Promote a strong culture of safety, quality and environmental sustainability.
Leadership and Stakeholder Management
- Build and lead high-performing plant teams, promoting accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Coach and develop departmental leaders and establish succession plans for critical positions.
- Build effective working relationships with suppliers, customers, contractors, regulators and internal stakeholders.
- Represent the plant during customer audits and regulatory inspections.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Food Science or a related field.
- Minimum of 8 years' experience in production management and plant operations, with at least 4 years at senior management level.
- Strong and demonstrable experience in feed milling operations is mandatory. Candidates must have practical exposure to milling processes, equipment and plant operations.
- Good understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements governing feed milling operations.
- Demonstrable knowledge and practical application of Food Safety Management Systems, particularly ISO 22000.
- Strong understanding of production planning, control and supply chain operations.
- Experience using ERP systems for production planning and control; knowledge of SAP Production Module will be an added advantage.
- Good understanding of financial management, budgeting, cost control and plant profitability.
- Proven experience implementing continuous improvement methodologies.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
- Strategic and operational leadership.
- Strong financial and commercial acumen.
- Production planning and operational excellence.
- Analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Asset and resource optimisation.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
- People leadership and performance management.
- Results-oriented approach with a strong focus on safety, quality and efficiency