Plant Manager II

Our Culture:

At NSG Group, collaboration sits at the heart of how we work. We strive for excellence in everything we do, empowering our colleagues to deliver quality and innovation while being given the support to find balance. From sharing expertise with our global colleagues to celebrating team successes, we create an environment where everyone can succeed. This strong, supportive culture drives progress and reinforces our position as a global leader in glass.

Essential Functions:

Safety, Health & Environmental

• Champion a zero-incident safety culture: ensure compliance with OSHA, EPA, and corporate EHS standards across all shifts.
• Ownership: Own site safety performance (TRIR, LTIR) and drive root-cause corrective action on all incidents and near-misses.
• Environmental compliance: Ensure compliance with air, waste, and wastewater permits associated with glass manufacturing (e.g., tempering, coating, cutting operations).
• Audits: Lead readiness for internal, corporate, and regulatory EHS audits, and maintain ISO 14001 / IATF 16949 environmental and safety requirements.

Quality

• Customer standards: Maintain IATF 16949 quality system compliance and meet customer quality requirements, including PPM targets and data-driven problem-solving.
• Containment & response: Ensure rapid containment, root-cause analysis, and corrective/preventive action on any customer complaint, line-side issue, or quality escape.
• Systems: Sustain robust in-process controls, error-proofing (poka-yoke), and layered process audits across glass forming, cutting, tempering, and encapsulation operations.
• Customer relationship: Serve as executive-level escalation contact for customer quality and supplier-performance reviews.

Delivery & Customer Service

• On-time delivery: Meet 100% on-time, in-full delivery to our customers; manage risk in a just-in-time/just-in-sequence supply environment.
• Scheduling: Oversee production scheduling and capacity planning to align with customer releases and EDI/ASN requirements.
• Contingency planning: Maintain and test contingency and business-continuity plans to protect customer supply in the event of equipment, material, or labor disruption.

Materials & Supply Chain

• Inventory management: Oversee incoming and outgoing production inventory levels to balance service level with working capital.
• Supplier coordination: Partner with corporate purchasing and site materials team on supplier performance, premium freight reduction, and material availability.
• Warehouse & logistics: Ensure efficient receiving, staging, and shipping operations, including outbound logistics coordination with customer plants.

Manufacturing Operations & KPIs

• Operating rhythm: Lead daily/weekly management system (tiered accountability meetings) driving safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale (SQDCM) metrics.
• Performance metrics: Own plant KPIs including OEE, first-pass yield, scrap rate, throughput, labor productivity, and customer scorecards.
• Continuous improvement: Drive lean manufacturing, kaizen events, and structured problem solving to eliminate waste and variability.
• Capacity & launch: Lead new-program launches and capacity expansions in partnership with engineering, quality, and program management.

Cost & Financial Performance

• Budget ownership: Develop and manage the plant's annual operating budget, capital plan, and cost-reduction roadmap.
• Cost control: Monitor and control conversion cost, labor cost, scrap/rework, utilities, and overtime against budget and productivity targets.
• Capital projects: Prioritize and justify capital investment for equipment, tooling, and facility improvements; deliver projects on time and on budget.

Maintenance & Engineering

• Asset reliability: Ensure preventive/predictive maintenance programs sustain equipment uptime for tempering furnaces, cutting tables, and coating/encapsulation lines.
• Engineering support: Partner with plant and corporate engineering on process improvement, tooling changes, equipment upgrades, and problem resolution.
• Facilities: Oversee facility infrastructure, energy management, and long-range capital and equipment planning.

People Leadership & Labor Relations

• Team leadership: Lead, coach, and develop the plant leadership team (Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Materials, HR, Finance) and build bench strength across the organization.
• Labor relations: Serve as management's primary representative in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) administration, grievance resolution, and day-to-day union relations with hourly employee representatives.
• Culture & engagement: Foster a positive, respectful, high-engagement culture across a diverse hourly and salaried workforce; support employee communication forums and recognition programs.
• Talent management: Drive workforce planning, staffing, performance management, and succession planning to support current operations and future growth.
• Team collaboration & relationships: Create positive working relationships with internal team members, including cross-functional and leadership teams, such that there is teamwork to proactively identify business trends, concerns, and the strategic direction of the Shelbyville plant.

• Adherence to NSG/Pilkington Standards of Business Conduct and its Values and Principles
• Other duties as assigned by manager

Work Environment:

This position is based full-time at the Shelbyville, IN manufacturing facility, with regular presence required on the production floor across all shifts, including periodic off-shift, weekend, and holiday coverage to support a 24/7 operation. The plant environment includes exposure to manufacturing conditions typical of automotive glass processing, including heat (tempering/furnace areas), noise, glass handling, forklift and overhead crane traffic, and use of personal protective equipment (safety glasses, hearing protection, cut-resistant gloves, steel-toed footwear) in designated areas. The role requires the physical ability to walk, stand, and move throughout the facility for extended periods, climb stairs/platforms, and occasionally lift up to 25 lbs. Office time is spent in a standard plant administration setting. Some travel (typically less than 15%) may be required for customer visits, corporate meetings, or supplier reviews.

Scope/Dimensions:

• This position is responsible for a team of approximately 400 employees including hourly.  This position has six direct reports and four direct matrix reports.
• Position interacts with all levels of the organization, including various Global Directors and all NA Leaders in Automotive.
• The Shelbyville plant manager is responsible to build relationships with internal customers as a Tier 2 supplier and external customers as a direct Tier 1 supplier to automotive OEMs.

Top 3 Competencies Needed for Success in the Role:

• Innovation and Change: Open to change and actively interested in new developments, technology, emerging market trends
• Engages and Inspires Others: Works collaboratively and builds trust to develop enduring working relationships withs others
• Passion for Excellence: Takes personal responsibility and ownership for achieving results & objectives

Qualifications Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Business, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including 3+ years as a Plant Manager or senior operations leader in automotive components manufacturing.
• Prior experience managing a unionized hourly workforce, including CBA administration and grievance handling, required.

Qualifications Desired:

• Direct experience supplying Toyota or another Japanese OEM strongly preferred; working knowledge of Toyota Production System (TPS) and Toyota Business Practices (TBP).
• Automotive glass, tempering, coating, or related glass-processing experience is a plus.

• Familiarity with SAP and other systems