Plant Manager - La Vergne, TN

From our simple beginnings in 1917 as a family-owned bean and elevator company to today's thriving bean, rice, and food contact products corporation – it gives us cause for celebration. At Trinidad Benham, we believe our success story is based on entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for competition, and 100% employee ownership.

We are committed to maintaining high-quality standards, exceptional service, and long-term relationships with our customers and employees.
The Plant Manager, a pivotal role reporting directly to the VP of Operations, is a hands-on, result-oriented manager. 

The primary focus of this role is to manage the day-to-day activities of the manufacturing plant, operations, and production. The plant manager's unwavering commitment to product quality, continuous improvement, and customer service is paramount. 

They are responsible for all matters related to order fulfillment, supply chain management, inventory control, logistics, and on-time shipping and receiving. Their role also involves controlling and optimizing all processes to maximize safety, product quality, and productivity to assist their team on a day-to-day basis as needed. This role is the primary champion and the key leader in an employee-owned culture, underscoring the significant impact the Plant Manager has on the company's success.

Essential Functions:

• Implement processes in alignment with business strategic initiatives; develop and present annual budgets to support the initiatives.
• Develop and manage daily priorities that drive production schedules to meet inventory levels, cost, and quality goals.
• Analyze production and quality metrics proactively.
• Implement improvements and solutions to identified issues.
• Ensure all quality and regulatory standards are met as applicable and compliant with all relevant legislation.
• Responsible for plant-wide activities such as fire and evacuation plans, first aid response, and workplace audits.
• Plan, organize, and run day-to-day operations to ensure materials and resources are available to meet and exceed stakeholders' expectations.
• Drive a culture of employee ownership, continuous improvement, responsibility, and accountability through employee engagement and leading by example.
• Provide hands-on leadership in lean manufacturing, including evaluating all existing systems, processes, and metrics and recommending, presenting, and implementing improvements to minimize production costs and waste while maximizing production outputs.
• Establish, monitor, and manage a supply chain of vendors and contractors to support operational needs by maintaining appropriate conflict resolution protocols.
• Maintain, manage, and report on inventory levels.
• Implement and maintain tracking, shipping, and inventory processes to ensure accurate, real-time information is available and that measures are in place to monitor supply inventory levels to avoid interruption in operational processes.
• Support direct reports to troubleshoot and resolve problems as required; use problem-solving skills to quickly ascertain a situation and be decisive in solving it; escalate issues as needed to engineering and other departments.
• Responsible for all facilities management and any required outside services.
• Serves as a coach and mentor for all positions in the plant.

Required Education and Experience:

• University graduate in Business, Industrial Management, or other manufacturing discipline.
• A minimum of 7 years or more of hands-on experience in food processing, manufacturing, or other regulated operational industries is required.
• Proven human, time management, and organization skills required to meet production deadlines, shipping dates, and projects; must possess a sense of urgency.
• A proven track record of ensuring a solid focus on product quality, effective manufacturing processes, and policies; hands-on experience managing quality through certified food processes
• Sound understanding of manufacturing strategies, supply chain and materials, and financial operations management.
• Strong knowledge and problem-solving skills to solve logistics, manufacturing, and technical problems effectively.
• Proven success as an operations manager to engage and inspire their team to exceed expectations.
• Demonstrates practical organizational skills with the ability to multi-task and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrates positive, open, and fair interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to work constructively with various internal and external stakeholders while demonstrating acceptable assertiveness without jeopardizing the health of an employee ownership culture.
• Ability to write reports and effectively present information.
• Facilitate regular meetings and updates to ensure the accurate and timely flow of information as required by the team and all other functions.
• Strong technical, computer, and systems knowledge; excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Intermediate proficiency in MS Office experience (Excel, Outlook, Word, and PPT).
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Outstanding interpersonal and customer service skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills.
• Ability to comprehend, interpret, and apply the appropriate sections of applicable laws, guidelines, regulations, ordinances, and policies.