AVP of Manufacturing Operations

THE COMPANY

Our client is a global leader in beauty and cosmetics. The company was founded nearly 40 years ago, has distinguished itself with groundbreaking product innovation, reimagined go-to-market strategies, and leading supply-chain dynamics. From humble and disruptive origins, the company was famous in its early years as the pioneer of compact palettes and gift sets and stands today as the largest privately held beauty company in North America. With a brand portfolio that includes many product brand leaders, products are sold in retail outlets including department, specialty, mass, drug, and food stores, in over 80,000 doors in 80 countries worldwide.

We are currently embarking on our next stage of growth by making investments to expand our international footprint as well as growing our direct-to-consumer e-commerce business. The beauty category is high-involvement, high-margin, and growing significantly both online and off. This is an exciting time to join a smart, passionate team and a profitable, fast-growing company to help shape its DTC strategy and impact the development and execution of a major piece of its long-term strategic growth plan.

THE POSITION

Our client is looking for an AVP of Manufacturing Operations (Assistant Vice President of Manufacturing Operations) who will oversee all daily operations of the plant from production and manufacturing to ensure ON-TIME delivery of the production plan with the right quality and cost. This person will be a leader for all departments – production planning, production scheduling, inventory control, cost control, quality, safety, environmental compliance, labor management, accounting, safety, and maintenance.

Additionally, this person is responsible for Profit and Loss for the operations of the Tijuana plant, serving the needs of customers by driving operational efficiency, organizational effectiveness, cost savings, and reaction time to orders. The AVP will work towards achieving key results in the following areas: Quality and Cost Reduction, Asset Utilization and Speed/Agile, Plant Regulatory Compliance, and selecting, developing, and building a strong team. The ideal candidate is expected to be a results-driven leader with a passion for implementing and sustaining process improvements, the ability to think strategically, solve problems, lead teams, and drive quality in our factory. This is not a delegator or clipboard position; this person will need to be hands-on.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Plan, organize, direct, and run optimum day-to-day manufacturing operations to exceed our customers’ expectations.
• Ultimately responsible for all production activities, plant operations, quality, and P/L.
• Lead to build up the company’s efficiency, competitiveness, and higher quality.
• Manage and direct Production, Quality, Maintenance, Continuous Improvement, Plant Regulatory Compliance, EHS, Engineering, Planning, Scheduling, Warehouse Operations to ensure execution on production and delivery commitments.
• Benchmark and establish targets for manufacturing efficiencies, safety metrics, inventory turns, inventory obsolescence and monitoring results to ensure targets are met or exceeded.
• Work with S&OP to analyze actual demands and forecast and provide sufficient manufacturing capacity to support customer’s requirements, including the development and implementation of long-term capital planning.
• Coordinates all manufacturing activities with sales forecasts, demand planning, tech transfer, engineering, and quality departments to ensure that product requirements and quality standards are met.
• Ensures supply chain and manufacturing readiness for new product launches.
• Develop annual operating plan for departmental budget and capital expenditure.
• Manages all capital projects to ensure implementation is within timeline, budget and expected payback.
• Responsible for setting performance standards and the development of employees.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Implement all State and Federal regulatory safety and good manufacturing practices requirements (FDA, OSHA, EPA, etc.).
• Estimate production costs and present the budgets.
• Initiate and fulfill plans to upgrade manufacturing, improve quality, and lower costs.
• Examine monthly finance report and management reports for continuous improvements.
• Run LEAN operations, tighten material control, trim labor wastes.
• Lead to reengineer manufacturing data base, strengthen production planning, and ship on time.
• Continue efforts to comply with requirements of FDA, GMP, ISO.
• Assure compliance with environmental protection regulations and safety standards.
• Building up management teams; recruiting, motivating, and evaluating.
• Propose and fulfill annual plans of upgrading manufacturing improvement action plans.
• With in-depth cosmetic knowledge and experience, upgrade our cosmetic manufacturing.
• Increase production, assets capacity, and flexibility while minimizing unnecessary costs and maintaining quality standards.
• Be responsible for production output, product quality, and on-time shipping.
• Allocate resources effectively and fully utilize assets to produce optimal results.
• Implement strategies in alignment with strategic initiatives and provide a clear sense of direction and focus.
• Monitor operations and trigger corrective actions.
• Develop systems and processes that track and optimize productivity and standards, metrics, and performance targets to ensure effective return on assets.
• Address employees’ issues or grievances.
• Enable high levels of workforce engagement between production workers and front-line supervisors.
• Build and develop talent within manufacturing to support organizational demand and future succession.
• Stay up to date with latest production management best practices and concepts.
• Communicate with senior management on tactics, progress, and strategies.
• Assist in the identification of key areas for cost reduction and utilize resources to drive waste elimination and reduce costs while increasing capacity.
• Perform other duties as needed and directed by management.

THE CANDIDATE

Education & Experience:

• BS Degree in Chemistry, Biology and/or Business Management or related field, master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of hands-on work experience within a manufacturing plant with significant experience as a plant manager-level or similar or higher.
• Experience in the Cosmetics Manufacturing Industry required or may consider experience in beauty products manufacturing, preferably using colorants or similar.
• Proven managerial experience leading a large team.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Adequate knowledge of business and management principles (budgeting, strategic planning, resource allocation, and human resources).
• Must be able to report, interpret, and summarize business and financial information (P&L) to the executive team.
• Familiarity with industry standard equipment and technical expertise.
• Be knowledgeable of safety, cost control, quality, productivity, demand creation, inventory, and processes.
• Familiar with GMP and ISO required. FDA a plus.
• A well-rounded candidate will have proficiency in ERP, MRP, and Microsoft Office (WORD, EXCEL, PowerPoint, and Outlook) systems and tools.
• Ability to create accountability and to lead by example.
• Strong team building, decision-making, and people management skills.
• Fluent in English and Spanish.