Position Summary

The Operations Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day operational performance of a high-volume further processed hamburger manufacturing facility, ensuring the safe, efficient and profitable production of high-quality products to customer specification.

The role will have primary accountability for production, safety, food safety, quality, labor, yield, productivity, throughput, OEE, waste and schedule attainment across the manufacturing operation.

The successful candidate will be an experienced manufacturing leader with a strong background in ground beef, hamburger, meat processing, food manufacturing or another high-volume protein environment.

This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership position. The Operations Manager will spend significant time on the plant floor, leading supervisors and production teams, identifying operational losses and driving a culture of safety, food safety, accountability and continuous improvement.

The successful candidate will understand that the objective is not simply to produce more product, but to produce the right product, at the right cost, safely, consistently and on time.

Key Responsibilities

1. Overall Operations Leadership

• Lead the day-to-day production operation across all assigned processing areas.
• Ensure production plans are achieved safely, efficiently and on schedule.
• Establish clear operating standards and performance expectations.
• Provide leadership and direction to Production Managers, Supervisors and Team Leaders.
• Maintain a highly visible presence on the production floor.
• Establish effective communication between shifts and departments.
• Lead daily operational meetings and performance reviews.
• Escalate significant operational, food-safety, quality or personnel issues appropriately.
• Ensure production priorities remain aligned with customer and business requirements.
• Build a culture of accountability and operational discipline.

2. Production Management

Own production performance across the hamburger manufacturing process, which may include:

• Raw material receiving
• Frozen and fresh meat handling
• Thawing
• Grinding
• Blending
• Formulation
• Seasoning
• Patty forming
• Portion control
• Cooking, where applicable
• Freezing
• IQF systems
• Packaging
• Metal detection
• X-ray inspection
• Case packing
• Palletizing
• Cold storage

Responsibilities include:

• Achieve daily and weekly production targets.
• Ensure production follows the approved schedule.
• Optimize line speeds and staffing.
• Minimize production interruptions.
• Improve line balance.
• Identify bottlenecks.
• Improve changeover performance.
• Reduce startup losses.
• Ensure standard work is followed.
• Ensure production records are complete and accurate.
• Maintain appropriate product flow through the facility.

3. Food Safety

Food safety is a fundamental responsibility of the Operations Manager.

• Ensure all employees follow company food-safety procedures.
• Maintain strict adherence to HACCP programs and prerequisite programs.
• Work closely with Quality and Food Safety leadership.
• Ensure product is manufactured within approved specifications.
• Ensure appropriate temperature controls are maintained.
• Prevent cross-contamination.
• Ensure allergen controls are followed where applicable.
• Ensure foreign-material prevention procedures are effective.
• Ensure metal detection and X-ray systems are operated correctly.
• Ensure product identification and traceability requirements are followed.
• Support USDA/FSIS inspections and audits.
• Ensure food-safety deviations are immediately escalated and addressed.
• Never compromise food safety in pursuit of production targets.

The Operations Manager must create a culture where employees understand that "stop and correct" is always the right decision when food safety may be compromised.

4. Raw Material & Product Control

In hamburger manufacturing, effective control of raw materials and formulation is critical to yield, quality and profitability.

The Operations Manager will:

• Ensure raw materials are handled according to specification.
• Minimize temperature abuse and unnecessary product exposure.
• Ensure correct material is supplied to each production line.
• Support accurate formulation and batching.
• Prevent material mix-ups.
• Control rework according to approved procedures.
• Minimize product loss during grinding, forming and packaging.
• Ensure product specifications are consistently achieved.
• Work with Quality and Supply Chain to resolve raw-material issues.

5. Yield & Giveaway

The Operations Manager will have significant accountability for manufacturing yield.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish yield targets by product and process.
• Monitor raw-to-finished yield.
• Control trim and process losses.
• Reduce product giveaway.
• Improve patty weight accuracy.
• Reduce off-specification product.
• Minimize rework.
• Reduce startup and changeover waste.
• Analyze yield loss by product, line, shift and operator.
• Lead corrective actions against chronic yield losses.

The successful candidate should understand the financial relationship between:

Raw Material Cost → Yield → Giveaway → Labor → Throughput → Cost per Pound → Margin.

6. Labor & Workforce Management

• Develop appropriate staffing plans by production line and shift.
• Optimize direct labor.
• Control overtime.
• Improve labor efficiency.
• Establish effective employee deployment.
• Cross-train employees to improve workforce flexibility.
• Monitor attendance and turnover.
• Work closely with HR on recruitment and retention.
• Ensure new employees receive appropriate training.
• Develop Team Leaders and Supervisors.
• Establish clear accountability at every level of the organization.

Where applicable:

• Operate effectively within a unionized workforce.
• Maintain positive labor relations.
• Ensure compliance with the collective bargaining agreement.

7. Productivity & OEE

Develop and manage a structured approach to operational performance.

Key areas include:

• OEE
• Line efficiency
• Pounds per labor hour
• Throughput
• Changeover time
• Downtime
• Startup losses
• Labor utilization
• Schedule attainment
• Yield
• Waste

The Operations Manager will identify the biggest sources of operational loss and ensure structured improvement plans are developed and executed.

8. Equipment & Maintenance Partnership

Work closely with Engineering and Maintenance to maximize equipment reliability.

• Identify equipment-related production losses.
• Ensure production teams report equipment problems accurately.
• Prioritize chronic equipment issues.
• Participate in root-cause analysis.
• Support preventive-maintenance activities.
• Coordinate planned downtime.
• Ensure operators perform appropriate basic equipment checks.
• Develop strong operator-maintainer relationships.
• Ensure equipment is operated within defined parameters.
• Support capital projects and equipment upgrades.

The Operations Manager should understand that equipment reliability is a shared responsibility between Operations and Maintenance.

9. Continuous Improvement

Lead operational improvement initiatives using appropriate Lean and continuous-improvement tools.

These may include:

• Lean Manufacturing
• TPM
• 5S
• Kaizen
• Standard Work
• Visual Management
• Root Cause Analysis
• 5 Why
• Pareto Analysis
• SMED
• Six Sigma

Prioritize projects that improve:

• Safety
• Food safety
• Throughput
• Yield
• Labor productivity
• OEE
• Quality
• Changeover
• Waste
• Cost per pound

The Operations Manager should establish a culture in which supervisors and operators are actively involved in identifying and solving problems.

10. Safety

Own safety performance within the Operations function.

• Establish a strong employee-safety culture.
• Ensure employees follow all safety procedures.
• Conduct regular floor-level safety observations.
• Address unsafe behaviors and conditions immediately.
• Support ergonomic improvements.
• Ensure appropriate PPE is used.
• Support machine-guarding compliance.
• Ensure employees follow Lockout/Tagout requirements when applicable.
• Investigate incidents and near misses.
• Implement corrective actions.
• Work closely with EHS to reduce workplace injuries.

OSHA identifies machinery, ergonomics, slips and falls, noise, chemicals and other hazards as important safety considerations within meat-processing environments. (osha.gov)