Maintenance Manager Search

We were tasked with finding a Maintenance Manager for a forge operation. This person needed to be degreed, have prior experience with maintenance on forge equipment, be a good communicator, have management experience, know how to utilize a CMMS and have prior experience successfully implementing a preventative maintenance program.

We began, by combing through the United States' forging industry, where we have identified over 400 operations. Each forge operation has a different organizational structure, with different job titles and varying responsibilities. As we combed through the forging maintenance workers across the country, some of the type of candidates we targeted included:

Director's of Plant Maintenance
Maintenance Managers
Maintenance Superintendents
Facility Managers
Assistant Maintenance Managers
Maintenance Supervisors
Sr. Maintenance Engineers
Sr. Mechanical Engineers
Sr. Electrical Engineers
Sr. Controls Engineers
Sr. Engineers
Plant Engineers
Area Managers -Maintenance

We ultimately identified and contacted 467 prospective candidates who we believed might be qualified from across the U.S. forging industry.

Below is the criteria we considered when evaluating the candidates we spoke with:

Must have Forging Experience
Must have at least 5 years of Supervisory/Managerial experience within a heavy manufacturing
Must have at least 5 years’ experience in maintenance
Must have experience with forge presses, hammers, upsetters or ring rolling equipment
Strongly prefer forge press experience
Must have experience with developing and maintaining preventative and predictive maintenance programs
Must have experience utilizing a CMMS
Must be a hands-on Manager that gets out on the shop floor
Prefer Electrical Controls experience
Prefer Induction Heating experience
Prefer Machining equipment experience
Must have experience implementing systems. Need experience taking something from theoretical to application.
Must have previous experience using problem solving tools like 5-Why
Must be able to communicate well with shop floor team members as well as upper management and board members
Must not have history of job hopping
Must be willing to work 50+ hrs per week
Must be metrics driven Manager (KPI’s, OEE, etc.)
Prefer restless, flexible personality with stamina
Prefer experience working in a Job Shop environment with shifting priorities
Must fit with company culture
Must be able/willing to relocate
Must fit in our salary range
Strongly prefer prior experience working in a Union environment
Must be willing/comfortable working in a Union environment
Must be proficient with Microsoft Office
Must be willing to work at least another 5-10 years
Bachelor’s degrees strongly preferred
Master's degree strongly preferred

As we began evaluating the 467 people who had leadership experience working in various forge operation's maintenance departments from across the country, there were a few key factors we identified:

Many of the maintenance leaders in the forging industry aren't degreed
Many of the maintenance leaders are experiencing the same fire fighting problems themselves and have yet to successfully implement a preventative maintenance program
Many people working in maintenance in the forging industry are nearing retirement and therefore have little to no interest in relocating to begin working for a new employer

Despite learning a majority of the people in the forging industry did not meet our requirements, out of the 467 people we spoke with:

14 candidates were submitted
9 candidates were phone interviewed
3 candidates were brought for onsite interviews

In 7 months we identified, attracted, thoroughly screened and successfully hired a Maintenance Manager from the forging industry, and we ended up finding this Manager locally which saved the company relocation expenses!

A qualified Maintenance Manager is hard to find. Let Laminin Corp do the work for you with our extensive database of potential candidates. CONTACT US today for more information!