2 Plant Manager Searches for Multi-Site Group

Plant Manager Searches for Multi-Site Group

We completed this Plant Manager search for major multi-site forging, heat treating & machining group. We were told we needed to find the “Michael Jordan of Plant Managers.”

Must possess a Bachelor’s Degree or higher
Must have prior P&L experience in excess of 100 million
Must have a minimum of 7yrs managing a plant in a heavy manufacturing environment
Must have experience working in a forging operation or Job shop manufacturing environment
Must have previous experience / best practices implementing and using continuous improvement tools such as lean, 6-S, Six Sigma, etc.,
Must have experience with quality systems and standards like ISO 9001 and AS9100
Must have servant leadership profile
Must have a proven track record in continuous improvement and development of people
Must be willing to relocate and travel

We searched the entire U.S. heavy manufacturing industry for servant leaders who had spent time managing within a mature business system, beginning in the forging industry and then combing through Extruders, Machine Shops, Foundries, Mills & Melt Shops until we ultimately identified 342 prospective leaders who met a majority of the criteria. We contacted all of these 342 leaders, identified the best-of-the-best and submitted 22 people into the multi stage, extremely thorough hiring process. The search was completed in 4 months and the Plant Manager who was hired is continuing to make a HUGE impact in their organization to this day.

Again in 2017, we were tasked to find another premier Plant Manager, due to the first Plant Manager being promoted. However, this time we were told we needed to identify all new prospects, and each candidate must have forging experience.

So again, we started in the forging industry, where we have identified over 400 operations in the U.S., which are doing some type of forging process in house.

First, we searched the Open Die and/or Ring Rolling forge shops that were job shops.
Next, we expanded the search to included closed die press shops that were job shops.
Then we searched all of the remaining forge shops in the U.S. –non job shop forgers, Hammer shops, Upsetters, Radial Forgers, etc.
Finally, we searched through the Foundries, Machine Shops, Heat Treaters, Mills & Melt shops across the U.S.

The type of candidates we evaluated included:

Vice Presidents
General Managers
Plant Managers
Plant Leaders
Directors of Operations
Directors of Manufacturing
Manufacturing Managers
Operations Managers
Area Managers
Directors of Continuous Improvement

The total number of leaders from heavy manufacturers across the U.S. who we individually filtered through in 2017, exceeded 3,000 people.

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

Must have Servant Leadership profile
Must have a collaborative leadership style
Must have prior P & L experience of at least 50 Million
Must have management experience in a job shop
Must have prior experience managing a team of 100+
Must be a hands-on Manager that gets out on the shop floor
Must be able to communicate well with shop floor team members as well as upper management
Must have previous experience using continuous improvement tools such as Lean, TPS, 6-s, Six Sigma, TOC, etc.,
Must have experience with continuous improvement projects like SMED, scrap reduction, downtime labor utilization, etc.
Must have previous experience leading Kaizen events
Must be metrics driven Manager (KPI’s, OEE, etc.)
Strongly prefer prior experience with Forging, Casting or Extrusion
Must have experience with value added processes like Machining and Heat Treating
Must not have history of job hopping
Must be willing to work 6 days a week at 55+ hrs per week.
Must have prior experience with quality systems and standards like ISO 9001, AS9100 & NADCAP
Must fit with the unique company culture
Must be able/willing to relocate
Must be proficient with Microsoft Office
Bachelor’s degree required
Master's degree strongly preferred

We ultimately identified 225 prospective candidates who we believed might be qualified across the U.S. manufacturing industry and placed them on our call plan. Our initial criteria were degreed individuals who’ve held Sr. level leadership positions at manufacturing companies with good business systems. Once we got them on the phone, we evaluated their education, managerial experience, servant leadership skills, continuous improvement experience, compensation expectations, willingness to relocate, etc.

From the 225 people we spoke with:

9 candidates were submitted & phone interviewed
6 candidates were brought onsite for the Initial Panel Interview
2 candidates were brought onsite for the Final Panel Interview

In 4 months we had again identified, attracted, thoroughly screened, successfully hired and relocated another premier Plant Manager.

Your business can find success with Laminin Corp's trusted recruiting process. CONTACT US today to learn more!