Role Purpose:
The Plant Manager is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to ensure the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of the manufacturing plant. The role has end-to-end accountability for achieving production, financial, and operational performance targets by optimizing plant profitability, asset reliability, supply chain integration, quality, safety, and people performance.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Financial Accountability (Enhance Plant Operations)
Own the overall profitability of the Plant by delivering agreed financial targets including operating profit, production cost, and Earning Before Income Tax (EBIT) contribution.
Develop, manage, and control the Plant's annual operating (OPEX) and capital (CAPEX) budgets.
Drive cost optimization initiatives across labour, raw materials, utilities, maintenance, logistics, and overheads without compromising safety or quality.
Monitor production cost per metric ton and implement corrective actions to improve cost competitiveness.
Lead financial performance reviews and implement actions to close budget variances.
Supply Chain Integration
Lead the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process at Plant level to ensure alignment between production, procurement, inventory, and customer demand.
Collaborate with Procurement to optimize supplier performance, raw material availability, and inventory costs.
Partner with Commercial teams to ensure customer service levels and production priorities are aligned with business requirements.
Optimize inventory turnover while minimizing obsolete and slow-moving inventory.
Ensure production planning supports business growth while maximizing plant capacity utilization.
Data-Driven Performance Management
Develop and monitor Plant performance dashboards.
Drive daily, weekly, and monthly performance reviews using operational KPIs.
Conduct root cause analysis on production losses, downtime, quality deviations, customer complaints, and cost overruns.
Utilize data analytics to identify trends and drive informed operational decisions.
Ensure actions arising from performance reviews are implemented and tracked to closure
Asset Reliability Management
Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance strategies.
Drive equipment reliability programmes that maximize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Develop long-term asset replacement and lifecycle management plans.
Improve Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) while reducing Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
Ensure maintenace projects improve plant reliability and production capability.
Energy & Sustainability
Lead initiatives to reduce energy, water, steam, compressed air, and fuel consumption.
Drive utility cost optimization programmes.
Champion waste reduction, recycling, and environmental sustainability initiatives.
Ensure compliance with environmental regulations and corporate sustainability targets.
Improve overall resource utilization across the plant.
Risk Management & Business Continuity
Develop and maintain the Plant Risk Register.
Conduct operational risk assessments and implement mitigation plans.
Lead emergency preparedness and crisis response programmes.
Ensure Business Continuity Plans are regularly reviewed and tested.
Protect the plant from operational, regulatory, financial and supply chain risks.
Leadership & Culture
Foster a high-performance culture built on accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Drive employee engagement initiatives that improve productivity and retention.
Build leadership capability through coaching and mentoring.
Develop succession plans for critical roles within the Plant.
Promote a culture aligned with business values and ethical standards.
Continuous Improvement
Lead Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, TPM, and PaTaMu initiatives to improve productivity, quality, safety, and cost efficiency.
Deliver measurable annual cost savings through continuous improvement projects.
Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Yield, Waste Reduction, and Labour Productivity through structured improvement initiatives
Stakeholder Management
Build effective relationships with customers, suppliers, contractors, regulators, auditors, and government agencies.
Represent the Plant during customer audits and regulatory inspections.
Ensure contractors comply with safety, quality, and operational standards.
Collaborate with corporate functions including Finance, HR, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, Engineering, and Quality to achieve business objectives.
Job Requirements
Minimum Requirements
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering/Food Science or related field.
Minimum eight (8) years' experience in production management and plant operations, four (4) of which should be at senior management level.
Knowledge of production planning and control with ERP - Understanding of SAP production module an added advantage.
Understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements in feed milling operations.
Good understanding of Food Safety Management Systems and experience in their application in the food industry - Knowledge and good understanding of ISO 22000
Basic knowledge of milling principles and equipment is preferred
Good understanding of Continual Improvement Methodology
Good understanding of Financial Management
Good understanding of Supply Chain Operations and Management
Computer proficiency in Ms Office suite of applications.