| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Production |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Plant Head |
| Direct reports | Production Manager, PPC Manager, Industrial Engineer, Assistant Production Manager |
| Experience | 15+ years in manufacturing, the last 5 or more spent heading production for a multi-department plant |
General Manager Production job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: General Manager Production
Department: Production
Reports to: Plant Head
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The General Manager Production heads the production function of a large plant or a group of production blocks. They turn the annual business plan into capacity, manpower and cost targets, lead the production managers and the PPC team, and answer to the plant head for output, conversion cost, productivity and delivery. A strong GM Production builds a team that meets plan month after month without firefighting, and runs the improvement projects that bring cost down every year.
Key responsibilities
- Translate the annual operating plan into monthly capacity, manpower and production budgets for each production block or department.
- Approve the monthly production plan prepared by PPC, and settle conflicts between sales priorities, material availability and machine capacity.
- Lead weekly reviews with production managers on output, OEE, rejection, downtime and schedule adherence, and name an owner for every gap.
- Plan the year's manpower, including headcount by skill, shift patterns, overtime limits and the intake of trainees and apprentices.
- Drive improvement programmes such as TPM, lean line balancing and SMED to raise productivity and cut conversion cost.
- Prepare capital proposals for new machines, automation and capacity additions, with payback workings for plant leadership.
- Work with the quality and maintenance heads to close customer complaints, repeat breakdowns and audit findings that start in production.
- Build succession for production managers and shift leaders through job rotation, training and structured feedback.
- Maintain shop floor industrial relations with the plant HR manager, including productivity settlements and serious discipline matters.
- Present production performance, cost variance and improvement savings to the plant head and management every month.
Requirements
- BE or BTech in Mechanical, Production, Chemical or Industrial Engineering
- MBA in Operations or a PG diploma in industrial management is an advantage
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or formal TPM training is an advantage
- 15+ years in manufacturing, the last 5 or more spent heading production for a multi-department plant
KRAs and KPIs for a General Manager Production
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Plan achievement | Monthly production plan achieved at 97 percent or more across all blocks |
| Conversion cost | Conversion cost per unit brought down by the yearly reduction agreed in the budget |
| Equipment effectiveness | OEE on bottleneck machines raised to the year's target, reviewed every month |
| Customer delivery | On time in full delivery of 95 percent or more for production-driven orders |
| Improvement savings | Savings from kaizen and projects, verified by finance, meet the annual savings target |
| Team capability | A trained successor named for every production manager position by year end |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: SAP PP or Oracle manufacturing modules, Power BI or Excel dashboards, OEE monitoring system, MS Project for capex projects, Minitab.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Plant Head, Head of Manufacturing, Vice President Manufacturing
Interview questions for a General Manager Production
- OEE on your bottleneck line has been flat for a year. What would you do in your first 90 days?
- How do you weigh an urgent sales request against a production plan already frozen for the week?
- Walk me through a capex proposal you made. How did you justify the payback?
- How do you set overtime limits for a plant without hurting delivery?
- Describe how you developed a production manager who later took on a bigger role.
- The union has asked for a productivity-linked settlement. What data would you prepare before the first meeting?
Managing a General Manager Production in ZeniaHR
Hire and manage your production team in one place
Post the role, onboard the new hire, and track attendance, leave and KRAs in ZeniaHR. Free for your first 50 employees.
Book a free demoSee pricingFrequently asked questions
What does a general manager production do?
A general manager production leads all production departments in a plant. They set capacity and manpower plans from the annual budget, approve monthly production plans, review output, OEE and cost with production managers, drive lean and TPM programmes and propose capital investments. They report to the plant head and are judged on plan achievement, conversion cost and delivery.
What is the difference between a production manager and a general manager production?
A production manager runs one department or block day to day, focusing on shifts, output and people. A general manager production owns the whole production function of a plant: annual capacity, budgets, capex, productivity programmes and the development of production managers. The GM spends more time on planning and cost than on daily shift problems.
Who reports to a general manager production?
Production managers for each block or department report to the GM Production, along with the PPC manager and the industrial engineering team in many plants. In smaller companies, works managers or shift managers may also report directly. The GM in turn reports to the plant head or the head of manufacturing.