Production Supervisor - TPI Composites, Inc

About TPI

TPI Composites is a global provider of structural composites products and has 50 years of experience in the design, development, prototyping and serial production of advanced lightweight composite structures. We specialize in molding lightweight composite products for the Automotive and Wind Energy industries.  TPI Automotive also provides a full range of services that complement our customers’ extensive vehicle engineering capability. 

Our Automotive business customer base includes new entrants and established OEMs in the passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle, and transit bus segments. We have established our Automotive business unit as a leader in composite solutions, providing our customers with lightweight structures and components that perform better than their metallic alternatives. The composites we manufacture make the vehicles more efficient through weight reduction, improved corrosion resistance, and thermal management.

Position Summary:                                       

Oversee the day-to-day operation activities including direct supervision of associates.  Daily planning, organizing, directing, motivating, problem solving and continuous improvement on the shop floor. Assure assigned team is meeting objectives in the areas of safety, quality, delivery and productivity. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Daily supervision/leading of Manufacturing Associates
• Influence safe associate behavior; set expectations for following safety procedures and safe behaviors.
• Perform as a working member of the team as necessary to meet production targets, set the pace/
• Demonstrate work methods and ensure that team members are trained to complete all tasks
•  Assign work to associates and monitor both efficiency and quality of their work
•  Ensure all work procedures are followed
•  Manage vacation and time off requests for the team
•  Ensure that the payroll records are accurate for team members via i.e. Labor Tracker
•  Deliver and participate in disciplinary activities with Human Resources
•  Participate in the interview/selection of team members
•  Attend and participate in shift hand off meetings
•  Fairly and consistently promote, enforce and reinforce all company policies
• Conduct associate performance reviews in a timely manner
• Lead team in the application of lean manufacturing tools, including 5S, Visual Management, 7 Forms of Waste, Continuous Improvement (Kaizen), Poke Yoke, and Root Cause Corrective action
• Ensure that team boards are completed accurately and on time and that metrics are utilized to develop corrective actions and drive continuous improvement.

Education/ Skills/ Experience:

Two-year degree in supervision, management, business, or a related area and 3 years of supervisory/management experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Experience in Lean manufacturing preferred
• Demonstrated leadership, engagement and mentoring skills
• Enthusiastic and possess the ability to motivate others
• Ability to maintain excellent attendance record
•  Analytical and problem-solving skills 
•  Be seen as the best source of credible information for their associates and respected by other associates.

Training Requirements:

Must attend all mandatory HR training modules such as drug testing, harassment, FMLA, positive work environment, etc.

Physical Demands:

• Ability to be on the factory floor for long periods of time.
• Potentially working across all shifts at times with the stamina to work 50+ hours per week to support plant performance.
• Work in an industrial environment where there will be exposure to elevated high heat and humidity, fiberglass dust, and hazardous chemicals.
• In a safety-sensitive, demanding, detail oriented, deadline driven environment that requires simultaneous handling of multiple priorities. 
• Lifting and carrying up to 25-50lbs.
•  Use of manual, electric, and pneumatic hand tools.
• Standing, sitting, bending, kneeling, squatting, ladder and stair climbing and occasional crawling, twisting, and lying.
• Reaching and repetitive manipulation of hands for simple grasping, pushing, and pulling.
• Wearing of personal protective equipment including, but not limited to safety glasses, gloves, protective garments, and respirators. 

Personal Qualities: (these are the qualities it takes to get the most from others)

Emotional balance: The leader works in situations which involve authority, leadership, conflicts, meeting targets and deadlines, etc. The successful leader has to be able to maintain emotional balance and self-control so that they may face various situations confidently and successfully.

Be proactive/engaging: The leaders will have some objectives to achieve. They cannot plan everything in advance. Several times they have to respond to the needs of the situation which has arisen suddenly.  The leader must also be able to have qualities such as being committed, having a missionary zeal, taking responsibility instead of passing the blame to others all while getting the team to engage and follow.

Creativity: The leader must have the ability to come up with new responses to situations.  They must have new ideas and also be able to recognize a good idea when it comes from another source.

Mental agility: The leader must have the ability to grasp problems quickly, to think of several things at the same time, and assess the whole situation quickly.  This quality is necessary for success.

Learning habits: Effective leaders are independent as learners. They take responsibility for the rightness of what is learned and are not dependent on others.

Self-knowledge: Whatever the leader does is affected by their own view of their job and role, objectives, strengths and weaknesses etc. So they must be aware of these attributes. Hence the leader must develop skills of looking at himself critically.

Managerial Skills Required: 

Technical skill: Technical skill is proficiency in a specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures or techniques (molding, components, finishing). 

Human skills: the ability to work with, understand, motivate, and communicate with associates and groups.  It also includes the ability to engage and communicate with people, to set the tone, resolve conflict, and to discipline.  Since the leader’s job involves constant interaction with people, human skills are essential.

Conceptual skills: the ability to understand abstract or general ideas and apply them to specific situations.  Conceptual skill usually means understanding how TPI can be affected by a specific activity.  Although it may not always be apparent, every action taken in an organization has ramifications elsewhere.

Diagnostic skills: is the ability to analyze the nature of a problem with people, ideas, things or events.  A good diagnosis precedes a recommended solution to a problem. Leaders routinely can be called on to size up a problem in order to take appropriate corrective action.  This skill overlaps with the other four managerial skills. This occurs because leaders usually need to use technical, human, conceptual or political skills to make their diagnosis. 

Influencing skills: the ability to acquire the power needed to achieve one’s and TPI’s objectives. Specific influencing skills include being able to win others over to your cause.

Benefits include health, dental, vision, STD/LTD, EAP, Life, PTO, 401k.