Production Manager
G&W Display Fixtures, Inc.
Bronson, MI
Full-Time | Salaried/Exempt | Bonus Potential
Schedule: 40+ hours per week
Travel: Less than 10%
Pay: DOE
About G&W Display Fixtures
G&W Display Fixtures, Inc. is a custom manufacturing company located in Bronson, Michigan. We produce retail display fixtures, custom casework, metal components, assemblies, and related manufacturing solutions for retail and commercial customers.
We are seeking an experienced Production Manager to lead our full production department. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who understands custom manufacturing, can manage shifting priorities, and can keep people, materials, equipment, and customer commitments moving in the right direction.
Position Summary
The Production Manager serves as the operational leader for the Production Department. This position is responsible for directing daily manufacturing activities, establishing production priorities, coordinating cross-functional efforts, developing employees, supporting customer commitments, and ensuring products move through production safely, efficiently, and on schedule.
This role oversees fabrication, assembly, workflow, labor assignment, quality, safety, material movement, equipment coordination, and shop-floor follow-through. Experience with laser cutting, cobot welding cells, robotic welding, or production automation is a plus, but this is not a laser-only or automation-only position.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee daily operations of the full production department, including fabrication, assembly, workflow, labor coordination, quality, safety, equipment readiness, and shop-floor follow-through.
- Establish, maintain, and adjust daily and weekly production schedules to ensure customer delivery commitments are met, balancing labor availability, material constraints, equipment capacity, and changing priorities.
- Assign labor, set priorities, monitor production progress, and resolve obstacles affecting schedule, quality, safety, throughput, staffing, or customer commitments.
- Supervise, coach, train, and hold employees accountable for productivity, attendance, quality, safety, housekeeping, teamwork, and workplace expectations.
- Coordinate production priorities with Executive Leadership, Sales, Engineering, Purchasing, Warehouse, Finishing, Shipping, customers, and other departments as needed to support project launches, schedule changes, production concerns, and delivery expectations.
- Review work orders, job travelers, drawings, cut lists, material requirements, specifications, and production instructions to ensure work is properly understood, staged, completed, inspected, and moved through production.
- Maintain quality expectations throughout production, including first-piece checks, in-process inspections, rework prevention, documentation accuracy, and final production readiness.
- Support safe and effective operation of production equipment, including laser cutting systems, automation technologies, cobot welding cells, and related manufacturing processes.
- Identify and resolve production problems, staffing needs, training gaps, equipment concerns, bottlenecks, rework issues, process inefficiencies, and workflow constraints.
- Coordinate maintenance activities and equipment repairs by working directly with maintenance personnel, outside contractors, and vendors to minimize production disruptions.
- Coordinate purchasing activities related to production operations, including shop consumables, tooling, equipment, specialty materials, vendor selection, quotation review, and capital equipment recommendations.
- Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers and service providers to support production requirements, maintenance activities, equipment procurement, and operational improvements.
- Review and approve employee time records and support attendance administration processes, including documentation related to vacation requests, appointments, and attendance policies.
- Participate in safety committee initiatives, incident investigations, OSHA-related activities, corrective actions, and continuous improvement efforts supporting a safe work environment.
- Support physical inventory activities, cycle counting initiatives, and production-related inventory accuracy efforts.
- Maintain production records, job status updates, employee-related documentation, and other required shop-floor information.
- Promote a clean, organized, safe, and efficient production environment focused on customer satisfaction and manufacturing performance.
- Perform all other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience in a custom fabrication, metal manufacturing, or make-to-order environment preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to directly supervise employees, manage daily production priorities, and maintain accountability in a manufacturing setting.
- Ability to oversee multiple production functions and coordinate work across departments.
- Ability to read and understand drawings, tolerances, material specifications, work orders, cut lists, and job travelers.
- Working knowledge of production scheduling, labor planning, material flow, quality control, safety practices, equipment coordination, and production documentation.
- Strong practical problem-solving, communication, computer, documentation, and follow-through skills.
- Ability to commute or relocate to Bronson, MI.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with laser cutting, cobot welding cells, robotic welding, production automation, or related advanced manufacturing equipment is a plus.
Ideal Candidate
The right candidate will be comfortable leading approximately 10–25 employees in a custom manufacturing environment. This person should be able to read prints, solve practical production problems, communicate clearly, support customer commitments, work with vendors, coordinate priorities across departments, and maintain accountability without losing fairness or professionalism.
We are looking for someone who is safety-minded, mechanically inclined, organized, and able to lead from the shop floor.
Competencies
- Leadership presence with the ability to set expectations, maintain accountability, and earn respect on the shop floor.
- Strong production judgment with the ability to make timely decisions in a custom manufacturing environment.
- Organized and able to balance changing priorities, competing deadlines, labor needs, and customer commitments.
- Communicates clearly and professionally with production employees, leadership, support departments, customers, and vendors.
- Quality-minded with a focus on preventing rework, improving consistency, and meeting customer expectations.
- Safety-minded with the ability to model safe work practices and support a clean, controlled, and compliant work environment.
- Fair, consistent, and direct in coaching, training, correcting, and developing employees.
- Continuous improvement mindset with a focus on efficiency, workflow, equipment utilization, and stronger production performance.
Physical Requirements
- Ability to sit, stand, walk, bend, reach, lift, and move throughout the facility during the workday.
- Able to lift up to 50 pounds as needed.
- Ability to move throughout production areas, including fabrication, assembly, warehouse, finishing, shipping, laser operations, and cobot welding cell areas.
- Ability to work safely around manufacturing equipment, forklifts, carts, tools, sharp materials, laser equipment, cobot welding cells, and general shop-floor activity.
- Ability to use required PPE and visually inspect parts, drawings, and production documentation for quality and safety concerns.
Work Environment
This position works in a manufacturing, production, warehouse, office, and shop-floor environment with exposure to noise, equipment, forklifts, tools, dust, fumes, welding activity, packaging materials, varying temperatures, finishing operations, metal fabrication, laser cutting equipment, cobot welding cells, and other manufacturing-related hazards.
Equal Employment Opportunity
G&W Display Fixtures, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, experience, business needs, performance, and ability to perform the essential functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $50,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
