Business Manager

Description

Job Summary

The Business Manager is the primary operations support leader for a defined production area. This role partners with the Area Manager and Shift Leaders to translate plant objectives into staffing, scheduling, cost, and performance plans. The Business Manager focuses on people, planning, and performance analytics, enabling front-line leaders to run safe, stable, and efficient operations across all shifts.

Key Responsibilities

1. Safety, Culture & Compliance

• Support a zero-injury culture by ensuring accurate staffing plans for safety-critical work, required training completion, and adherence to plant/Corporate policies.
• Help track and analyze safety metrics (RIR/LWDC, SOT completion, safety concerns) and support follow-up on actions.

• Own headcount and shift staffing plans for the area (regular, OT, vacations, leaves, training), aligned to volume and budget.
• Maintain and update flex charts, JIT training status, and rotation plans so Shift Leaders and Group Leaders have the right skills available on each shift.
• Support weekend and shutdown staffing and work-list planning in partnership with Maintenance, ME, and Production.

• Partner with Area Manager/Shift Leaders on talent planning: succession, development plans, HRM inputs, HRM tracker updates, and calibration prep.
• Coordinate required people-related actions (e.g., job moves, relevels, schedule changes) in Workday and local trackers in partnership with HR/LR.
• Help ensure new leaders and employees have onboarding plans, JIT training, and required baseline knowledge completed.

• Support budget management for the area (labor, overtime, scrap/rework, consumables) by preparing forecasts, tracking actuals, and highlighting variances.
• Build and maintain SPQRCE/MEI and productivity dashboards for the area; provide daily/weekly reports for leadership huddles and HRM.
• Identify and quantify cost-reduction and productivity opportunities; track benefits of implemented improvements.

• Coordinate area-level GMS/TIP routines: BPD boards, metric updates, problem-solving follow-up, and audit schedules.
• Standardize and maintain administrative standard work (reports, trackers, meeting cadences) to support consistency across shifts and leaders.

• Act as the central coordination point for Area Manager across shifts: consolidate issues, actions, and plans from all shifts into a single view.
• Prepare content for plant and sector forums (e.g., area updates for staff meetings, HRM, WOC/talent decks, special project readouts).
• Provide assistance in analyzing and solving complex operational problems using data, and help establish recommendations and plans to complete key projects.

• Postsecondary education in Business, Operations, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience in manufacturing operations support.
• Experience in high-volume manufacturing, preferably in a people-leader or operations support role (e.g., GL/TL, planning, or CI).
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in Excel and common reporting tools; comfort working with SPQRCE/MEI, labor, and budget data.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with front-line leaders, influence without direct authority, and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Effective communication and relationship-building skills across production, HR/LR, ME, Maintenance, Quality, GSC, and Finance.