09/04/2026
The last person who held this position before me gave me only one piece of advice:
“You’ll find out.”
I did.
If you are seriously considering taking this Plant Manager position, there are a few things I would tell you before you say yes.
I am not telling you not to take it.
I am telling you to make sure you understand what the job really is before you let the title, salary, or promises pull you in.
The first thing you need to understand is that this job can very quickly become a situation where you are responsible for everything and in control of very little.
Do not accept that.
If you are going to run the plant, then make sure you are actually allowed to run the plant.
Get the chain of command in writing.
You should answer directly to the President and only to the President when it comes to plant operations.
You do not need three or four people changing priorities, questioning staffing decisions, giving conflicting instructions, or overruling you and then blaming you when the results are bad.
That setup will eventually burn you.
When I was operating the plant under complete autonomy, the job worked because I knew what I was responsible for and I had the authority to deal with it.
That is the only way I would recommend anyone take this position.
If you are responsible for production, quality, labor efficiency, shipping, scheduling, and plant performance, then you need full authority over the people doing the work.
That means hiring.
That means discipline.
That means termination.
And that means replacing people when they are no longer productive.
Do not let anyone tell you that you are responsible for the output of the plant while also telling you that you cannot replace employees who are unreliable, nonproductive, or simply not capable of doing the job.
That is responsibility without authority, and it is one of the fastest ways to get set up for failure.
You also need to protect your time.
This job will take hours.
There is no way around that.
But there is a difference between putting in the time needed to run the plant and allowing the job to consume every hour of your life.
I would not recommend taking this position unless you have the right to set your own schedule based on what the plant actually needs.
A normal week should be somewhere between 44 and 50 hours.
There will be times when you go over that.
Breakdowns happen.
Customers have emergencies.
People call out.
Production goes sideways.
That is part of running a plant.
But if 55 or 60 hours every week becomes normal, then the plant is understaffed, badly structured, or both.
Do not let excessive hours become the substitute for fixing those problems.
The same applies to being on call.
A true emergency is one thing.
Being expected to answer every minor question at all hours is another.
You should not be the permanent answer to every staffing problem, production question, or routine issue that should have been handled during the day.
Make sure that expectation is clear before you take the job.
Now let me tell you the biggest thing I would watch carefully.
Sales and revenue.
This position is production.
It is not sales.
Do not let anyone blur that line.
Your job is to take the work the company sells and run it through the plant efficiently.
Your job is to control labor.
Your job is to control waste.
Your job is to control overtime.
Your job is to control quality, rework, scheduling, and delivery.
Your job is not to create customers out of thin air.
Your job is not to make up for missing salespeople.
Your job is not to somehow produce $150,000 worth of work when the company only puts $85,000 worth of work in front of you.
That is not a production problem.
That is a sales problem.
And do not let anybody convince you otherwise.
If they want to judge you on production, fine.
Judge you on how efficiently the work gets done.
Judge you on whether it ships on time.
Judge you on scrap, rework, overtime, labor efficiency, and quality.
Those are things you can control.
But do not accept responsibility for missing revenue that never made it through the front door.
You also need to be careful with the word "profitability."
Yes, the Plant Manager absolutely affects profitability.
You control a lot of the cost side.
You can waste labor or use it well.
You can control overtime.
You can reduce scrap.
You can keep rework down.
You can manage scheduling.
You can run a tight operation.
All of that matters.
But you cannot keep a company profitable if the company is not selling enough work.
So make sure that distinction is understood.
Your responsibility should be to run the plant profitably on the work provided.
Not to generate the work itself.
Another thing I would insist on is adequate staffing.
Do not let vacant positions just disappear while their responsibilities slowly migrate onto your desk.
It happens gradually.
One person leaves.
You cover part of it.
Someone else leaves.
You cover some more.
Before long, you are doing three jobs while still being judged as though you are only doing one.
If a position is necessary to run the plant properly, replace it.
If the company refuses to replace necessary people, then do not let them pretend the resulting problems are your management failures.
You also need administrative support.
The Plant Manager should not spend half the day doing clerical work that should be handled by someone else.
You are there to run the plant.
That means planning, solving problems, managing people, keeping production moving, and making decisions.
If you spend your day buried in routine paperwork, phones, shipping details, and administrative tasks, then you are not being allowed to do the job you were hired to do.
Now, one thing I would strongly recommend is getting everything important in writing.
Do not rely on "you have complete autonomy."
Do not rely on "we trust your judgment."
Do not rely on "we'll take care of you."
Those statements sound good until there is a disagreement.
Get the chain of command in writing.
Get the authority in writing.
Get the work-hour expectations in writing.
Get the sales-versus-production responsibilities in writing.
Get the compensation in writing.
Get the severance terms in writing if you can negotiate them.
South Carolina is generally an at-will state.
That means you should not confuse long service or good performance with guaranteed job security.
If you want protection, negotiate it.
Do not assume it.
And pay attention to the culture around accountability.
If mistakes are handled by figuring out what happened and fixing the problem, you can work with that.
If mistakes are handled by finding someone to blame, then protect yourself.
Keep records.
Document important decisions.
Document when you are overruled.
Document when you ask for staffing and do not receive it.
Document when production targets are not supported by enough sold work.
You do not have to become paranoid.
You do need to be able to show what actually happened if things go bad.
Most importantly, do not take the job because you think you can save everything by working harder than everyone else.
That will work for a while.
It may even work for years.
But eventually the job will take whatever you are willing to give it.
Set boundaries early.
Make the expectations clear.
Make sure you have the authority to do what they are asking you to do.
And remember this:
If they want you to be responsible for the plant, then they need to let you manage the plant.
If they want you responsible for productivity, they need to let you manage the workforce.
If they want production targets met, they need to provide the work.
If they want profitability, they need both sales and efficient production.
And if they want one person to carry the responsibility for all of it, then that person should have the authority, compensation, and respect that comes with that responsibility.
That is what I would want someone to tell me before I sat down in that chair.
One more thing: look carefully at the compensation structure before you accept the title.
Many of the hourly employees are earning $25 an hour or more, and some will make considerably more with overtime.
There is nothing wrong with skilled hourly employees being paid well.
But if you are going to accept responsibility for those employees, the production they generate, the quality of their work, staffing decisions, scheduling, shipping, customer deadlines, plant performance, and the problems that happen after everyone else goes home, then your compensation needs to reflect that difference in responsibility.
Do not accept a management title that pays only marginally more than the people you are expected to manage while exposing you to dramatically greater responsibility, longer hours, and greater personal accountability.
The title does not pay the bills.
The responsibility should.
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