Production Manager Resumes & Guide

Throwing your hat into the Production Manager talent pool, looking for a new opportunity? Pause for a sec and review our comprehensive Production Manager Resume samples and resume write-up below. We have selected examples, types, templates, and job description content to assist you in creating a top-notch resume document.

Production Managers are in responsible for overseeing manufacturing processes and managing production workers that require careful planning, exceptional quality control, and managing resources (workers, capital, equipment, time) to deliver a predetermined output.

We have included examples, tips, templates, and job description content to assist you in creating a top-notch resume document.  Use the guideline below as a resume process plan, enabling you to craft a fantastic resume that scores a cut above the rest of the candidates and land you that dream job.

Production Manager Resume Examples

(Free Pdf downloads are at the bottom of this page)

Production Manager Resume Writing Guide

Resume Sections

1. Contact Information:
Include personal particulars like First Name, Last Name, current job title, a valid phone number, and a professional email address at the top of the first page. Add business social media URL’s too, for example, Joomla or Linkedin.

2. Career Summary:
View this as the initial pitch to your resume, including competencies, achievements, experience, and skills. Write this section last and stick to one paragraph of between three and six sentences.

3. Education/Accreditations/Certifications:
As a minimum, Production Managers need a completed Bachelor’s degree typically in Industrial Engineering or other Engineering disciplines. Master's degrees in Business Management or Production Management are required by some companies out there. Apart from formal degrees, certifications and accreditations related to the production function or the specific industry that you are working in will do wonders for your suitability rating. Give up-to-date info regarding details of the qualifications and certifications you have completed and qualifications currently in process.

4. Relevant Production Management Experience:
The emphasis of your experience write-up should be on increasing efficiencies, planning, organizing, developing, and systemizing operations, and making sound decisions under pressure. List the last decade of experience with substantiating job duties in bullet point format under each job you have held. Remember that resumes these days are 1–2 pages in length, therefore, stick to information that is relevant to the post you are applying for.

5. Other Employment Experience:
If you are applying for your first role as a production manager, it would be helpful to include a timeline showcasing your career progression (again, only go back 10 years). Many production managers start as line workers and work their way up the corporate ladder into first-line supervisors or production process leaders. You may also be part of a graduate trainee program straight from a university where you are groomed into a production manager role within a period of 18 to 36 months. Be specific about your career journey up to now.

6. Skills Summary/Key Skills:
The most productive and efficient way to present critical skills and competencies is via a skills' matrix, replicating the required vital skills and traits mentioned in the job advertisement. This strategy is called resume SEO and will ensure that your resume is not declined by ATS screening AI and automated ‘’bot’’ recruiting and response handling applications.

What to Highlight in a Production Manager Resume

Production Managers are classified as key staff members to organizations, regardless of industry type or facility size. The primary purpose of a Production Manager is to ensure optimum productivity by leveraging on smart efficiencies to attain maximum output and performance by effectively using company resources (workers, funds, equipment).

With that said, there are specific aspects of your resume to highlight when sending in an application.

As an opening statement, provide details about the companies you have worked for previously in terms of size (number of employees and facilities), turnover, geographic exposure and entity type (public, private, government). Production Managers typically work in the following manufacturing industries: Food Components, Chemicals, Metal Fabrication, Machinery and Heavy Equipment, Mining, Oil& Gas, Electrical and Electronics, Pharmaceutical, Aerospace, and Defense. As you can see, this is quite a variety, so be sure to mention if you are responsible for a section in a facility, or perhaps accountable for one product line’s operations. Also include details on the facility size by square meters and also the production output, for example, the number of products/components manufactured in a month.

Secondly, clarify the production process followed. There are three main categories:

• Job Production: If you are overseeing product manufacturing by following specified customer orders and requirements, you are probably adept at job production manufacturing. Technical knowledge regarding customization and efficiencies related to non-standardized or heterogeneous products and components would be aspects that line managers would want to see on your resume. Provide detailed information regarding the specialized equipment or materials manufacturing lines that you oversee and manage.

• Batch Production: Repetitive production of the same products and goods of which the output quantities are known before they are produced, is referred to as batch production. If you are employed by a consumer goods company manufacturing food items or personal hygiene items, you are in a batch production environment. The same goes for pharmaceutical products or medical sundry items. Managers would look for experience in overseeing part of a production process to manufacture components or pieces that will be used to assemble final products together with other elements and pieces from the production lines operating in the plant. Experience in batch planning, monitoring actual output against target output and meticulous quality control strategies (because the products are standardized) are some of the items to highlight in your resume.

• Mass or Flow Production: If shift work, 24/7 operations, and continuous production sound familiar to you, you are typically working in an on-line mass production setting where products, goods, and materials are continuously being produced without pause (hopefully). Exceptional prioritization and monitoring skills will be of interest to hiring managers because a production manager in this environment needs to plan for preventative maintenance of equipment and pro-active servicing of machinery all to avoid downtime or unexpected shutdowns. Planned shutdowns are also part of your job description in this field, and this exercise involves exceptional facilitating and juggling abilities to have one part of the plant in limbo and another part doubling up on production while maintenance is being done. You can mention the number of shutdowns you are responsible for per year (the planned ones of course) and also the fact that emergency or unexpected shutdowns are kept to the minimum.

Next, comes the purpose of your role or position scope. Production Managers have to take accountability for resource allocation of materials, labor, equipment, and capital to meet predetermined production targets. Elaborate further regarding your scheduling and project management skills as well as mitigating and reducing risks in terms of health and safety incidents, machine breakage, or suppliers not meeting delivery demands. A production manager has to multitask all the time, and this is the perfect opportunity to explain to recruiters how well you can juggle a multitude to functions and responsibilities. You should also mention experience in budget estimations, negotiating service level agreements and collaborating with sales, and marketing departments to adjust delivery time scales I required.

Leadership and management tenure are up next. What is the size of the team that you are responsible for? Where do you find candidates to recruit and hire? What kind of training and professional development opportunities to you provide to your staff? How do you motivate and inspire your subordinates? What kind of performance evaluation and disciplinary processes do you have in place? All these questions relate to managerial adeptness and coordinating multiple stakeholders to generate the required production output determined by executive management.

*Cool Tip for a stellar resume

With the Fourth Industrial Revolutions forcing companies to adopt and adapt to technology innovation and automation, Production Managers are expected to know their way around tools and tech to stay in the game. Why not present your systems and digital savviness in a matrix format to ensure that recruiters and hiring manager can immediately see the level of digital literacy and applications you have worked within the past?

Tools & Tech

Production Manager Career Summary & Examples

Engineering VP’s, CEO’s, and Operations Director are the typical hiring authorities on Production Manager roles. Your resume needs to be ‘’dressed for success’’ to catch their attention from a pool of candidates who are just as qualified as you are. The first impression of a resume is formed in 30 seconds which is the time they will spend on reading your career summary. Generic stereotyping, presenting yourself as flexible, dynamic and hardworking just won’t make the cut.

Think of your career summary as the ‘’production plan’’ of your resume presenting your candidacy as the best choice to be instrumental in assisting the company to achieve its goals and long term profit objectives. A captivating career summary has a few distinctive features:

• Short and to the point
• Filled with action verbs and adjectives
• Includes prominent technical and leadership qualities
• Matched interpersonal skills with those listed on the job advertisement
• Mentions the highest qualifications and credentials
• Is one paragraph containing 3 to 6 sentences

Production Manager Career Summaries:

Career Summary 1

Certified Production Manager with a Six Sigma Black Belt and seven years experience in highly regulated automotive settings. Passionate about zero defect rankings achieved by upholding strict quality assurance and audit processes. Proven record of increasing operational efficiencies with innovative automation methodologies, while still maintaining sustainable employee headcount avoiding downsizing and layoffs. Attained a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering and is fluent in English and German.

Career Summary 2

Detail orientated Production Manager with proven tenure in developing new processes to boost production accuracy and improve efficiencies within quality control and safety regulations. Achieved a clean audit year on year for the past decade and is an accredited member of the Food Production Safety Council for medium-sized factories in the state of Wisconsin. Holds Certified Supply Chain Professional, as well as Certified Manager status via APICS.

Career Summary 3

Tenured Production Management professional highly adept in implementing Kanban, Lean Manufacturing, SPC and Kaizen strategies in large scale industrial engineering settings. Proven track record of reducing input costs while simultaneously improving production and performance output on assembly lines. Exemplary leadership skills and managerial ability to coach mentor and motivate line workers, shop stewards and production supervisors in dynamic, multiline facilities. Currently completing a Masters Degree in Production Management & Engineering Technologies and a long term member of APICS.

Production Manager Job Descriptions & Examples

How you detail your work tenure in a  Production Manager resume will significantly influence the probability in landing an interview for that dream role. Always think about what the one question every  hiring manager or recruiter will have at the back of their mind: “Will this candidate be a benefit to our company and be instrumental in achieving our goals and objectives?”

Production Managers can work in many different sectors, but we have chosen a few example job descriptions to get the ball rolling for you.

Example Job Descriptions

A Production Manager in Heavy Manufacturing Environment may:

• Plan, organize, supervise and implement lean manufacturing procedures following standard industry regulations and quality assurance methods
• Responsible for supervising production and administrative staff and monitor the allocation of machine time to each worker per shift
• Analyze product statistics and prepare production budgets and timelines every week
• Accountable for forecasting and planning of overhead expenditures and approving all in factory purchase requisitions as well as amendments to supplier agreements
• Conduct weekly actual vs. planned production output comparisons to identify opportunities to boost efficiencies with new process technologies
• Oversee that all quality and safety protocols are followed from the beginning to the end of each production process
• Designed training curriculums to upskill and reskill workers being affected by increased automation activities at the plant
• Approve Quality Risk Management Process Audit reports and present them to the engineering manager every month
• Organize production line assemblies in accordance to lean manufacturing principles

A Production Manager in a Food Manufacturing Environment may:

• Source local and regional vendors to negotiate better terms regarding pricing and delivery time frames to reduce capital expenditure
• Decrease active inventory levels with JIT and KANBAN inventory system adaptations
• Analyze productivity metrics and implemented corrective measures to improve product defect scores as well as reducing delays because of machine shutdowns
• Responsible for managing and facilitating cross-training for a team of 100 plant workers and 15 administrative staff members
• Streamline production processes to achieve increased production targets during the holiday seasons without additional input costs
• Instrumental in the conversion of batch manufacturing to demand flow manufacturing for all the product lines in the factory
• Liaise with R&D, quality control and engineering departments to address issues and concerns regarding the production status of each product line

An Industrial Production Manager may:

• Allocate human resources, as well as equipment resources to best meet production goals
• Responsible for maintaining schedules and stay within budget limits
• Recruit, hire, train and evaluate production workers
• Generate and analyze daily production metrics and write weekly reports regarding input and output performance progress
• Oversee all health and safety aspects in the plant and ensure that quality assurance is on par with industry regulations and company policies
• Actively collaborate with product development staff and engineers to identify opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness
• Conduct machine audits to determine which machines are obsolete and whether new equipment should be purchased to meet production demands
• Carry out quality control programs and specifications to cross-check samples of finished products for defects and error margins
• Collaborate with the purchasing department for procuring equipment, machinery and sundry items required in the plant
• Communicate frequently with other departments such as sales, research, design, and warehousing to ensure that project timelines and delivery schedules will be met

Highlight Your Accomplishments

The job of a Production Manager is all about increasing efficiency which entails maximized output in performance for the percentage input in terms of resources. Apply this efficiency principle to your accomplishments section.

Hiring managers would want to know how you influenced production, performance, input, and output to maximize profits. Present your accomplishment statements concisely and quantified, meaning add metrics, numerical values, scores, and percentages to each statement.

Creating an accomplishment statement is as simple as 1,2,3….feature, benefit, quantification

1. Feature: What have you done that sets you apart, what you are most proud of?
2. Benefit: How did you add value for the company by your actions? Did you decrease expenditure, increase profit, boost morale, improve turnover, save time?
3. Quantification: Provide proof by adding time frames, percentages, numbers, metrics, scores, or dollar values:

Examples:

• Direct high-speed manufacturing processes of more than 10 product lines per month, maintaining a sustained productivity improvement of 35% during the last six months after implementing Kaizen Manufacturing Principles
• Analyzed project processes to track expenditure and developed cost improvement measures, that reduced overhead production costs by 13% per month
• Continuously maintained an on-time shipping record of 97% since implementing JIT and Lean Manufacturing strategies
• Responsible for behavioral-based safety training of all new production workers that reduced human error in the first 30 days to almost zero percent
• Upheld a 28% revenue uptick by increasing production staff with only 10% per annum

Production Manager Education Section & Example

The education section of a Production Manager resume should be filled with qualifications and certifications relevant to their field of work. Education and credentials are important aspects of a resume application because they show prospective employers that the candidate has a solid theoretical background gained during their academic career, but also that the person is willing to learn about new concepts and ideas via continuous professional development activities.

The format for listing qualifications and credentials is quite simple: Commencement date plus completion date, then qualification/certification/ title, followed by institution and location. Remember to include current qualifications you are in the process of completing.

Below is an example of a Production Manager Resume’s education:

2018 – Current Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, California University, Orange County, CA

2016-2018 Masters in Industrial Engineering, University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN

2014 – CSCP – Certified Supply Chain Professional, APICS, Chicago, IL

2013 -Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), APICS, Chicago, IL

2013 – Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, American Association for Quality (ASQ), Milwaukee, WI

2012 – Member, Association for Operations Management, Flint, MI

2011 Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (BSIE), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Production Manager Resume Skills

The production management field requires a combination of asset management skills of the machine, systems, and process, and humankind that is. Use the required traits and technical knowledge aspects as listed in the job description to create an eye-grabbing resume skills section. Furthermore, ditch the long dull list of bulleted skills and present your professional tenure and interpersonal skills in a tabular format such as the ones below.

The aim is to showcase the types of skills that indicate to your fitness as a Production Manager with adequate technical knowledge, excellent leadership skills, and sufficient working experience who will add value to the business.

Technical Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Qualifications/Certifications associated with Production Managers

Professional information of Production Managers

Sectors: Food Production, Consumer Goods, Medical Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Services & Solutions, Oil & Gas Exploration, Chemicals Manufacturing, Mining & Minerals, Agriculture, Automotive, Electrical & Power Transmission, Equipment & Machine Manufacturing
Career Type: Production Management, Process Management Staff Management, Project Management Business Management,
Person type:  Leader, Motivator, Reviewer, Coordinator, Implementer, Planner,
Education levels: Bachelor’s Degree and upwards
Salary indication: From $21,000 and $153,000 depending on experience and company size (*Indeed)
Labor market: Estimated 91% from 2018 – 2028 dependent on the industry category (*bls.com)
Organizations: Small, Medium, Corporate, Fortune 500, Government, Multinational, NPO

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