A leading automotive company is seeking an experienced Plant Manager, to be based out of their facility on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand. This position provides overall leadership and coordination across manufacturing and plant operations, supporting effective execution in areas such as production, planning, and logistics, while driving continuous improvement in safety, quality, cost, delivery, and people capability. The role plays a critical role in driving lean manufacturing, supporting new model introductions, and ensuring compliance with automotive quality and regulatory standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and oversee full plant operations including sub-assembly, welding, painting, packing, warehouse/logistics, production planning, and material planning.
- Ensure daily production output meets customer schedules, quality standards, and cost targets.
- Implement and sustain lean manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives (5S, Kaizen, TPM, value-stream mapping).
- Lead Production Planning & Control (PPC) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) to align demand, capacity, and material availability.
- Ensure strict compliance with automotive quality systems (IATF 16949, ISO 9001) and drive corrective and preventive actions.
- Enforce Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) standards and foster a strong safety-first culture.
- Manage plant operating budgets, cost control initiatives, and operational P&L performance.
- Lead, coach, and develop managers, supervisors, and cross-functional teams across the plant.
- Drive cost reduction initiatives including scrap reduction, energy efficiency, and process optimization.
- Engage with external customers and internal stakeholders on quality, delivery, audits, and engineering changes.
- Support new model introductions, production line launches, and engineering change implementation.
Background
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- Extensive experience in automotive manufacturing operations
- Proven track record in plant leadership, including greenfield or brownfield project experience.
- Strong knowledge of automotive quality systems and tools (IATF 16949, APQP, PPAP, FMEA, Control Plans).
- Hands-on experience with lean manufacturing, Just-in-Time (JIT), and process engineering methodologies.
- Demonstrated capability in managing plant budgets, cost structures, and operational KPIs.
- Strong leadership, change management, and people development skills.
- Proficiency in English; Thai language capability is an advantage.
Additional Information
This role involves frequent interaction with internal departments, suppliers, external customers and partners, consultants, and regulatory bodies. Travel may be required nationally or regionally depending on operational and business needs.
