About the role
The Production Manager is accountable for all production output across Emesent’s product lines — Hovermap STX, A3D STX, GX1, RMA, and Accessories. You own the production floor: the people, the processes, the schedule execution, the quality of output, and the safety of the environment. When production delivers on plan, on time, and on quality, that is your success. When it doesn’t, you own the problem, the root cause, and the recovery.
This role works in close partnership with the Planning Manager (who owns demand-to-delivery planning and material availability) and the Quality Manager (who owns the QMS and assurance framework). The Production Manager’s job is to execute the plan with the materials provided to the quality standard required — and to communicate clearly and early when any of those inputs create a constraint.
The role requires someone who can hold two things in tension simultaneously: the strategic discipline to drive process improvement, build team capability, and invest in production systems; and the operational intensity to manage daily floor execution, solve problems in real time, and never lose sight of today’s schedule while working on tomorrow’s improvements. The most common failure mode in this role is allowing day-to-day firefighting to consume all bandwidth, starving process engineering and continuous improvement of attention. Managing that balance is a core competency, not an aspiration.
Production floor ownership & schedule execution
Own daily and weekly production execution across all product lines: ensure build orders are completed on schedule, to specification, and within labour budget
Manage the daily production cadence: morning stand-ups, work allocation, constraint identification, and end-of-day status capture
Execute the production schedule provided by the Planning Manager; where conflicts or constraints arise, negotiate priorities and commit to revised dates with clear communication to affected stakeholders
Maintain real-time visibility of production status: what is on track, what is at risk, what has slipped, and what the recovery plan is
Own the interface between production and logistics for finished goods handover, packaging, and dispatch readiness
Process engineering & continuous improvement
Own the production process for each product line: build sequences, work instructions, tooling, fixtures, jigs, and test procedures
Drive continuous improvement on the production floor through lean methodology — 5S, value stream mapping, standard work, visual management, and waste elimination
Maintain a prioritised CI pipeline: identify improvement opportunities, quantify the business case (labour savings, cycle time reduction, yield improvement), resource the work, and track delivery to completion
Lead new product introduction (NPI) from a production readiness perspective: work with engineering to ensure designs are manufacturable, build processes are documented, tooling is in place, and technicians are trained before production handover
Own build time standards and update them as processes mature; ensure labour estimates used for capacity planning and costing reflect actual production capability
Protect process engineering bandwidth: this is not an activity that gets deprioritised when the floor is busy — it is the mechanism by which the floor gets less busy over time
Direct labour management & workforce development
Lead, manage, and develop the production team: team leads and technicians across all product lines
Own workforce planning: skills matrices, cross-training plans, shift coverage, and succession planning to eliminate single-person dependencies on any product line or process step
Manage performance formally: set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, conduct performance reviews, and address underperformance directly and constructively
Build team capability through structured training programs, progressive skill development, and deliberate cross-training — not just on-the-job absorption
Manage labour allocation daily: assign technicians to build orders based on skill, priority, and availability; manage overtime, leave coverage, and contractor augmentation when required
Own direct labour utilisation as a production metric: track productive hours against available hours, identify and reduce idle time, rework time, and non-value-add activity
Productivity & cost management
Own production productivity targets: units per labour hour, build time per unit, and cost per unit across each product line
Track and report OEE (or equivalent throughput metrics appropriate to Emesent’s build model), build cycle times, first-pass yield, and rework rates
Deliver a minimum of one quantified process improvement per quarter with measurable impact on labour, time, or cost
Manage production consumables and tooling costs within budget; flag variances early with explanation and corrective action
Provide production cost inputs to finance for standard costing, variance analysis, and inventory
valuation
Quality at the point of production
Own first-pass yield and rework rates as production floor metrics — quality is built into the process, not inspected in after the fact
Ensure work instructions, inspection points, and test procedures are followed consistently; address non-conformances immediately at the point of occurrence
Partner with the Quality Manager on root cause analysis for production defects; own the
implementation of corrective actions on the production floor
Maintain production area housekeeping and 5S standards to support quality outcomes and safety
Safety & compliance
Own the safety of the production environment: risk assessments, safe work procedures, incident
investigation, and corrective action closure
Maintain zero lost-time injuries as a non-negotiable standard; all incidents investigated and corrective actions closed within 5 business days
Ensure production operations comply with applicable WHS legislation, export control requirements (where relevant to build processes), and any site-specific safety protocols
Stakeholder communication
Provide daily production status visibility to the Planning Manager and leadership — what shipped, what’s in progress, what’s at risk
Issue same-day communication on any constraint, delay, or material change that affects committed delivery dates, including impact assessment and recovery options
Participate in the monthly S&OP cycle with production capacity inputs, constraint identification, and forward-looking throughput commitments
Communicate clearly to non-manufacturing stakeholders — commercial, engineering, finance — translating production complexity into actionable information without jargon
Essential:
7–10 years in manufacturing operations, with at least 3 years directly managing a production team
(leads, technicians, or operators) in a hardware build environment
Demonstrated ownership of production output: schedule adherence, throughput, yield, and cost targets — not just participation in production, but accountability for results
Strong process engineering foundation: ability to analyse and optimise build flows, identify bottlenecks, design fixtures/jigs, and implement process changes that deliver measurable productivity gains
Practical lean manufacturing capability — 5S, value stream mapping, standard work, visual management — applied in a real production environment, not just classroom exposure
Experience managing direct labour: workforce planning, shift scheduling, skills matrices, performance management, and building team capability through structured training and cross-training
Working knowledge of ERP/MES systems for production execution (work orders, labour tracking, BOM consumption)
Clear, structured communicator who can translate production complexity into actionable information for non-manufacturing stakeholders
Desirable:
Experience in electronics hardware, sensor technology, robotics, or precision electromechanical assembly
Hands-on Fishbowl ERP experience for work order management and production tracking
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or equivalent continuous improvement certification
Experience with new product introduction (NPI) — transitioning products from engineering prototype to production-ready
Exposure to regulated manufacturing environments (ISO 9001, defence, or export- controlled production)
Experience scaling production from low-volume/high-mix to moderate-volume operations
Trade qualification or engineering degree in mechanical, manufacturing, electrical, or mechatronics engineering
Why Emesent?
At Emesent, you’ll work on technology that is genuinely shaping the future of how industries capture and understand the physical world. We offer a dynamic, collaborative environment, competitive compensation, and real opportunities for professional growth. Join us in pushing the boundaries of robotics and spatial intelligence.
Quince