Job Description

Job Description: Shop Manager

Department: Production / Operations

Reports To: Operations Manager

Pay: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year

Position Summary:

The Shop Manager is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Michigan

fabrication shop, ensuring that all customer jobs are completed safely, efficiently, on time, and

within their allocated labor hours and production budgets.

Precision Laser operates as a custom job shop, where work orders vary by customer, scope,

specifications, and production requirements. Each job must be actively monitored from the time

it enters production through completion and shipment. The shop does not maintain general

production inventory; materials are purchased specifically for individual jobs. The Shop

Manager must therefore coordinate closely with Sales, Purchasing, the Operations Manager,

and production teams to ensure materials, labor, equipment, and production capacity are

aligned with job requirements.

A key priority of this role is monitoring allocated job hours, tracking production progress across

all departments, identifying potential delays or cost overruns, and taking corrective action

before they affect delivery commitments. The successful candidate will demonstrate strong

leadership, organizational skills, fabrication shop management experience, and excellent

communication skills.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Production Planning and Job Management

• Oversee daily shop operations, ensuring all active work orders are progressing according

to established production schedules and customer requirements.

• Review incoming jobs, production priorities, drawings, specifications, estimated labour

hours, and required completion dates.

• Monitor the progress of every active job from initial production through final inspection

and shipment.

• Establish and maintain clear production schedules and priorities based on customer

commitments, available labor, equipment capacity, and material availability.

• Ensure jobs are properly organized, tracked, and communicated between departments

as they move through the shop.

• Identify production bottlenecks, scheduling conflicts, equipment constraints, and other

issues that may affect job completion.

• Adjust labor assignments and production priorities as required to maintain workflow and

meet delivery commitments.

• Ensure completed work is ready for the next production stage, quality inspection, or

shipment without unnecessary delays.

• Maintain visibility of all active jobs and provide regular updates on production status,

anticipated completion dates, and potential delays.

2. Allocated Job Hours and Labor Cost Control

• Closely monitor the labor hours allocated to each individual work order and compare

actual hours worked against the estimated or budgeted hours.

• Ensure production employees understand the importance of meeting allocated job

hours while maintaining quality and safety standards.

• Track job progress against labor-hour budgets throughout production, rather than

waiting until a job is completed to identify overruns.

• Identify jobs that are falling behind their allocated hours and investigate the reasons for

variances.

• Take timely corrective action when a job is at risk of exceeding its allocated labor hours,

including reviewing staffing, methods, workflow, and production priorities.

• Communicate anticipated labor overruns to the Operations Manager and Sales Team as

appropriate, explaining the circumstances and potential impact.

• Ensure labor is allocated effectively across departments to maximize productivity and

reduce unnecessary downtime, overtime, and rework.

• Review time reporting and production records to ensure hours are accurately recorded

against the appropriate work orders.

• Work with the Operations Manager to improve estimating accuracy, labor utilization,

productivity, and overall job profitability.

• Escalate significant deviations from estimated hours, production budgets, or customer

requirements before they become larger issues.

3. Department Coordination and Production Monitoring

• Oversee and coordinate production activities across applicable departments, including

fabrication, laser cutting, welding, machining, assembly, finishing, and shipping.

• Monitor the status of each department to ensure work progresses according to the

overall production schedule.

• Ensure work is released to the next department at the appropriate time and that

downstream operations are prepared to receive it.

• Identify work orders that are stalled, waiting for materials, drawings, approvals, labor,

equipment, or other requirements.

• Coordinate with department leads and employees to resolve issues affecting production

flow.

• Balance workloads across departments to avoid unnecessary bottlenecks, idle time, and

missed deadlines.

• Conduct regular production meetings or job-status reviews to assess progress, identify

concerns, and establish clear priorities.

• Ensure employees understand daily priorities, job requirements, quality expectations,

and expected completion times.

• Monitor equipment availability and coordinate maintenance or other support when

operational issues threaten production schedules.

• Maintain accountability for production commitments and follow up to ensure agreedupon actions are completed.

4. Communication with Sales and the Operations Manager

• Maintain open, honest, and consistent communication with the Sales Team regarding

production capabilities, available capacity, job status, estimated completion dates, and

shipping commitments.

• Provide realistic production timelines based on actual shop capacity, current workloads,

allocated labor hours, material availability, and job complexity.

• Communicate potential delays, labor-hour overruns, material shortages, quality

concerns, and scheduling conflicts as soon as they are identified.

• Work collaboratively with Sales to establish achievable customer delivery dates and

manage changes to customer priorities.

• Avoid making production or shipping commitments without confirming that the shop

has the capacity and resources to meet them.

• Provide timely updates when actual production progress differs from the original

schedule or anticipated completion date.

• Work closely with the Operations Manager to review production performance, staffing

requirements, job costing, capacity planning, and operational challenges.

• Escalate significant production concerns promptly, providing relevant details and

recommended corrective actions.

• Ensure communication between Sales, Purchasing, production departments, and

shipping remains accurate and consistent.

• Support customer satisfaction by ensuring the company communicates realistic

expectations and follows through on agreed-upon commitments.

5. Job-Specific Inventory Control

• Manage production requirements in an environment where materials are purchased

specifically for individual work orders rather than maintained as general production

inventory.

• Review material requirements for incoming and active jobs to confirm the necessary

materials have been identified and ordered.

• Coordinate with Purchasing, Sales, and the Operations Manager to ensure materials are

ordered with sufficient lead time to support production schedules.

• Monitor material delivery dates and confirm materials are available before jobs are

scheduled to begin.

• Identify and communicate material shortages, supplier delays, incorrect deliveries, or

specification issues that could affect production.

• Ensure materials are appropriately identified and associated with the correct customer

job or work order.

• Prevent unnecessary purchasing, material waste, duplication of orders, and avoidable

job delays.

• Coordinate material substitutions or changes through the appropriate approval process

before production proceeds.

• Ensure production priorities reflect actual material availability and that employees are

not scheduled to perform work that cannot proceed due to missing materials.

• Work with the Operations Manager and Purchasing to improve material planning,

supplier coordination, and job-specific cost control.

6. Leadership and Employee Management

• Provide hands-on leadership and direction to production employees and department

leads.

• Assign work based on employee skills, production priorities, workload, and required

completion dates.

• Set clear expectations regarding productivity, attendance, workmanship, safety, and

accountability.

• Monitor employee performance and address productivity concerns, repeated delays,

and failure to follow established procedures.

• Provide coaching, training, and development opportunities to improve employee

capabilities and departmental performance.

• Promote teamwork, communication, and cooperation between departments.

• Ensure staffing levels are appropriate for current production demands and communicate

additional labor requirements to the Operations Manager.

• Support employee onboarding and training in coordination with Human Resources.

• Address workplace concerns promptly and consistently; escalating employee relations

matters to Human Resources or the Operations Manager as appropriate.

• Foster a professional, accountable, and results-oriented work environment.

7. Quality Control and Continuous Improvement

• Ensure production work meets customer drawings, specifications, quality standards, and

applicable company requirements.

• Monitor quality concerns, rework, scrap, and recurring production issues that affect job

costs and delivery schedules.

• Work with quality personnel and department leads to identifying root causes and

implementing corrective actions.

• Ensure employees follow established work instructions and quality procedures.

• Identify opportunities to improve production methods, workflow, equipment utilization,

labor efficiency, and communication.

• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, focusing on reducing waste, avoiding

rework, and improving on-time delivery.

• Ensure quality concerns are addressed promptly without compromising customer

requirements or safety standards.

9. Reporting and Performance Management

• Maintain accurate records of job progress, allocated versus actual labor hours,

production delays, and completion status.

• Provide regular production updates and performance reports to the Operations

Manager.

• Monitor key performance indicators, including:

• Actual labor hours versus allocated job hours.

• Jobs completed within estimated labor hours.

• On-time production completion and shipping performance.

• Work-in-progress status and overdue jobs.

• Department productivity and workflow efficiency.

• Rework, scrap, and quality issues.

• Material availability and job-related purchasing delays.

• Overtime, downtime, and production bottlenecks.

• Identify recurring variances and recommend practical improvements.

• Ensure production reporting is accurate, timely, and useful for operational decisionmaking.

• Maintain accountability for agreed-upon production targets and corrective actions.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience managing or supervising a fabrication,

welding, manufacturing, or custom job-shop environment.

• Demonstrated experience managing production schedules, multiple concurrent work

orders, and changing customer priorities.

• Strong understanding of fabrication processes, production workflow, labor allocation,

and job costing.

• Proven ability to monitor estimated versus actual labor hours and take corrective action

to control costs.

• Experience coordinating multiple production departments and managing competing

deadlines.

• Understanding of job-specific material purchasing and production planning in an

environment without general inventory held for production.

• Strong leadership skills, with experience supervising, coaching, and holding production

employees accountable.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, particularly when coordinating with

Sales, Operations, Purchasing, and production teams.

• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and time-management abilities.

• Ability to identify production risks, make sound operational decisions, and communicate

issues before they affect customer commitments.

• Proficiency with production tracking systems, work orders, spreadsheets, and Microsoft

Office.

• Ability to interpret engineering drawings and understand manufacturing specifications is

strongly preferred.

Key Success Factors:

The successful Shop Manager will be measured by their ability to:

• Keep jobs within their allocated labor hours wherever reasonably achievable.

• Identify and address potential job-hour overruns before costs escalate.

• Maintain accurate visibility of every active work order and its production status.

• Keep all departments aligned with production priorities and delivery schedules.

• Ensure Sales receive honest, timely, and accurate information about production

capabilities and shipping commitments.

• Coordinate job-specific material purchasing to prevent avoidable production delays.

• Improve labor productivity, job profitability, quality, and on-time delivery.

• Build a well-organized, accountable, safe, and collaborative fabrication shop.