Plant Manager
Smurfit Westrock · Lansing, MI
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Production
- Degree
- Required
- Industry
- Packaging
- Posted
- 24 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management production role at Smurfit Westrock (packaging) in Lansing, MI. In this role, you will partner closely with Operations, Maintenance, Human Resources, Sales, Customer Service, and other functional leaders to establish priorities, remove barriers, improve processes, and ensure customer commitments are met.
- They ask for
- degree required
- Tools it names
- EHS / safety
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 2, 2026
Production Engineer roles in Michigan: typical posted base $143k–$205k.
Median of the low and high ends of 6 live postings that list pay, out of 33 production engineer openings in Michigan, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Michigan plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 32 other live production postings in Michigan.
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Similar roles usually ask 8+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Team leadership 55%
- Lean 52%
- Six Sigma 39%
- Cost reduction 39%
- Casting 27%
- ✓ EHS / safety 27%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Production team at Smurfit Westrock
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Smurfit Westrock in Lansing
3 other open roles at this site.
- Nightshift Production Supervisor · Production · Supervisor
- Quality Process Improvement Analyst · Lean / CI · Specialist
- Maintenance Tech - Electrical · Reliability · Technician
Full description from Smurfit WestrockAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
requirements
are understood and met in a timely manner.
- ✓Lead daily production discussions focused on meeting customer commitments and achieving on-time delivery.
- ✓Partner with scheduling and production teams to ensure customer orders are manufactured and delivered as committed.
- ✓Monitor inventory levels and oversee monthly and annual inventory counts.
- ✓Support customer visits and plant tours while maintaining strong relationships with internal and external business partners.
- ✓Serve as a member of the plant leadership team and contribute to broader business and operational strategies.
- ✓During the first six months, the Plant Manager will focus on developing a strong understanding of the operation, building relationships with employees and key functional partners, assessing safety and operational performance, evaluating leadership and workforce capabilities, and identifying immediate opportunities to improve productivity, reliability, quality, and customer service.
- ✓Longer term, this role will be expected to build sustainable processes, strengthen leadership capability, develop talent, drive continuous improvement, and deliver consistent results across safety, quality, productivity, cost, and customer performance.
Required Qualifications
- ✓Minimum of seven years of progressive supervisory or operations leadership experience within a manufacturing environment.
- ✓Demonstrated experience leading production operations and frontline teams in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- ✓Strong understanding of production planning, scheduling, maintenance, safety, quality, and continuous improvement.
- ✓Demonstrated ability to analyze operational information and use data to identify issues, establish priorities, and drive business decisions.
- ✓Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively and influence at all levels of the organization.
- ✓Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, coach, and develop others.
- ✓Strong organizational and prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
- ✓Ability to make timely, independent, and effective decisions.
- ✓Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and other business systems.
Preferred Qualifications
- ✓Four-year college degree in business, operations, engineering, manufacturing, or a related field.
- ✓Previous experience as a Plant Manager, Plant Superintendent, Operations Manager, or comparable manufacturing leadership role.
- ✓Experience within the printing, packaging, or related manufacturing industry.
- ✓Experience supporting capital projects, equipment installation, and facility improve
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Plant Manager - Lansing, MI
The Opportunity
The Plant Manager provides overall leadership for plant operations across three shifts and a workforce of more than 200 colleagues. This role is responsible for creating a safe, efficient, and high-performing manufacturing environment while ensuring production, quality, customer service, maintenance, people, and operational goals are consistently achieved.
In this role, you will partner closely with Operations, Maintenance, Human Resources, Sales, Customer Service, and other functional leaders to establish priorities, remove barriers, improve processes, and ensure customer commitments are met. You will also play a key role in developing leaders and employees, driving accountability, and creating a culture focused on safety, quality, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
Day to day, you can expect to spend time on the production floor engaging with leaders and employees, reviewing production and performance results, addressing operational challenges, supporting customer requirements, prioritizing maintenance needs, and developing solutions that improve plant performance. You will balance immediate operational needs with longer-term initiatives that strengthen the overall capability and performance of the facility.
How You Will Impact Smurfit Westrock
- •Lead overall plant operations across three shifts and more than 200 colleagues, ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable performance.
- •Drive achievement of production, quality, safety, customer service, housekeeping, maintenance, and scheduling objectives.
- •Partner with supervisors and production teams to establish attainable performance goals, identify barriers, and improve results across machine centers.
- •Analyze operational data and performance reports to identify trends, opportunities, and actions needed to improve plant performance.
- •Drive continuous improvement initiatives that increase productivity, efficiency, quality, and operational effectiveness.
- •Support the evaluation, selection, installation, and implementation of capital equipment and facility improvements.
- •Partner with Maintenance leadership to prioritize work orders, preventive maintenance activities, repairs, and capital projects.
- •Champion a strong safety culture by ensuring compliance with company standards and applicable safety requirements, supporting incident investigations, and maintaining an active safety program.
- •Maintain a clean, organized, safe, and customer-ready facility.
- •Develop supervisors and employees through coaching, feedback, performance management, training, and professional development.
- •Partner with Human Resources on employee relations, workforce needs, training, performance management, and other people-related initiatives.
- •Conduct and support training activities including new employee orientation, safety, leadership development, team training, and operational standards.
- •Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service to ensure customer
to Succeed
- •Key competencies include leadership, accountability, safety mindset, customer focus, operational excellence, strategic thinking, problem solving, decision making, collaboration, communication, talent development, adaptability, and continuous improvement.