Operations & Manufacturing Recruiting for Growth Focused Companies
Leaders Who Improve Performance, Strengthen Operations and Drive Results
Ashton North helps manufacturers, private equity backed businesses, startups, and growth focused companies recruit operations and manufacturing leaders who improve performance, strengthen execution, and build the capabilities needed for growth.
We focus on professionals who have successfully led in relevant manufacturing and operating environments and have a proven ability to improve the areas that matter most to the business.
Operations & Manufacturing Leadership Roles We Recruit
Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Presidents
Chief Operating Officers (COOs)
Vice Presidents of Operations and Manufacturing
Directors of Operations and Manufacturing
Plant Managers and Site Leaders
Divisional and Multi Site Operations Leaders
Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement Leaders
Manufacturing Automation and Transformation Leaders
SIOP, S&OP and Operational Planning Leaders
From executive leadership to plant and functional operations, we recruit professionals responsible for turning business objectives into measurable operational results.
What Are You Hiring This Leader to Improve?
Operations and manufacturing leaders are often hired because the business needs to improve performance, solve operational challenges, or prepare for what comes next.
Plant & Operational Performance
Strengthen execution, accountability, operating discipline, and overall plant performance.
Throughput & Productivity
Increase output, eliminate bottlenecks, improve labor utilization, and create greater operating efficiency.
Quality, Delivery & Customer Performance
Improve consistency, reduce defects and scrap, strengthen quality and on time delivery, and meet customer commitments.
Cost & Margin Performance
Reduce operating costs, improve manufacturing economics, and better understand the operational drivers affecting profitability.
Lean & Continuous Improvement
Build sustainable improvement processes using Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and other operational excellence methodologies.
Automation & Manufacturing Technology
Use automation, equipment, manufacturing technology, and process improvements to increase capability, productivity, consistency, and scale.
Growth & Operational Transformation
Build the teams, processes, systems, capacity, and infrastructure required to support growth, acquisitions, new facilities, increased demand, or changing business requirements.
Experience Has to Fit the Operating Environment
Manufacturing experience is not one size fits all.
Leading a high volume, fast paced production environment requires different experience from leading an operation producing highly engineered, customized, or low volume products.
The operating model matters.
Product complexity, production volume, level of customization, automation, manufacturing processes, customer requirements, regulatory demands, and the maturity of the operation all influence the type of leadership experience required.
Ashton North understands the differences across manufacturing environments, including:
High Volume & Repetitive Manufacturing
Low Volume & High Mix Manufacturing
Engineer to Order & Configure to Order Manufacturing
Custom & Highly Engineered Manufacturing
Capital Equipment & Complex Manufacturing
Automated & Advanced Manufacturing
Regulated & Precision Manufacturing
Continuous & Process Manufacturing
The objective isn't simply to find someone who has worked in manufacturing.
It is to identify a leader who understands how your operation works and whose experience translates to your manufacturing environment, business challenges, and performance goals.
From the Executive Office to the Plant Floor
Operational strategy only creates value when it can be executed.
Executive leadership establishes direction and operating priorities. Operations leaders translate those priorities into strategy and execution. Plant and site leaders create accountability and drive performance across the operation.
Each level plays a different role, but the outcomes are connected.
Safety
Quality
Delivery
Cost
Productivity
Throughput
Continuous Improvement
Operational Scalability
Ashton North recruits leaders who understand those connections and have demonstrated the ability to translate strategy into measurable performance.
Recent Operations & Manufacturing Searches & Placements
Chief Executive Officer - Miami, FL
Director of Manufacturing Automation - Illinois
Manufacturing Operations Manager - Cleveland, OH
Value Stream Manager - Ohio
Manager, Production Planning - Wisconsin
Director of Strategic Initiatives & Programs - Illinois
Director of Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) - Texas
President - Atlanta, GA
Build the Leadership Behind Better Operational Performance
Whether you are improving an existing operation, strengthening plant leadership, expanding capacity, investing in automation, integrating an acquisition, or preparing the business for its next stage of growth, leadership matters.
Ashton North helps companies recruit operations and manufacturing leaders with the industry experience, leadership capabilities, and proven results needed to strengthen performance and move the business forward.