Job Description – Factory Operations Manager
Industry: QSR / Food Manufacturing / Central Kitchen
Department: Operations / Manufacturing
Reporting To: Head of Operations / COO / Plant Head
Location: Shivaji Nagar
Experience: 8–12+ years in food manufacturing, QSR commissary, central kitchen, FMCG, or related operations
Role Purpose
The Factory Operations Manager will be responsible for the end-to-end operations of the food production facility, ensuring safe, consistent, cost-effective, and timely production of food products for QSR outlets and other channels.
The role will lead production, manpower, quality, food safety, maintenance coordination, inventory utilization, productivity, wastage control, and dispatch operations, while ensuring compliance with company standards and statutory requirements.
Key Responsibilities1. Factory & Production Operations
- Manage day-to-day operations of the central kitchen/factory, including production, processing, packing, storage, and dispatch.
- Plan production based on outlet demand, forecasts, inventory levels, and business requirements.
- Ensure production targets are achieved within defined quality, cost, yield, and timeline parameters.
- Establish and monitor SOPs, production processes, batch controls, and operating standards.
- Improve production capacity, line utilization, throughput, and overall equipment effectiveness.
- Ensure smooth coordination between production, procurement, QA, warehouse, maintenance, and distribution teams.
2. Food Safety & Quality
- Ensure strict compliance with GMP, GHP, HACCP, FSSAI, and company food-safety standards.
- Maintain hygiene and sanitation standards across production, storage, and employee areas.
- Ensure adherence to approved recipes, specifications, process parameters, and portion standards.
- Work closely with QA/QC to investigate customer/outlet complaints, deviations, and non-conformities.
- Drive corrective and preventive actions and ensure closure of audit observations.
- Maintain effective traceability, batch coding, shelf-life, and recall processes.
3. Cost & Productivity Management
- Drive continuous reduction in food cost, conversion cost, manpower cost, utility cost, and wastage.
- Monitor raw material yield, production yield, giveaway, rejection, and process losses.
- Identify opportunities for automation, process improvement, and manpower optimization.
- Develop and track operational KPIs and implement corrective actions for variances.
- Drive Lean/Kaizen/5S initiatives across the factory.
4. Manpower Management
- Lead, train, and develop production supervisors, operators, helpers, and support staff.
- Prepare manpower plans based on production volumes and shift requirements.
- Ensure optimum deployment of manpower across shifts and production lines.
- Monitor attendance, productivity, discipline, training, and performance.
- Build a strong culture of food safety, accountability, productivity, and continuous improvement.
5. Planning & Inventory
- Coordinate with planning/procurement teams to ensure availability of raw materials and packaging materials.
- Ensure FIFO/FEFO practices and appropriate inventory controls.
- Minimize stock-outs, excess inventory, expiry, and material wastage.
- Coordinate production planning with demand forecasts from QSR outlets.
- Ensure accurate consumption, batch, yield, and production records.
6. Maintenance & Utilities
- Coordinate with the engineering/maintenance team to ensure maximum equipment availability.
- Drive preventive and breakdown maintenance programs.
- Monitor production downtime and identify recurring equipment issues.
- Ensure proper functioning of refrigeration, cold rooms, freezers, boilers, HVAC, utilities, and other critical systems.
- Support CAPEX projects, equipment installation, commissioning, and process expansion.
7. Dispatch & Supply Chain Coordination
- Ensure finished goods are produced, packed, stored, and dispatched within required timelines.
- Coordinate with warehouse and logistics teams for timely dispatch to QSR outlets/distribution points.
- Maintain appropriate temperature controls for chilled/frozen products.
- Ensure dispatch accuracy, documentation, batch traceability, and product integrity.
8. Compliance & Audits
- Ensure compliance with all applicable food safety, labour, fire, environmental, statutory, and factory regulations.
- Prepare the facility for internal, customer, regulatory, and third-party audits.
- Maintain operational records and documentation required for compliance.
- Ensure timely closure of audit findings.
9. Continuous Improvement
- Identify and implement opportunities to improve:
- Production capacity
- Labour productivity
- Yield
- Food safety
- Quality consistency
- Energy efficiency
- Wastage
- Equipment utilization
- Overall operating cost
- Lead structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis for recurring operational issues.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Production plan achievement %
- On-time production / dispatch %
- Production yield %
- Raw material wastage %
- Food/product rejection %
- Conversion cost per kg/unit
- Labour productivity
- Production downtime
- OEE / equipment utilization
- Inventory variance
- Customer/outlet complaints
- Food safety audit score
- Internal/third-party audit compliance
- Employee attrition and absenteeism
- Energy/utilities cost per unit
- Overall factory operating cost
Candidate ProfileEducation
- Bachelor's degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Engineering, Operations, Production, or related discipline.
- MBA/PGDM in Operations or Supply Chain is an advantage.
Experience
- 8–12+ years of relevant experience in:
- QSR central kitchens/commissaries
- Food manufacturing
- FMCG
- Ready-to-eat / ready-to-cook food
- Bakery / meat / dairy / frozen food
- Large-scale commercial kitchens
- Food processing plants
- Should have experience managing high-volume production and multiple shifts.
Core Competencies
- Factory/plant operations
- Production planning
- Food safety & hygiene
- HACCP/GMP/GHP
- FSSAI compliance
- Cost and wastage control
- Yield management
- Lean/Kaizen/5S
- Manpower management
- Inventory management
- Preventive maintenance coordination
- Supply chain coordination
- Root-cause analysis
- Data-driven decision making
- Strong leadership and communication
Pay: ₹50,364.46 - ₹62,180.62 per month
Work Location: In person
