Two things straight, before anything else. I have not run aerospace fasteners, and I have not worked to AS9100. What I have run is regulated production where the paperwork is the product as much as the part: six and a half years at Resonetics in Bethel making surgical components under ISO 13485 and 9001, up from Supervisor to Manufacturing Manager, and then a whole site at Wieland — slitting and tin coating, shipping and receiving, purchasing, inventory, maintenance, safety and the people — through an ISO audit with zero findings inside a year. The process itself I would learn from the people who already run it. That is how I learned slitting.
- Most of what is on this site was built so a shift runs the same whether or not I am standing on the floor. Every count has a named back-up, every work instruction has a revision and a date, and the procedure is on a card at the machine rather than in somebody's head.
- Your Operations Manager would get the numbers without having to ask for them. I ran the daily production meeting off a one-page board, reported delivery, inventory and quality to corporate leadership monthly, and held a standing weekly efficiency check with a regional manager. I have also been the person receiving those reports — the production supervisor reported to me — so I know what a supervisor owes the seat above them.
- The safety and housekeeping work on this site is the part that transfers first. I drew the evacuation maps and had the routes painted on the warehouse floor, ran the 5S schedule with daily and weekly zones, and led Saturday cleanups myself so production never lost an hour to them.
- I am in Naugatuck, about 35 minutes up Route 8, and I am looking for a first-shift seat I can hold for the long haul. The commute and the shift are not things that will quietly become a problem in six months.