Production Manager Job Description – Salary, Education and Career Guide for Becoming a Production Manager

In Hollywood terms, the program manager or supervisor is the chief operating officer who delegates and controls all aspects of the filming and organization, including all concerns of the cast and crew. In a business, the production manager or supervisor is essentially the same thing. He or she is the person who makes certain that every member of every team is productive and works toward its larger goal as smoothly as possible.

Production managers are the “jacks-of-all-trades” when it comes to running a business. They have many responsibilities including tracking labor, scheduling production and costs, as well as the receiving of raw materials and shipping of raw goods. A crucial part of being a production manager is making changes when things go wrong or if part of the business is not functioning at one hundred percent capacity.

 

For example, a production manager or supervisor at a plant or factory learns that a raw material will not be available for a period of time. The production manager realizes that the lack of this material will result in a production delay. The production manager would then look at the building inventory and figure out what product parts do not require the missing material, and build them a few days in advance. When the missing part does arrive, the final product can be built in an expedient way to make up for the lost time.

Production managers must coordinate and juggle many tasks at once. Most of the time you will see a production manager out on the floor, overseeing every department to make certain that everything is running like clockwork.

The median salary as a production manager is about $73,000 per year. Most companies pay about $62,000, but many companies exceed that figure. An entry-level production manager can expect much less, but since most companies prefer hiring from within, there are not many entry-level production manager jobs available.

No specific academic degrees are required for production manager careers. However, the job of a production manager requires flexibility and adjusting to different responsibilites. Potential managers or supervisors would benefit from having a background in economics, accounting, finances, manufacturing systems, organizational behavior or sociology.

 

Production managers should be familiar with managing people. Therefore, any past managerial position is a great help for a production manager candidate.

Very few companies are willing to hire a production manager with no experience. The best approach is to start out on a business team. Eventually, you can demonstrate your leadership ability by working your way up to a team leadership position. After showing excellence as a leader, you can begin to prepare for the production manager's position.

Many opportunities exist for someone who wants to advance in their production manager career. Since a production manager is involved in all types of businesses, he or she is in an excellent position to learn how to run a business. For this reason, many production managers have gone on to be entrepreneurs, efficiency experts and strategic marketers.

Several groups deal with production management in one form or another. One example is the Association for Operations Management (APICS). Their mission is to help operations management professionals advance their careers.