Head - Operations - Apparel Manufacturing

INTERIM TEXTILE LEADERSHIP POSITION - HEADS OPERATIONS

Assignment: Interim - 6 Months PLUS

Reporting to: CEO

Experience: 20 - 35 years

Industry: Apparel / Garment / Textile Manufacturing

About the Organisation:

Our client is a well-established, promoter-led Indian apparel and performance-clothing manufacturing group with over three decades of operating heritage.

The Group has a large multi-location manufacturing footprint, a workforce of 8,000+ professionals and annual production capacity exceeding 20 million garments. Its portfolio spans rainwear, winterwear, work & safety wear, institutional/corporate apparel, fabrics and emerging climate-performance clothing.

The organisation is currently strengthening its professional management layer and operating systems to support scale, productivity, quality, customer service and continued expansion across multiple manufacturing locations.

The Opportunity:

We are looking for a senior manufacturing leader with 20 - 35 years of hands-on experience to take up a six-month plus, Interim Head Operations assignment.

The mandate is suited to a seasoned apparel manufacturing professional who can quickly assess the current operating environment, establish management discipline across factories and drive measurable improvements in productivity, utilisation, OTIF, manpower effectiveness and operating accountability.

The role will work closely with the CEO and Factory Heads and will have a strong cross-functional mandate.

Key Responsibilities:

Manufacturing & Operations:

• Drive operating performance across multiple manufacturing locations.
• Establish a common operating rhythm, KPI framework and review cadence across factories.
• Improve capacity utilisation, productivity, line efficiency and manpower productivity.
• Strengthen production planning, capacity allocation and execution discipline.
• Review bottlenecks across cutting, stitching, seam sealing, welding, finishing, packing and dispatch.
• Improve OTIF performance and adherence to production plans.
• Drive effective manpower deployment, particularly during seasonal demand peaks.
• Establish clear accountability for Factory Heads and operating teams.

Operational Excellence:

• Identify productivity and cost-improvement opportunities across factories.
• Strengthen Industrial Engineering, line balancing, work-study and productivity systems.
• Standardise best practices across manufacturing locations.
• Improve utilisation of machinery, infrastructure and production resources.
• Establish factory-level dashboards and exception-based management.

People & Leadership:

• Assess the capability of existing factory leadership and operating teams.
• Coach and mentor Factory Heads, Production Heads and middle management.
• Strengthen frontline supervisor capability and accountability.
• Identify critical capability gaps and recommend longer-term leadership requirements.

Management Reporting:

• Develop a concise weekly operations dashboard for the CEO.
• Track OTIF, utilisation, productivity, quality, manpower, capacity and key operational risks.
• Escalate cross-functional constraints requiring management intervention.
• Support the CEO in creating a sustainable operating-management system.

Key Success Measures During the Six-Month Plus Assignment:

The successful candidate will be expected to deliver measurable improvement in areas including:

• OTIF performance
• Factory utilisation
• Labour / employee productivity
• Production efficiency
• Capacity utilisation
• Manufacturing cost
• Production plan adherence
• Factory-level accountability
• Management reporting and KPI discipline
• Cross-factory standardisation

The organisation's proposed operating scorecard includes OTIF, utilisation and employee productivity improvement of these should be treated as management targets to be validated and agreed at the beginning of the assignment.

Candidate Profile:

• 20 - 35 years of experience in apparel / garment manufacturing operations.
• Strong experience managing large-scale, multi-line or multi-factory manufacturing operations.
• Prior experience as COO / VP Operations / Head Operations / GM Operations / Factory Head / Business Head or equivalent.
• Strong understanding of apparel manufacturing processes.
• Demonstrated experience in productivity improvement, IE, Lean / Kaizen and operational excellence.
• Experience managing large blue-collar workforces.
• Strong exposure to seasonal manufacturing environments will be preferred.
• Experience across multiple manufacturing locations will be highly desirable.
• Should be comfortable working directly with promoters / CEO / senior management.
• Candidates who have recently retired or are available for interim / consulting assignments are encouraged to apply.

Personal Attributes:

• Hands-on and execution-oriented.
• Data-driven but comfortable operating on the shop floor.
• Strong people-management capability.
• Able to work in a promoter-led environment while establishing professional accountability.
• Comfortable taking decisions and driving change with urgency.
• High integrity, maturity and stakeholder-management capability.

Joining:

The selected candidate should be available to join to a maximum of 30 days from selection.