Plant Head/Manufacturing Lead

Job description

Plant Head — World's Largest Eyewear Manufacturing Facility Lenskart | Bhiwadi, India | On-site | Full-time Mission Brief: Build the Factory That the World Hasn't Seen Yet We didn't just build India's largest eyewear factory. We built a living, intelligent manufacturing system — and now we're looking for the leader who will take it to a level no one in this industry has reached. At Lenskart, manufacturing is not a support function. It is a core strategic weapon. Every lens ground, every frame assembled, every order shipped on time — these are competitive advantages that compound at scale. We produce millions of units annually across a facility powered by robotics, AI-driven quality systems, real-time digital intelligence, and one of the most advanced smart warehouse ecosystems in Indian manufacturing. This is not a plant management role. This is a platform leadership role — where the platform is a 3,000+ person, fully automated, AI-integrated factory that serves tens of millions of customers globally. 🔑 Core Mandate: Own, Build, Transform 1. AI-First Factory Operations (The Builder's Focus) Intelligent Systems Ownership: Lead the deployment and continuous improvement of AI/ML systems across the factory — including computer vision-based quality inspection, predictive maintenance models, AI-driven production scheduling, and real-time yield optimization engines. You won't just use these systems — you will define their roadmap, partner with data science and engineering teams to build them, and ensure they are embedded in every critical decision on the shop floor. Digital Manufacturing Architecture: Own the end-to-end smart manufacturing stack — MES, IIoT sensor networks, PLC/SCADA integration, AMRs/AGVs, AS/RS systems, and the WES↔WMS↔MES integration layer. Ensure this architecture evolves continuously and stays 3–5 years ahead of industry standard. Data-Driven Decision Culture: Drive the transition from supervisor instinct to system intelligence. Every throughput decision, quality gate, preventive maintenance call, and capacity allocation should be driven by real-time data. Your job is to make that the default, not the exception. 2. Manufacturing Performance & P&L Impact (The Business Focus) Factory KPIs: Own total manufacturing performance across safety, quality, cost, throughput, yield, delivery, and uptime — for a facility producing millions of units annually with 3,000+ team members across multiple production lines. P&L Ownership: Every automation investment, headcount decision, and process change must tie back to a measurable business outcome. You will own the manufacturing P&L levers with the same rigour as a business unit head. Capacity & Scale-Up: Lead capacity planning and factory scale-up to support aggressive growth across Lenskart's global retail and e-commerce network — anticipating demand surges, managing peak capacity, and designing for future product lines. Zero-Compromise Quality & Compliance: Maintain world-class EHS standards, statutory compliance, and quality systems — with AI-assisted defect detection and traceability built into every production stage. 3. People, Culture & Cross-Functional Leadership (The Leadership Focus) Shop-Floor Leadership at Scale: Build and lead a high-accountability, high-performance culture across 3,000+ blue-collar and technical team members. Create leaders at every level — not just managers. Cross-Functional Partnership: Work directly with central product, tech, data science, supply chain, and merchandising teams to co-build manufacturing capabilities. You are not a downstream recipient of technology — you are a co-creator of it. Institutionalise Excellence: Embed Lean, TPM, Six Sigma, and Kaizen not as periodic exercises but as the operating system of the factory — deeply integrated with AI tools and digital workflows. 🎯 What Winning Looks Like — Year 1 OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) improvement of 5–10 percentage points through AI-driven scheduling and predictive maintenance deployment Defect escape rate reduced by 30%+ through AI-powered vision inspection systems integrated into production lines MES and real-time IIoT data coverage across 90%+ of production operations — eliminating manual tracking as the default Capacity scaled by 20–30% without proportional headcount increase, through automation and intelligent line balancing A leadership pipeline: at least 2 levels of shop-floor management operating with full accountability and data literacy 🌍 Why This Role Is Genuinely Different The world's largest eyewear factory — unmatched scale, complexity, and ambition in one of the fastest-growing consumer categories globally A factory already running robotics, cobots, AI vision systems, and a deeply integrated smart warehousing ecosystem — and a mandate to go much further Freedom to place bold technology bets and rewrite the manufacturing playbook — backed by leadership that views factory innovation as a company-level priority Direct accountability for a product that reaches tens of millions of customers globally, every single day A company growing at a pace where your impact doesn't wait — it compounds 🧠 The Essentials Experience: 8-10 years of progressive leadership in large-scale, complex manufacturing operations, with clear evidence of building or significantly transforming a facility — not just running one. Technical Depth: Hands-on understanding of automation systems (robotics, cobots, PLCs, SCADA), digital manufacturing (MES, IIoT), and practical exposure to AI/ML deployment in manufacturing contexts (quality vision systems, predictive maintenance, scheduling optimisation). You can hold a technical conversation with a data scientist and a controls engineer on the same day. Business Acumen: You think in P&L terms. Every capital investment and process decision has an ROI case you can defend. Education: Engineering degree (Mechanical, Industrial, Electronics, or related). From top tier 1 Institutes. 💡 The Mindset Systems & AI Thinking: You see the factory as a product — not a fixed asset. You design systems, instrument them with data, and improve them continuously. You understand that AI is not a project to deliver — it is a capability to build into the operating fabric. Extreme Ownership: "If it breaks, I own it. If it wins, I scale it." Not a slogan — your actual operating mode. Builder Over Operator: You are energised by building what doesn't exist yet, not maintaining what does. You are comfortable with ambiguity, fast-moving constraints, and bold bets. Learning Agility: The technology landscape of advanced manufacturing is changing faster than any individual's experience base. You actively close that gap — every single quarter. 🚀 Growth & Impact at Lenskart Deliver results here, and your charter grows fast. This role is a natural launchpad toward multi-site manufacturing leadership, global operations ownership, or enterprise manufacturing strategy — for someone who earns it. At Lenskart, impact compounds. The factory you build in Year 1 is the foundation someone else will scale in Year 3. Make it worthy of that. If you believe a manufacturing operation can be faster, smarter, more human, and more audacious than what the world has seen — and you're ready to fully own that responsibility — this role was built for you.