About the Group:

An established seasonal-wear and textile manufacturing group with over three decades of heritage. Its product portfolio includes rainwear, winterwear, work and safety wear, corporate and institutional clothing, fabrics, and emerging all-season climate-clothing products.

The group has a substantial manufacturing footprint, with multiple production locations, in-house capabilities across specialized garment processes, and a large workforce. Its operating model requires coordination across production, quality, maintenance, procurement, supply chain, and commercial functions.

As the company expands manufacturing capacity, product categories, and domestic and export opportunities, operational visibility, productivity, quality, delivery performance, and standardized management systems become increasingly important.

Why this role matters:

The Chief of Staff will help the Director of Manufacturing convert manufacturing priorities into structured execution, improve factory-performance visibility, coordinate cross-functional initiatives, and strengthen operational accountability across locations.

Job Overview:

The Chief of Staff will serve as the Director's strategic execution partner, supporting manufacturing performance management, operational analysis, factory coordination, productivity initiatives, and cross-functional projects.

The role combines operations strategy, business analysis, project management, management reporting, problem-solving, and transformation execution.

This is not a conventional Executive Assistant or administrative coordination position. The successful candidate must interpret operational data, identify performance gaps, structure corrective actions, coordinate stakeholders, and drive initiatives towards measurable outcomes.

The position will be Thane-based, with coordination across the Group's manufacturing locations and occasional travel as required.

Core Responsibilities:

- Translate the Director's manufacturing priorities into structured action plans with clear owners, timelines, milestones, and expected outcomes.

- Prepare weekly and monthly operational reviews, management presentations, decision notes, and action trackers.

- Maintain a consolidated view of key manufacturing initiatives, risks, unresolved issues, and decisions required.

- Identify delays, cross-functional dependencies, and operational bottlenecks requiring escalation.

- Coordinate with factory heads and functional leaders to ensure timely execution of management decisions.

- Track manufacturing performance against production plans, operational targets, and agreed KPIs.

- Prepare dashboards covering production output, capacity utilization, productivity, downtime, wastage, quality, cost, and delivery performance.

- Consolidate operational information across manufacturing locations and highlight deviations from targets.

- Analyze recurring performance gaps and support the development of corrective-action plans.

- Improve the consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of manufacturing reports and management reviews.

- Coordinate with factory heads and plant teams to track production plans, operational priorities, and pending issues.

- Establish structured follow-up mechanisms for decisions arising from factory and management reviews.

- Monitor the closure of action items and escalate unresolved issues to the Director.

- Support standardization of reporting formats, review calendars, and operational governance across locations.

- Facilitate coordination between corporate management and factory teams while maintaining clear accountability with operational owners.

- Support initiatives to improve labour productivity, machine utilisation, throughput and process efficiency.

- Analyze production losses, rework, wastage, downtime, and other operational inefficiencies.

- Coordinate root-cause analysis and corrective-action reviews with relevant functional teams.

- Track cost-optimization initiatives and quantify benefits wherever practical.

- Support implementation of standard operating procedures, performance dashboards and continuous-improvement mechanisms.

- Coordinate with production planning, procurement, inventory, logistics, and commercial teams on operational dependencies.

- Monitor the alignment between production schedules, material availability, and customer delivery commitments.

- Track key issues affecting order fulfillment, inventory, lead times, and on-time-in-full delivery.

- Support analysis of seasonal demand patterns and their implications for capacity, manpower, and production planning.

- Identify cross-functional bottlenecks and facilitate timely resolution with accountable stakeholders.

- Track quality indicators, rejection rates, rework, and recurring production defects.

- Coordinate with quality and maintenance teams on improvement initiatives and unresolved issues.

- Monitor the progress of corrective and preventive actions.

- Support reviews of operational risks, process compliance, and production continuity.

- Ensure that key operational concerns are documented, assigned, and reviewed through appropriate management mechanisms.

- Own or co-own projects involving capacity expansion, process optimization, automation, technology adoption, and manufacturing improvement.

- Develop project charters, work plans, milestones, risk registers, and governance mechanisms.

- Coordinate with internal teams, vendors, and external partners on selected operational projects.

- Track implementation progress, resource dependencies, risks, and expected business benefits.

- Ensure that projects are completed within agreed timelines and deliver measurable operational impact.

- Identify opportunities to improve operational reporting through automation, dashboards, and digital tools.

- Support the adoption and effective use of ERP/SAP and other available business systems.

- Improve data quality, reporting consistency, and visibility across manufacturing locations.

- Explore practical AI-enabled applications for reporting, documentation, analysis, and productivity improvement.

- Track the impact of technology-enabled initiatives on efficiency and management visibility.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

- 3 - 4 years of relevant experience in manufacturing operations, operations excellence, industrial engineering, supply chain, management consulting, business operations, or a similar role.

- Experience supporting a plant head, operations leader, manufacturing director, or senior management team is preferred.

- Exposure to apparel, textiles, garments, FMCG, industrial or other manufacturing environments is advantageous.

- Understanding of production planning, productivity, quality, capacity utilization, and operational KPIs.

- Demonstrated experience in project tracking, performance reporting, problem-solving, and cross-functional execution.

- Strong proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; familiarity with ERP/SAP and dashboarding tools is an advantage.

- Ability to analyze operational data, identify deviations, and support corrective actions.

- Strong communication, coordination, ownership, and follow-through skills.

- Willingness to travel to manufacturing locations when required.

Education & Professional Qualifications:

- Preferred: B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical, Industrial, Production, or related Engineering disciplines.

- MBA/PGDM in Operations or Supply Chain, or other analytical disciplines with relevant manufacturing experience. IIM Mumbai (previously NITIE) preferred.

- Familiarity with Lean, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, or project-management methodologies is advantageous.

- Demonstrated problem-solving and execution capability will be prioritized over qualifications alone.