Production Supervisor

Lead safe, efficient and consistent shift production across nut roasting, cooling, seasoning, packaging and related processing operations. The Production Supervisor converts the production plan into daily execution, coordinates people and equipment, controls yield and downtime, and ensures every batch is produced in accordance with approved specifications, food safety requirements and traceability controls.

• Translate the approved production plan into daily and shift schedules, including product sequence, staffing, equipment allocation, materials and expected output.
• Confirm line readiness before start up, including availability of released raw materials, packaging materials, approved specifications, clean equipment, utilities and competent operators.
• Conduct shift briefings, assign responsibilities and communicate production priorities, quality requirements, safety risks and changeover expectations.
• Monitor hourly output, line balance, work in progress, constraints and completion against plan, taking timely corrective action when performance falls below target.
• Coordinate orderly shift handovers covering production status, product holds, breakdowns, open deviations, material balances and outstanding actions.
• Provide hands on technical oversight of commercial nut roasting operations, including continuous hot air roasting, and ensure operators follow approved product recipes and roast profiles.
• Verify the correct product, batch, temperature zones, airflow, feed rate, bed depth, residence time and cooling conditions before and during each run.
• Work with Quality to confirm first off approval and in process checks for roast colour, flavour, texture, moisture, defects and other specified characteristics.
• Identify and correct process variation that may cause under roasting, over roasting, scorching, uneven colour, excessive breakage, rancidity risk or loss of yield.
• Ensure roasted product is protected from moisture pickup, contamination, allergen cross contact and excessive holding time before packaging.
• Prepare shift rosters, monitor attendance and timekeeping, allocate labour efficiently and escalate staffing gaps that threaten production continuity.
• Coach operators on standard operating procedures, machine controls, hygiene, quality checks, safe work practices and accurate record completion.
• Monitor individual and team performance, provide timely feedback, document performance or conduct concerns and support fair corrective action with People and Culture.
• Confirm that only trained and authorised employees operate production machinery and that relief operators are competent before assignment.
• Promote teamwork, respectful conduct, accountability, effective problem solving and continuous improvement across the shift.
• Enforce Good Manufacturing Practices, sanitation procedures, allergen controls, line clearance, foreign material controls and the approved HACCP or food safety plan.
• Ensure materials and products are correctly identified by batch or lot, physically segregated where required and traceable throughout roasting, packing, rework and storage.
• Stop production and notify Quality when product, process, hygiene, labelling, coding, metal detection or packaging results fall outside specification.

• Diploma or degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Production Management, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Training in Good Manufacturing Practices and HACCP is required.
• Training in occupational safety, fire safety, first aid, 5S or lean manufacturing is an added advantage.
• At least three to five years of production experience in food manufacturing, including at least two years in a supervisory or team leadership position.
• Demonstrable hands on experience in commercial nut roasting is mandatory.
• Experience with continuous hot air roasting systems is strongly preferred.
• Experience supervising integrated roasting, cooling, seasoning and automated packaging operations in a high hygiene environment.
• Strong understanding of roast process variables, product quality, yield, food safety, allergens, traceability and production documentation.
• Ability to read and interpret production plans, standard operating procedures, product specifications, machine data and shift performance reports.
• Practical leadership, workforce planning, coaching, conflict management and fair performance management capability.
• Structured problem solving, sound judgement under pressure and disciplined escalation of risk.
• Good written and verbal communication, numerical accuracy and basic competence in spreadsheets or production systems.