Key Responsibilities
1. Production Planning & Shop Floor Management
- Lead daily production schedules to achieve targeted line speeds, throughput volumes, and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) targets.
- Oversee the seamless operations of the entire coating sequence: Pre-Treatment chemical cleaning, CED coating, liquid/powder top-coating booths, and flash-off/curing ovens.
- Manage a large team of engineers, technicians, and operators, ensuring optimal resource allocation and a high-performance culture.
- Minimize downtime by collaborating with the maintenance team to execute preventive and predictive maintenance for conveyors, spray guns, rectifiers, and baking ovens.
2. Quality Assurance & Process Control
- Own key shop quality metrics, focusing heavily on maximizing FTT (First Time Through) and minimizing rework/rejection rates.
- Systematically troubleshoot paint defects such as orange peel, pinholes, craters, dirt inclusion, adhesion failure, and color/gloss variations.
- Monitor and control critical chemical parameters in the PT/CED baths (pH, conductivity, bath temperature, total dissolved solids, and bacterial growth).
- Enforce compliance with automotive industry standards (IATF 16949, ISO 9001) and customer-specific engineering specifications.
3. Cost Optimization & Sustainable Practices
- Drive cost-reduction initiatives focusing on CPU (Cost Per Unit) optimization, reducing paint/powder consumption, and optimizing chemical wastage.
- Implement energy-saving measures, particularly in energy-intensive thermal curing ovens and climate-controlled spray booths.
- Oversee chemical and hazardous waste management, ensuring strict compliance with State Pollution Control Board guidelines and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) norms.
4. Team Leadership & Continuous Improvement
- Champion a culture of workplace safety, ensuring strict adherence to PPE protocols, hazardous chemical handling, and fire safety systems.
- Deploy Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Kaizen, and Six Sigma methodologies to eliminate process bottlenecks and waste.
- Identify skill gaps and lead training programs for team members regarding new coating technologies, safety practices, and quality standards.
Required Technical Skills & Competencies
- Coating Technologies: Deep, hands-on knowledge of Cathodic Electrodeposition (CED), liquid multi-coat painting systems, electrostatic powder coating, and specialized pre-treatment chemistries (zinc/zinc-phosphating or nano-ceramic).
- Equipment Familiarity: Expert understanding of automated paint spray systems, bells/reciprocators, industrial baking ovens, chemical dosing pumps, rectifiers, and overhead conveyor systems.
- Testing & Analysis: Mastery of paint film testing tools, including DFT (Dry Film Thickness) meters, cross-hatch adhesion testers, impact testers, gloss meters, and color spectrophotometers.
- Problem Solving: Proficient in root-cause analysis tools (8D, Fishbone/Ishikawa diagram, 5-Why analysis, FMEA).
