Distribution Operations Manager Jobs in Wheaton, IL

Job Purpose:

The Production Operations Manager is responsible for planning, directing, and executing daily warehouse production to meet customer order fulfillment requirements in a public third-party logistics (3PL) environment. This role owns daily volume execution, labor allocation, and prioritization of work to ensure customer orders are fulfilled accurately, on time, and at required service levels.

The Production Operations Manager focuses on what gets done, by whom, and when - balancing labor, volume, and priorities across shifts while responding to changing customer demands. This role works closely with the Process Operations Manager to execute established processes while maximizing throughput, productivity, and service performance.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Core duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned, as this list is not exhaustive. This position requires the Production Operations Manager to physically report to work in order to effectuate the below responsibilities. Duties apply to at any and all Distribution 2000, Inc. locations, including 1165 W. Crossroads, 1200-1208 N. Schmidt Road, and 1186 Arbor Drive, and any other locations that may be added from time to time; travel between facilities will be required.

Daily Production & Volume Management

• Own daily execution of warehouse production, including receiving, picking, shipping, and value-added services as applicable.
• Plan and manage daily and shift-level production volumes to meet customer order fulfillment deadlines and SLAs, as may be applicable.
• Adjust production plans in real time based on volume changes, labor availability, system constraints, and customer priorities.

Labor Planning & Personnel Assignment

• Assign personnel daily across operational functions to optimize productivity and service levels.
• Balance staffing across shifts, departments, and customers to meet workload demands.
• Partner with supervisors and leads to manage attendance, coverage, overtime usage, and labor efficiency.

Work Prioritization & Customer Fulfillment

• Prioritize daily work queues to ensure critical customer orders ship on time.
• Coordinate order release and wave execution in partnership with Customer Service and WMS teams.
• Manage escalations related to order fulfillment delays, shortages, or urgent customer needs.

Performance Management

• Drive productivity, throughput, and on-time performance against established targets.
• Monitor real-time production metrics and take corrective action to address gaps.
• Hold supervisors, leads and frontline teams accountable to daily performance expectations.

Team Leadership & Execution

• Lead warehouse supervisors and leads in executing daily production plans.
• Provide clear direction, expectations, and communication to frontline leadership.
• Coach supervisors on labor utilization, shift execution, and short-term problem solving.
• Oversee, manage and develop warehouse function lead team, in partnership with Process Operations Manager.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with the Process Operations Manager to execute standardized processes and identify production constraints.
• Partner with Customer Service to align production priorities with customer commitments.
• Collaborate with Maintenance, Safety, and IT/WMS teams to minimize downtime and disruptions.
• Partner with the HR Generalist to identify staffing needs and support recruiting, training, performance management/evaluation, and development to meet operational growth demands.
• Collaborate with the Process Operations Manager, HR Generalist, and functional leads to develop, implement, and ensure accountability to structured training programs.

Food Safety & Defense Programs

Safety & Compliance

• Ensure warehouse staff personal safety and security.
• Ensure daily production activities are executed safely and in compliance with company policies and regulations.
• Address unsafe conditions or behaviors immediately and reinforce safety expectations during execution.
• Follow and enforce all established building opening and closing procedures to ensure building and personal security.

Shift and Supervisory Responsibility:

Oversees and manages all operational staff with regard to process on assigned shifts. May be required to work Saturdays, when applicable, and may serve as backup for operational managers, supervisors, leads as necessary.

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience:

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering or related field, or five to ten years related experience and/or training; five or more years of experience in warehouse or 3PL operations with direct responsibility for production or shift execution; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Strong understanding of warehouse labor planning and order fulfillment operations. Demonstrated ability to manage changing priorities in a fast-paced environment

Language Skills:

Ability to read, analyze and interpret business reports, procedures and processes. Ability to respond to common inquires or complaints from employees and external and internal customers. Ability to effectively and succinctly present information to top management, clear, confident communicator at all organizational levels.

Mathematic Skills:

Ability to apply mathematical operations to such tasks as frequency distribution, determination of test reliability and validity, analysis of variance, correlation techniques, and factor analysis.

Reasoning Ability:

Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables. Process-driven and detail-oriented mindset, strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Computer Skills:

Warehouse Management System; Made4Net, Synapse, RF, Bar Code Scanning

MS Office: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; stand; walk; use hands to finger; handle, feel; reach with hands and arms; push and pull with hands and arms; sit; and talk and/or hear.

The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 20 pounds, and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee can be exposed to cold and heat, depending on season.

The noise level in the warehouse work environment can be loud.