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What does a production team leader do?

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
What does a production team leader do

A production team leader is in charge of leading and overseeing the efforts of a production team, ensuring projects are carried out in adherence to its goals and timelines. It is their duty to set guidelines and objectives, manage budgets and schedules, liaise with internal and external parties, and assess the performance of team members. They must also monitor the progress of operations and address issues and concerns, resolving them promptly and efficiently. Moreover, a production team leader must encourage and lead staff to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

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Production team leader responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real production team leader resumes:

  • Devise and implement procedures to achieve ISO registration.
  • Manage manufacturing department operations to ensure compliance with establish quality specifications, production levels, and FDA regulations.
  • Enforce policy and procedures including GMP and HACCP; ensure employees follow FDA, GDA, OHSA regulations.
  • Request parts from materials warehouse, assist and troubleshoot assembly procedures; research part numbers, build procedures and schematics.
  • Improve general production and quality of product by ensuring strict commitment to GMP, FDA regulations, and standard operating procedures.
  • Participate in Kaizen meetings to increase production efficiency and reduce downtime.
  • Develop quality paperwork tacking database to monitor operations group compliance for ISO and internal audits.
  • Work closely with management and program engineers to troubleshoot manufacturing issues and develop programming and implementation resolutions.
  • Lead targeted decision-making across fast-pace production operations for this growth-orient USDA food factory producing quality meat products.
  • Enforce safety guidelines for personal protective equipment (PPE) use, training and educating team members on proper equipment utilization.
  • Design and hold classes for lockout tag out, trimming, wizard knife, proper use of PPE and ergonomic safety.
  • Introduce new method to stabilize WIP to prevent damage and reduce opportunity for error.
  • Demonstrate skills include electronic and switch assembly, assembly drawings, testing of switches, and MRP software.
  • Work with MRP to schedule timely delivery of materials to minimize floor space require and unnecessary movement of materials.
  • Trouble shoots all extrusion lines with daily process issues.

Production team leader skills and personality traits

We calculated that 8% of Production Team Leaders are proficient in Customer Service, Safety Procedures, and Quality Standards.

We break down the percentage of Production Team Leaders that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Service, 8%

    Managed business to internal customers ensuring full pipeline and account customer service involving strategic planning and direction.

  • Safety Procedures, 7%

    Promoted a safe working environment by effectively ensuring safety procedures are adhered to.!

  • Quality Standards, 6%

    Maintained and communicated quality standards, handled administration and documentation, advocated company policies and procedures and maintained safe work environment.

  • Work Ethic, 5%

    Set the standard in work area in terms of quantity and quality of work, attendance and work ethic.

  • Production Schedules, 5%

    Performed and maintained production schedules for materials being shipped which assisted in the identification and implementation of Material Flow improvement.

  • Lean Manufacturing, 5%

    Initiated continuous improvement and total employee involvement in critical success areas by empowering employees to utilize lean manufacturing tools.

Common skills that a production team leader uses to do their job include "customer service," "safety procedures," and "quality standards." You can find details on the most important production team leader responsibilities below.

Most common production team leader skills

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Production Team Leader Resume
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Production Team Leader Resume

Compare different production team leaders

Production team leader vs. Leader

Leaders pave the way for a company to achieve certain goals. They are in charge of bringing the organization to greater heights. They set the direction of the organization, much like how a captain sets the sails of the ship. They are responsible for coming up with main strategies and alternatives should there be challenges along the way. Leaders ensure that the company is guided by its vision and mission and that the employees emulate company values. They do so through leading by example. Leaders should have strategic skills, decision-making skills, and interpersonal skills.

If we compare the average production team leader annual salary with that of a leader, we find that leaders typically earn a $48,184 higher salary than production team leaders make annually.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both production team leader and leader positions are skilled in customer service, work ethic, and basic math.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a production team leader are more likely to require skills like "safety procedures," "quality standards," "production schedules," and "strong work ethic." On the other hand, a job as a leader requires skills like "strong time management," "excellent interpersonal," "pet," and "digital transformation." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

The education levels that leaders earn slightly differ from production team leaders. In particular, leaders are 5.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a production team leader. Additionally, they're 1.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Production team leader vs. Cell leader

A team leader or supervisor is an individual who leads and supervises a workgroup's functionality through instructions and guidance in an organization. Team leaders provide support to staff members by way of coaching and skills development. They are responsible for preventing and resolving conflicts among staff members by setting ground rules and assigning tasks properly. They also organize team meetings and report the progress of a project to the management. Since they lead a workforce, team leaders must possess excellent verbal communication skills and have a great work ethic.

Cell leader positions earn higher pay than production team leader roles. They earn a $70,477 higher salary than production team leaders per year.A few skills overlap for production team leaders and cell leaders. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "safety procedures," "quality standards," and "production schedules. "

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, production team leader responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "work ethic," "strong work ethic," and "basic math." Meanwhile, a cell leader has duties that require skills in areas such as "ace," "safety rules," "customer satisfaction," and "leadership." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

Average education levels between the two professions vary. Cell leaders tend to reach similar levels of education than production team leaders. In fact, they're 1.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Production team leader vs. Team leader/supervisor

Production supervision managers display strong skills in supervision, decision-making, effective planning, and also have a keen eye for detail. This career will call on the maintenance of a production line's operations, as well as the ongoing production of the end product, in addition to maximizing production while maintaining quality products and staff safety.

On average, team leader/supervisors earn higher salaries than production team leaders, with a $12,061 difference per year.By looking over several production team leaders and team leader/supervisors resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "customer service," "safety procedures," and "quality standards." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, production team leaders are more likely to have skills like "work ethic," "strong work ethic," "lean manufacturing," and "basic math." But a team leader/supervisor is more likely to have skills like "sales floor," "payroll," "customer care," and "windows."

Most team leader/supervisors achieve a similar degree level compared to production team leaders. For example, they're 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Production team leader vs. Production supervisor/manager

Production supervisors/manager tend to earn a higher pay than production team leaders by an average of $50,023 per year.While both production team leaders and production supervisors/manager complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like safety procedures, quality standards, and production schedules, the two careers vary in some skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap between production team leaders and production supervisors/manager, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a production team leader might have more use for skills like "customer service," "work ethic," "strong work ethic," and "basic math." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of production supervisors/manager require skills like "spc," "production supervisors," "on-time delivery," and "production facility. "

The average resume of production supervisors/manager showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to production team leaders. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.4%.

Types of production team leader

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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