Senior production manager vs assistant production manager

The differences between senior production managers and assistant production managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior production manager and an assistant production manager. Additionally, a senior production manager has an average salary of $128,721, which is higher than the $60,730 average annual salary of an assistant production manager.

The top three skills for a senior production manager include project management, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing. The most important skills for an assistant production manager are OSHA, production schedules, and safety procedures.

Senior production manager vs assistant production manager overview

	Senior Production Manager	Assistant Production Manager
Yearly salary	$128,721	$60,730
Hourly rate	$61.89	$29.20
Growth rate	3%	10%
Number of jobs	55,902	91,839
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	48	46
Years of experience	2	2

What does a senior production manager do?

Basically, a Senior Production Manager takes responsibility for supervising the production reports in assigned departments. Senior Production Managers are in charge of the product workmanship or product quality of methods, techniques, and processes. They focus on conformance with economical manufacturing objectives, profit goals, and production schedules. They ensure that the production process is on time and within the budget.

What does an assistant production manager do?

An assistant production manager is responsible for planning and overseeing an organization's manufacturing operations, ensuring everything runs smoothly and efficiently. They work under the directives and supervision of a production manager and present them with regular progress reports. Moreover, an assistant production manager also performs support tasks such as preparing guidelines and timelines, assessing the workforce's performance, liaising with internal and external parties, maintaining records, coordinating staff, and resolving issues and concerns. They must also lead and encourage staff while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

Senior production manager vs assistant production manager salary

Senior production managers and assistant production managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Production Manager	Assistant Production Manager
Average salary	$128,721	$60,730
Salary range	Between $91,000 And $181,000	Between $39,000 And $93,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Piscataway, NJ
Highest paying state	Alaska	New Jersey
Best paying company	The Walt Disney Company	Pace University
Best paying industry	Technology	Automotive

Differences between senior production manager and assistant production manager education

There are a few differences between a senior production manager and an assistant production manager in terms of educational background:

	Senior Production Manager	Assistant Production Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Stanford University

Senior production manager vs assistant production manager demographics

Here are the differences between senior production managers' and assistant production managers' demographics:

	Senior Production Manager	Assistant Production Manager
Average age	48	46
Gender ratio	Male, 65.5% Female, 34.5%	Male, 65.6% Female, 34.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 13.1% Asian, 9.1% White, 69.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 17.4% Asian, 5.1% White, 60.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	8%	6%

Differences between senior production manager and assistant production manager duties and responsibilities

Senior production manager example responsibilities.

Train all plant departments in following them in the IBM AS400 system achieving a significant reduction in transaction errors.
Manage and direct production QA and QC managers to ensure top quality product ships on time and with proper packaging.
Organize and manage daily activities of design studio; including financials, operational expenses, creating BOM charts and product costing.
Manage product booking to multiple overseas business partners seasonally.
Manage all booking and costing negotiations including seasonal costing and forecasting.
Coordinate logistics, and manage entire shipping department including warehouse and employees.

Assistant production manager example responsibilities.

Manage welding and CNC machinery operations.
Lead targeted decision-making across fast-pace production operations for this growth-orient USDA food factory producing quality meat products.
Establish first compute environment standards for production Unix platforms.
Serve as client liaison communicating project status and SLA requirements.
Maintain all necessary records pertaining to HACCP and USDA regulations regarding cook/chill program.
Train students and staff on HACCP regulations, safe food handling practices and recipe adherence.

Senior production manager vs assistant production manager skills

Common senior production manager skills

Project Management, 8%
Continuous Improvement, 7%
Lean Manufacturing, 6%
SR, 4%
Production Schedules, 4%
Sigma, 4%

Common assistant production manager skills

OSHA, 8%
Production Schedules, 7%
Safety Procedures, 7%
ISO, 6%
Production Process, 5%
Payroll, 5%

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Senior Production Manager
Senior Production Manager vs Assistant Production Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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