Senior production manager vs production superintendent

The differences between senior production managers and production superintendents 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 a production superintendent. Additionally, a senior production manager has an average salary of $128,721, which is higher than the $88,703 average annual salary of a production superintendent.

The top three skills for a senior production manager include project management, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing. The most important skills for a production superintendent are continuous improvement, OSHA, and production supervisors.

Senior production manager vs production superintendent overview

	Senior Production Manager	Production Superintendent
Yearly salary	$128,721	$88,703
Hourly rate	$61.89	$42.65
Growth rate	3%	-
Number of jobs	55,902	101,534
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
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 a production superintendent do?

A production superintendent oversees the production operations of manufacturing plants to ensure their efficiency and adherence to guidelines, budgets, and timelines. They have the authority to coordinate meetings with managers and teams to set objectives and schedules, supervise the use of funds, address issues and concerns, conduct assessments and evaluations, and develop strategies to meet production goals. Moreover, as a production superintendent, it is essential to lead staff while implementing the company's safety policies and regulations for a smooth and safe workflow.

Senior production manager vs production superintendent salary

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

	Senior Production Manager	Production Superintendent
Average salary	$128,721	$88,703
Salary range	Between $91,000 And $181,000	Between $62,000 And $125,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	East Windsor, NJ
Highest paying state	Alaska	New Jersey
Best paying company	The Walt Disney Company	Bunge
Best paying industry	Technology	Automotive

Differences between senior production manager and production superintendent education

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

	Senior Production Manager	Production Superintendent
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Northwestern University	Stanford University

Senior production manager vs production superintendent demographics

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

	Senior Production Manager	Production Superintendent
Average age	48	46
Gender ratio	Male, 65.5% Female, 34.5%	Male, 95.5% Female, 4.5%
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, 13.1% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 4.8% White, 61.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	8%	6%

Differences between senior production manager and production superintendent 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.

Production superintendent example responsibilities.

Manage day-to-day operation and maintenance activities in a high volume, OSHA, PSM cover specialty chemical manufacturing facility.
Participate in kaizen events and lean projects.
Script SQL commands for data mining and ad-hoc reports.
Analyze vendor data and debug production databases (SQL).
Introduce Kaizen and SPC to facility and develop metrics for operating unit.
Train employees in hazard analysis of critical control points (HACCP).

Senior production manager vs production superintendent skills

Common senior production manager skills

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

Common production superintendent skills

Continuous Improvement, 10%
OSHA, 10%
Production Supervisors, 9%
Safety Standards, 9%
Product Quality, 7%
Equipment Maintenance, 5%

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Senior Production Manager
Senior Production Manager vs Production Superintendent

Updated January 8, 2025

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