Industrial Production Managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the work activities and resources necessary for manufacturing products in accordance with cost, quality, and quantity specifications.
- Median annual earnings
- $123,808
- Projected change
- +6%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 252.58K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
34.7% of the workforce
Growing to 267.64K by 2035
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Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
The work
What industrial production managers do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Direct or coordinate production, processing, distribution, or marketing activities of industrial organizations.
- Review processing schedules or production orders to make decisions concerning inventory requirements, staffing requirements, work procedures, or duty assignments, considering budgetary limitations and time constraints.
- Set and monitor product standards, examining samples of raw products or directing testing during processing, to ensure finished products are of prescribed quality.
- Review operations and confer with technical or administrative staff to resolve production or processing problems.
- Hire, train, evaluate, or discharge staff or resolve personnel grievances.
- Develop or implement production tracking or quality control systems, analyzing production, quality control, maintenance, or other operational reports to detect production problems.
- Prepare and maintain production reports or personnel records.
- Develop budgets or approve expenditures for supplies, materials, or human resources, ensuring that materials, labor, or equipment are used efficiently to meet production targets.
- Review plans and confer with research or support staff to develop new products or processes.
- Maintain current knowledge of the quality control field, relying on current literature pertaining to materials use, technological advances, or statistical studies.
- Coordinate or recommend procedures for facility or equipment maintenance or modification, including the replacement of machines.
- Initiate or coordinate inventory or cost control programs.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $75,887
- 25th percentile
- $95,923
- 50th percentile
- $123,808
- 75th percentile
- $160,054
- 90th percentile
- $205,416
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $123,808 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
15,060 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 34.7%
- Bachelor's degree
- 28.3%
- Certificate
- 16.2%
- Some college
- 11.5%
- Associate degree
- 8.1%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 1.2%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Plant Managers6,194 postings
- 02Production Managers3,381 postings
- 03Manufacturing Managers2,733 postings
- 04Directors of Manufacturing1,177 postings
- 05Manufacturing Operations Managers738 postings
- 06Assistant Managers532 postings
- 07Manufacturing Production Managers493 postings
- 08Manufacturing Program Managers361 postings
- 09Manufacturing Project Managers351 postings
- 10Value Stream Managers328 postings
- 11Directors of Manufacturing Operations304 postings
- 12Manufacturing Plant Managers288 postings
- 13Manufacturing General Managers265 postings
- 14Manufacturing Supply Chain Managers265 postings
- 15Manufacturing Industrial Engineers262 postings
- 16Associate Directors of Manufacturing209 postings
- 17Manufacturing Excellence Managers206 postings
- 18Manufacturing Product Managers199 postings
- 19Manufacturing Leads145 postings
- 20Plant Directors143 postings
Top employers
- 01GPAC556 postings
- 02GE Aerospace295 postings
- 03Accenture206 postings
- 04Boeing199 postings
- 05Jmj Phillip Group189 postings
- 06Alvarez & Marsal171 postings
- 07PricewaterhouseCoopers166 postings
- 08Eli Lilly160 postings
- 09Merck & Co.148 postings
- 10Northrop Grumman123 postings
- 11Otsuka America112 postings
- 12Actalent110 postings
- 13Addison Group106 postings
- 14Eaton Corporation103 postings
- 15Amazon102 postings
- 16Pond & Company101 postings
- 17Lockheed Martin99 postings
- 18PageGroup98 postings
- 19General Motors95 postings
- 20Blue Origin92 postings
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