Senior Manager – Moulding & Tool Maintenance

Position

Senior Manager – Moulding \& Tool Maintenance

Department

Moulding

Reporting to

Plant Head

Experience : 15 + yrs

Salary upto 35 LPA

Location

Cochin, Kerala, India

Position Summary

Provide strategic and operational leadership for a high-technology, high-volume Moulding operation supporting precision electronic connector manufacturing. Lead a manufacturing footprint of 50+ injection moulding machines, covering vertical, horizontal, reel-to-reel, and over-moulding technologies with advanced automation.

Own the end-to-end performance of the Moulding function, including manufacturing operations, process engineering, automation, capacity planning, productivity, quality, cost, and delivery, while building and managing a robust external moulding ecosystem through vendor development, job work, and purchase models.

Develop a high-quality, technically capable, cost-competitive, and scalable moulding vendor network to support business growth, capacity flexibility, localization, and supply continuity. Establish strong technical and commercial governance for outsourced moulding, ensuring consistent quality, competitive total cost, delivery reliability, process capability, and adherence to global manufacturing standards.

Key Responsibilities

High-Tech Moulding Operations

• Lead a high-volume Moulding shopfloor comprising 50+ injection moulding machines, covering vertical, horizontal, reel-to-reel, and over-moulding technologies.
• Drive performance across Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, OEE, Productivity, Yield, and Capacity Utilization.
• Optimize moulding processes, cycle times, machine utilization, material consumption, changeovers, and process stability.
• Drive advanced automation, robotics, vision systems, process monitoring, and digital manufacturing solutions.
• Establish robust manufacturing standards to ensure consistent and capable processes.

Moulding Vendor Development \& External Manufacturing

• Develop and maintain a strategic network of capable moulding vendors to support internal capacity and business growth.
• Identify, evaluate, technically assess, qualify, and develop new moulding vendors based on technology, capacity, quality systems, process capability, scalability, and cost competitiveness.
• Develop vendors capable of meeting stringent requirements for precision electronic connector components.
• Establish structured vendor capability assessment, qualification, process validation, and performance-monitoring systems.
• Develop alternate sources and a resilient vendor base to mitigate capacity, quality, and supply risks.
• Drive continuous improvement of vendor capability through technical support, process audits, quality improvement initiatives, and performance reviews.

Job Work \& Purchase Model Management

• Develop and implement appropriate job-work and purchase models based on product characteristics, capacity requirements, cost competitiveness, and strategic sourcing considerations.
• Evaluate the optimal make-versus-buy / internal-versus-external manufacturing approach for moulding requirements.
• Establish clear commercial, technical, quality, and delivery expectations for outsourced moulding.
• Drive cost-effective external manufacturing without compromising product quality, process capability, IP protection, delivery, or customer requirements.
• Monitor and optimize the overall economics of outsourced moulding, including conversion cost, material utilization, logistics, tooling utilization, and total landed cost.
• Ensure effective capacity allocation between internal operations and external manufacturing partners.

Vendor Quality \& Process Capability

• Establish stringent quality and process capability requirements for all moulding vendors.
• Drive First-Time-Right, defect prevention, process capability, yield improvement, and reduction of customer-related quality issues.
• Conduct regular supplier process audits and capability assessments.
• Ensure effective implementation of PFMEA, Control Plans, SPC, MSA, process validation, and structured problem-solving at key vendors.
• Lead supplier corrective and preventive actions for quality and delivery issues.
• Establish vendor scorecards covering Quality, Cost, Delivery, Capacity, Responsiveness, and Continuous Improvement.

Cost Competitiveness

• Drive a cost-efficient moulding ecosystem through competitive sourcing, productivity improvement, process optimization, automation, and vendor development.
• Benchmark internal and external conversion costs and identify cost-reduction opportunities.
• Develop competitive commercial models for job work and purchased moulded components.
• Partner with Procurement and Finance to ensure transparency and competitiveness of moulding costs.
• Drive annual cost-reduction and productivity initiatives across the internal and external moulding network.

Capacity \& Business Continuity

• Develop short-, medium-, and long-term moulding capacity strategies aligned with business growth and customer demand.
• Balance internal capacity with external vendor capacity to provide flexibility, scalability, and responsiveness.
• Establish contingency and alternate-source strategies for critical components.
• Ensure vendor capacity readiness for new product launches, volume ramps, and demand fluctuations.

New Product Introduction \& Industrialization

• Partner with Engineering, NPI, Quality, and Supply Chain teams for successful industrialization of new moulded connector components.
• Assess manufacturability and external manufacturing feasibility during product development.
• Lead vendor selection, capability assessment, trials, validation, and production ramp-up for outsourced moulding.
• Ensure new vendors and processes achieve required quality, capability, cost, and delivery targets before production release.

Operational Excellence \& Technology

• Drive Lean Manufacturing, TPM