Production Supervisor Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A production supervisor runs the shift: the people, the schedule, the safety rules and the numbers that come off the line. It sits between the line lead, who works alongside the crew, and the plant manager, who runs the site. This page has a production supervisor job description template you can copy, the duties O*NET lists for the role, what it pays, and the requirement most postings should rewrite.
What a production supervisor does
A production supervisor runs a shift, a line or a department on the floor. The federal occupation is first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (SOC 51-1011): people who directly supervise and coordinate the work of inspectors, machine setters and operators, assemblers, fabricators and plant operators. BLS explicitly excludes team or work leaders, which is the first line to draw in your own posting. A production supervisor is responsible for people: scheduling them, training them, evaluating them and, where the role allows, recommending who gets hired, promoted or disciplined.
It is also not the plant manager’s job. A plant manager (industrial production managers, 11-3051) owns the whole site: budgets, capital, staffing plans and the numbers the corporate office sees. The supervisor owns the shift that produces those numbers. The pay reflects it: the May 2025 median for industrial production managers was $126,060, against $74,450 for first-line production supervisors.
| Team or work lead | Production supervisor | Plant manager | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | A crew or cell, while also doing the work | A shift, line or department | The whole site |
| People decisions | Usually none; coordinates and trains | Schedules, trains, evaluates, recommends hiring and discipline | Sets staffing levels and hires supervisors |
| Numbers owned | Today’s output | Shift output, scrap, safety, attendance | Cost, capacity, capital, the P&L |
| BLS occupation | Counted with the workers they lead | 51-1011 | 11-3051 |
Production supervisor duties
O*NET (51-1011.00) lists “Production Supervisor”, “Line Supervisor”, “Manufacturing Supervisor” and “Assembly Supervisor” among the reported titles. Its task list, grouped the way the job actually runs:
Running the shift
- Read and analyze charts, work orders and production schedules to determine requirements
- Plan work schedules, assignments and production sequences
- Direct and coordinate the work of production workers
- Observe work and monitor gauges and dials to make sure standards are met
- Confer with other supervisors to coordinate operations
- Requisition materials, supplies and equipment parts
People
- Keep records of attendance and hours worked
- Train employees in equipment operation and safety procedures
- Evaluate employee performance and resolve worker problems
- Recommend or carry out personnel actions such as hiring and promotion
Safety, quality and reporting
- Enforce safety and sanitation rules
- Inspect materials, products and equipment for defects or malfunctions
- Interpret specifications, blueprints, job orders and company policies
- Maintain operations data and prepare reports for management
- Recommend ways to motivate employees and improve production
The software O*NET names is the plant’s system of record: SAP, Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Epicor, Kronos Workforce Timekeeper for time and attendance, Minitab for quality data, and Excel for everything else.
The work context explains why the job is hard to fill and hard to keep:
| Working conditions | Share reporting it |
|---|---|
| Wear protective or safety equipment | 92% every day |
| Face-to-face discussions | 88% every day |
| Work week longer than 40 hours | 83% |
| Make decisions | 73% every day |
| Distracting or uncomfortable noise | 72% every day |
| Time pressure | 69% every day |
| Exposed to hazardous equipment | 59% every day |
83 percent report working more than 40 hours a week. If your supervisors are salaried and routinely stay late, say so; if you have fixed the problem, say that louder, because it is the first thing an experienced supervisor will ask.
Production supervisor job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields and delete what does not apply. It is written for a manufacturing plant; the notes below cover food processing, 24/7 operations and internal promotion.
Job title
Production Supervisor [/ Line Supervisor / Manufacturing Supervisor], [Shift], [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a production supervisor for [shift] at our [plant type] in [city]. You will lead a team of [number] [operators / assemblers / packers] on [line or department], hit the shift’s safety, quality and output targets, and develop the people who make them. You report to [title].
[Shift and days, rotation if any]. [Pay range; salaried or hourly; overtime eligibility]. [One sentence on what is good about working here.]
What you will do
• Plan the shift from the production schedule and assign people and equipment
• Lead start-of-shift meetings and hand off cleanly to the next shift
• Keep the line running: monitor output, scrap and downtime, and act on problems early
• Enforce safety rules and [lockout-tagout / GMP / food safety] procedures; investigate incidents
• Train new and existing team members on equipment, standard work and safety
• Track attendance and hours in [Kronos / system], approve time, and handle call-offs
• Coach, give feedback, complete performance reviews and handle discipline with HR
• Work with maintenance, quality and scheduling to fix recurring problems
• Report shift results in [system] and recommend improvements
What you need
• [Number] years in a manufacturing environment, including [time] leading people as a lead or supervisor
• Working knowledge of [your process: molding / machining / assembly / packaging / food processing]
• Comfortable with [ERP / MES], Excel and email
• Able to stay calm, make decisions fast and explain them
• Available for [shift, weekends, overtime as described]
Nice to have
• Lean, 5S or continuous-improvement experience
• [OSHA 10 or 30 / HACCP / SQF] training
• [Bilingual: name the language your floor speaks]
• Associate’s or bachelor’s degree in a technical or business field
What we offer
• [Pay range], [shift differential], [bonus tied to what]
• [Schedule, and how overtime works for supervisors]
• [Benefits and eligibility date]
• [Leadership training]
• [The next job: area manager, production manager, plant manager]
How to apply
[One short step. Offer a call with the plant manager, not a portal.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Education | BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. In O*NET’s survey, 33 percent reported a high school diploma as required, 15 percent some college and 14 percent less than a high school diploma. A required bachelor’s degree screens out the leads on your own floor. |
| Experience | BLS lists less than five years of related work experience and no additional on-the-job training. Ask for leadership experience, which a line lead has, rather than a supervisor title. |
| Process knowledge | Worth asking for when your process is specialized (injection molding, food safety, regulated products). Name it. |
| Systems | Name the ERP, MES and timekeeping system. They are learnable; treat them as a plus. |
| Schedule | State the shift, the rotation and the actual weekly hours. It is one of the first things candidates check. |
| Lean or Six Sigma | A plus in most plants. A belt requirement shrinks the pool and rarely predicts who can run a shift. |
Customizing it by setting
Plastics, metal and machinery
Plastics product manufacturing, machinery manufacturing and fabricated metal products are among the largest employers of production supervisors in the May 2025 OEWS data. Name the process, the equipment and the quality system, and say how many direct reports.
Food and beverage
Food safety, sanitation and changeovers dominate. Add GMP and HACCP responsibilities and whether the plant is refrigerated. Food and beverage retailers also appear among the five largest employers in the OEWS data.
Automotive parts and 24/7 operations
Motor vehicle parts manufacturing is another large employer. On continuous schedules, say which rotation, how handoffs work and how often the supervisor is called in on days off.
What production supervisors earn
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers had a median wage of $74,450 a year, about $35.79 an hour, in May 2025. The middle half earned between $58,630 and $91,680; the lowest 10 percent earned less than $47,130 and the highest 10 percent more than $108,750. OEWS wage figures exclude overtime and shift differentials, so hourly supervisors on long weeks earn more than these figures show.
| Percentile (May 2025) | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $22.66 | $47,130 |
| 25th | $28.19 | $58,630 |
| Median | $35.79 | $74,450 |
| 75th | $44.08 | $91,680 |
| 90th | $52.28 | $108,750 |
BLS counted 679,900 production supervisors in 2025 and projects employment to grow 2 percent (slower than average) through 2035, about 12,400 more jobs. It projects about 61,000 openings a year, most of them replacing supervisors who retire, move up or leave. Texas, California, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania employ the most. BLS does not publish a detailed Occupational Outlook Handbook profile for this occupation; the figures come from its summary data for occupations not covered in detail and its employment projections tables.
What it costs to reach a production supervisor
We benchmark production supervisors in the management / professional role family, the closest match in our data for people-leading roles. Those campaigns ran a median cost per applicant of $16.87 on Meta, with a wide middle-half band of $4.62 to $60.11, a blended figure of $5.45 and a 16 percent apply rate. The all-role median is $13.88.
That wide band is the point. A supervisor posting that names the shift, the pay, the team size and the promotion path converts; a generic one aimed at employed supervisors does not. The operators they lead sit in our warehouse / production family at a $9.83 median, so expect a supervisor search to cost more per applicant than the line hiring it supports.
Building the rest of the plant team? See the plant manager, shift lead, production operator, maintenance supervisor and quality technician job descriptions, and use our production supervisor interview questions once applications come in.
The job description is not the job ad
The template is the document for your ATS and the benchmark for a performance review. The ad has a different job: getting an employed supervisor or lead to stop scrolling.
- First line is pay and shift. Say salaried or hourly and how overtime works.
- Say the team size and the product. “Lead 22 people on our second-shift molding line” tells a supervisor more than a paragraph of duties.
- Name the next job and who has made that move.
- One short application, then a call with the plant manager.
The full version of that argument is on job ad copywriting, and production recruiting covers the line hiring your supervisor will depend on.
Frequently asked questions
What does a production supervisor do?
A production supervisor runs a shift, line or department in a plant. They plan the shift from the production schedule, assign people and equipment, monitor output, quality and safety, train and evaluate workers, track attendance, and report results to management. BLS classifies them as first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (51-1011) and excludes team or work leaders from the occupation.
What are the main production supervisor duties?
According to O*NET, the core duties are planning schedules and assignments from production orders, directing and coordinating production workers, enforcing safety and sanitation rules, inspecting products and equipment for defects, training employees, keeping attendance and hours records, evaluating performance, requisitioning materials, and preparing operations reports. Many also recommend hiring, promotion and discipline.
What is the difference between a production supervisor and a plant manager?
A production supervisor runs a shift or department and supervises the people doing the work. A plant manager runs the whole site: budgets, capacity, staffing levels and results. BLS counts them as separate occupations. The May 2025 median was $74,450 for first-line production supervisors and $126,060 for industrial production managers. See our plant manager job description.
What is the difference between a production supervisor and a lead?
A lead or team lead coordinates a crew while doing the work themselves, and usually does not make people decisions. A supervisor directs the crew, evaluates performance and recommends hiring and discipline. BLS excludes team or work leaders from the supervisor occupation. Many good supervisors are promoted leads, so write the posting so a strong lead can see the step up.
What qualifications does a production supervisor need?
BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education and less than five years of related work experience. In O*NET’s survey, 33 percent reported a high school diploma as required. Leadership experience as a lead, knowledge of the process, and comfort with the plant’s ERP and timekeeping systems matter more than a degree.
How much do production supervisors make?
The median wage for first-line supervisors of production and operating workers was $74,450 a year, about $35.79 an hour, in May 2025. The middle half earned between $58,630 and $91,680, and the top 10 percent more than $108,750. OEWS figures exclude overtime and shift differentials, which matter in this job.
How many hours do production supervisors work?
Often more than 40. In O*NET’s work context survey, 83 percent of first-line production supervisors reported a typical work week longer than 40 hours, and 69 percent reported time pressure every day. State the actual hours and how overtime is handled in your posting, because experienced candidates will ask.
What should I ask a production supervisor in an interview?
Ask how they plan a shift when two people call off, how they handled a safety shortcut on their line, how they turned around a struggling team member, and which numbers they review at the end of a shift. Our production supervisor interview questions page has a full set with what good answers sound like.
How much does it cost to recruit a production supervisor?
On Meta, management and professional roles, the closest family in our data, ran a median of $16.87 per applicant across our managed campaigns, with the middle half between $4.62 and $60.11 and a 16 percent apply rate. The wide band reflects how much specific, concrete postings outperform generic ones. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Related job descriptions
Hiring production supervisors?
The description is the document. Putting it in front of supervisors and leads who are not on a job board is the part we do.
Employment, projection and education data for first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (SOC 51-1011): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Data for Occupations Not Covered in Detail, last modified 27 August 2026, and Employment Projections table 1.2 (2025–35). Wage percentiles and industry and state employment: May 2025 OEWS national estimates and OEWS occupation profile. Tasks, titles, work context and education: O*NET OnLine 51-1011.00. Industrial production managers comparison: EP table 1.2 (11-3051). Read at source 24 September 2026. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.