Industrial Production Managers Salary

The median industrial production managers salary in the United States is $126,060 per year ($60.61/hour). Salaries range from $78,000 at the entry level to $205,520+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 246,250 industrial production managers jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to grow 1.9% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary
$126,060
per year
Hourly Rate
$60.61
per hour
Employment
246,250
jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile
$78,000
25th percentile
$98,160
Median
$126,060
75th percentile
$161,880
90th percentile
$205,520

Job Growth (2024-2034)

+1.9%
Slower than average

Annual Openings

17,100
jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

Bachelor's degree
+ 5 years or more experience

Industrial Production Managers Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for industrial production managerss.

Industrial production managers run manufacturing operations β€” plants, lines, or shifts β€” for automotive, aerospace, food processing, pharma, consumer goods, and industrial products. They own throughput, quality, safety, and labor productivity. Entry (associate/shift manager) $68-95k; established (production manager) $95-135k; senior/plant manager $130-185k; director/VP $175-285k+. Union plants (UAW, USW, IAM) and defense contractors sit at the top of the ranges; food and consumer goods at the lower end.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Lean and Six Sigma
Value stream mapping, SMED, TPM, 5S, kaizen event facilitation, and Six Sigma DMAIC. Green Belt is table stakes; Black Belt is a promotion accelerator.
S&OP and production planning
Sales and operations planning cadence, MRP fluency (SAP PP, Oracle, or a tier-2 ERP), demand-supply reconciliation, and rough-cut capacity planning at the plant level.
OEE and daily management
Overall equipment effectiveness (availability Γ— performance Γ— quality) as the daily heartbeat; standard-work audits, shift turnover meetings, tier boards, and problem-solving cadence.
Quality systems (ISO 9001, IATF 16949, cGMP)
Reading a control plan and FMEA; running CAPA and 8D on customer complaints; passing external audits without observations. Regulated-industry managers (pharma, aerospace) live in the audit trail.
Labor management and union relations
Grievance handling, seniority-based scheduling, contract interpretation, and safety-committee facilitation. Non-union plants are lighter on process but heavier on retention.
Financial ownership
P&L for the plant or line β€” labor variance, material variance, waste, and overhead absorption. Reading a monthly plant P&L and knowing which levers matter.
EHS and OSHA compliance
Recordable and lost-time rates, near-miss reporting, LOTO audits, and OSHA 300 log. Production managers who let safety slide never get promoted.

How to Become a Industrial Production Managers

  1. 1
    Get a bachelor's in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, supply chain, or operations
    IE and ME are the most common. Some pathways come from a technical AA plus 5-10 years of floor experience β€” especially for shift-manager tracks.
  2. 2
    Start on a floor or engineering rotation
    Manufacturing engineer, process engineer, or supervisor-in-training at $65-85k. Learn the machines and the labor before you manage them.
  3. 3
    Move into a shift or area supervisor role
    $75-105k. Own a shift of 15-60 hourly employees; hit daily production and quality targets; run the shift meeting.
  4. 4
    Take the Production Manager or Value Stream Manager role
    $100-135k. Own an entire product line or department; direct the supervisors; own the KPI dashboard and monthly business review.
  5. 5
    Advance to Plant Manager, Director of Ops, then VP Manufacturing
    $150-285k+ with equity at public companies. Plant manager owns the full P&L; director oversees multiple plants; VP owns the manufacturing network.

Career Progression

Shift Supervisor / Area Supervisor
0-4 yrs$72-98k + shift differential
  • β€’Own a shift of 15-60 hourly employees
  • β€’Hit daily production, quality, and safety targets
  • β€’Run the shift start-up and shift-end huddles
  • β€’Escalate downtime to engineering and maintenance
Next: Production Manager at 3-6 years.
Production Manager / Value Stream Manager
4-10 yrs$98-138k + 10-20% bonus
  • β€’Own a full product line or department
  • β€’Direct 2-5 supervisors and 40-200 hourly
  • β€’Run the tier meetings and monthly business review
  • β€’Own labor, material, and waste variances
Next: Plant Manager at 8-14 years.
Plant Manager
10-18 yrs$140-215k + 15-25% bonus + LTIP
  • β€’Own the entire plant P&L, safety, quality, and delivery
  • β€’Direct 3-8 production/engineering/quality/HR managers
  • β€’Own major capex proposals to the ops director and CFO
  • β€’Represent the plant to customers on top escalations
Next: Director of Ops or VP Manufacturing at 15-22 years.
Director / VP of Manufacturing
18+ yrs$185-385k+ + equity
  • β€’Own 3-15 plants or a global manufacturing network
  • β€’Set 3-5 year manufacturing strategy and capex plan
  • β€’Own capacity, footprint, and make-vs-buy decisions
  • β€’Report to COO or CEO on operations performance
Next: COO or business unit president.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 13 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Your line is running at 62% OEE. Walk me through how you'd get it to 80%.case
Break the gap into the three OEE components β€” availability, performance, quality. Get the last 30 days of downtime data by category (planned vs unplanned, changeover, breakdown, material starvation). Attack the top 3 downtime buckets with a kaizen team; expect 40-50% of the gap to come from a small number of root causes. Standard work and SMED usually fix performance; TPM fixes availability. Move quality last unless it's the dominant driver. Give a realistic 6-9 month timeline.
Q2. Describe a time you had to hold the line on a delivery date.behavioral
STAR. Name the customer, the product, and the specific delivery risk (material shortage, quality escape, labor issue). Walk through what you did β€” reallocating labor, running overtime, expediting material, tightening the quality gate β€” and the outcome. Executives want to hear that you can make the call under pressure without hiding the risk from the customer.
Q3. How would you handle a union grievance around forced overtime?situational
Follow the contract first β€” most grievances lose or win on procedural grounds. Meet with the shop steward before it escalates. If the grievance has merit (poor advance notice, seniority violation), fix the process and hold the line on the outcome. If it doesn't, document, respond in writing, and escalate to HR. Never make side deals that undermine the contract; you lose credibility with both the union and your management.
Q4. Walk me through a Six Sigma project you led.technical
DMAIC structure. Define the CTQ and the baseline metric (defects per million, scrap dollars, cycle time). Measure with a validated data source. Analyze root cause with the right tool (Pareto, FMEA, hypothesis testing, DOE). Improve with a concrete change and pilot. Control with SPC, standard work, and a monthly audit. Close with the dollarized savings and the sustained metric. Recruiters screen for candidates who can dollarize the impact.
Q5. Where do you see your career in 5 years?closer
The fork is functional depth (technical operations expert, VP Manufacturing Engineering) vs P&L management (Plant Manager, Director of Ops, VP Manufacturing). Say which and defend it with the specific role you want next. Recruiters and hiring VPs invest in candidates who understand the ladder.

Resume Template β€” Production Manager (4-10 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Production Manager (4-10 yrs)
  • β–ΈOwned the injection-molding value stream at a Tier 1 automotive supplier; 145 hourly + 4 supervisors + 2 process engineers.
  • β–ΈImproved OEE from 68% to 82% over 18 months; saved $3.4M annualized through SMED (changeover 45 min β†’ 18 min) and TPM.
  • β–ΈDelivered on-time to Toyota, Honda, and GM at 99.6% (2024); zero customer complaints or PPAP failures for 14 months.
  • β–ΈSix Sigma Black Belt; Bachelor's Industrial Engineering, [University]; $122k base + 18% bonus + $12k LTIP.

What Gets You Rejected

  • βœ—Cannot read a control plan or FMEA; a red flag for any regulated-industry role.
  • βœ—Weak on data β€” makes decisions on gut instead of downtime and defect Pareto.
  • βœ—Poor labor communication; drives grievances and turnover in union environments.
  • βœ—Puts throughput ahead of safety β€” a fast track to being removed from the plant.
  • βœ—No cost fluency; cannot read a plant P&L or explain variance vs standard cost.
  • βœ—Micromanages supervisors; the good ones lead through the tier structure, not around it.

Salary Negotiation Levers

  • βœ“Regulated industries (aerospace, pharma, medical device, defense) pay 15-25% above consumer goods.
  • βœ“Union plants pay 10-20% more but require different management style β€” factor into fit.
  • βœ“Bonus target is negotiable β€” push for 20-25% at Production Manager level, 25-35% at Plant Manager.
  • βœ“LTIP and RSUs at public manufacturers (Boeing, Deere, Caterpillar) add $10-40k a year at senior levels.
  • βœ“Relocation packages of $20-60k are standard for plant leadership moves.
  • βœ“Six Sigma Black Belt, APICS CPIM/CSCP, and PE license each add $5-15k.
  • βœ“P&L ownership size matters β€” a $500M plant pays more than a $50M plant; ask for scope, not just title.

Industrial Production Managers Resume Review β€” $29

Personalized resume review from someone who has hired industrial production managerss. Purchase, email your resume to support@weblabra.com, and receive detailed written feedback within 7 days.

  • βœ“ Occupation-specific critique (not generic)
  • βœ“ Rewrite suggestions for weak bullets
  • βœ“ Missing skills / keywords flagged
  • βœ“ Formatting + ATS-readability feedback
  • βœ“ 7-day turnaround, 100% refund if we miss it

Industrial Production Managers Career Kit β€” $19

  • βœ“ All 13 interview questions with expert answers
  • βœ“ 6 real questions aggregated from Glassdoor, Blind, Reddit, LinkedIn
  • βœ“ Interview format intel for 6 top employers
  • βœ“ 3 copy-paste salary negotiation emails
  • βœ“ Resume bullets for every level of the career ladder
  • βœ“ 30–60–90 day plan for your first role
  • βœ“ Cover letter templates specific to this occupation
  • βœ“ Detailed salary negotiation script
  • βœ“ Ranked list of certifications with cost + ROI
  • βœ“ Downloadable PDF for offline access
  • βœ“ Instant access, no expiration, no subscription
βœ“ 7-day money-back guarantee β€” no questions asked

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Industrial Production Managers Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) β†’

Salary Map β€” Click a state for details

$107K
$153Kβ–  No data

Top Paying States

Delaware
$153K
+21%
Wyoming
$151K
+20%
Massachusetts
$148K
+17%
New Jersey
$147K
+17%
New Hampshire
$147K
+16%
Washington
$145K
+15%
Colorado
$141K
+12%
Connecticut
$135K
+7%
Louisiana
$133K
+6%
California
$133K
+5%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
StateMedianvs. National
Delaware$153,000+21.4%
Wyoming$151,490+20.2%
Massachusetts$148,050+17.4%
New Jersey$147,260+16.8%
New Hampshire$146,590+16.3%
Washington$145,210+15.2%
Colorado$141,020+11.9%
Connecticut$134,780+6.9%
Louisiana$133,210+5.7%
California$132,620+5.2%
1–10 of 50

Industrial Production Managers Salary by Metro Area

Metro AreaMedianvs. National
Manchester-Nashua, NH$174,360+38.3%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$171,140+35.8%
Lexington Park, MD$167,040+32.5%
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA$166,030+31.7%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA$164,420+30.4%
Longview-Kelso, WA$163,970+30.1%
Boulder, CO$162,040+28.5%
Napa, CA$161,220+27.9%
Lewiston, ID-WA$157,500+24.9%
Trenton-Princeton, NJ$157,160+24.7%
1–10 of 376
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
How does this compare to pro athletes?
A industrial production managers earning $126,060/year would need 473 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 508 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
See all sports & celebrity salaries β†’
πŸ“ˆ See how industrial production managers salaries have changed over the past decade.
View Industrial Production Managers salary trend (2011–2024) β†’