Skills
Industrial Production Manager Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in industrial production managers, and how to build and show them.
What skills do industrial production managers need?
Industrial Production Managers need technical skills such as production planning, lean manufacturing, and budgeting, plus people skills like leadership and decision-making. They also use tools such as ERP systems and MES software.
Technical (hard) skills
- Production planning
- Lean manufacturing
- Budgeting
- Quality systems
- Safety management
- Data analysis
People (soft) skills
- Leadership
- Decision-making
- Communication
- Problem-solving
Tools, equipment and technology
- ERP systems
- MES software
- KPI dashboards
- Excel
- Quality management systems
- Scheduling tools
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how industrial production managers put their skills to work:
- How to raise OEE on a production line
- How to lead a daily production meeting
- How to plan a kaizen event
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Production planning” and “Lean manufacturing.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “leadership,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as Lean Six Sigma Black Belt near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our industrial production manager glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Industrial Production Manager training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.