Job Description

Optimised Production Leader

Competitive salary plus 2,800 annual car discount, 18% annual bonus potential with 27.5 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a company pension scheme with highly competitive contribution rates

Permanent Full time

Jubilee Mail Centre, Hounslow, TW4 5XX



Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Optimised Production Leader is the compass for improvement in the Plant. Responsible for ensuring Continuous Improvement tools, processes & behaviours are applied robustly in line with the Operating System to support the Safety, Quality, Cost & Efficiency improvements in the plant and will be responsible for assuring the weekly workload demand plan & that the plan is deployed effectively in their unit.



The Optimised Production Leader leads the Plant Supply Team to align resource to workload that supports the efficient running of the Plant. Responsible for refreshing the production plan daily & ensuring the adherence to processing standards that underpin the production plan. Accountable & responsible for coaching & supporting the shift teams to successfully deploy the production plan & manage the plan in-flight, this includes the accuracy & integrity of the workload & hours reporting.

About the role

Your role will be to support the Plant Manager in the achievement of all Plant People, Customer & Financial/Productivity targets across the Balanced Scorecard, you will hold weekly formal reviews of performance with each Shift Manager to understand current performance against plan and flightpath. Ensuring each work area has an up-to-date efficiency improvement plan that is formally reviewed each month with the Shift Manager.



You will drive Continuous Improvement by working with & enabling managers to improve Pipeline flow & processing standards with their teams, through the use of Continuous Improvement tools that are aligned to the Operating System, Coach & support the Shift Managers in the deployment of Continuous Improvement activity, utilising Information Centres & Tiered Escalation.



Other duties will include reviewing performance against the production plan on a daily basis to identify areas for improvement in either the planning or execution of the plan, providing plant ownership & leadership of the production control resourcing processes, as well as supporting the SDL & Operations Managers with Delivery forecasting & production planning adjustments.



Champion Right First Time principle to ensure customer quality is always built into processing standards throughout the Continuous Improvement journey Engage with the Central Production Team with any local intelligence &/or improvement opportunities for the workload demand plan Identify & monitor high impact work areas for efficiency improvements, making use of the Loss Opportunity Model whilst prioritising flow Ensure all seasonal plans are designed to meet our customer & efficiency targets Have overall Plant responsibility for the integrity & accuracy of all reported traffic, hours & efficiency, including the in-flight hour-by-hour work area reporting & validation through Information Centres Comply with all relevant legislation & business policies regarding resourcing Develop & lead on the business plan to achieve the flightpath to standard performance Use the business standard production tools to facilitate the Tier 1, 2 & 3 performance discussions each day to support the live, in-flight management of the production plan Ensure hours & headcount system alignment Ensure the resourcing to workload approach is robust - it must have the correct supply mix to clear the model week workload & deliver on the customer/efficiency targets.

About You

Your CV will need to demonstrate the following skills:

Building Relationships

- Developing & leveraging relationships within & across different departments, functions, unions, internal & external stakeholders to achieve business results.

Coaching for High Performance

- Engaging an individual in developing & committing to an action plan that targets specific behaviours, skills, or knowledge needed to ensure performance improvement or prepare for success in new responsibilities; moves at pace to improve individual & team performance.

Customer Focus

- Drives a customer-centric culture to ensure we deliver on our customer promise & relentlessly improve our offering in line with customer needs.

Delivering Results

- Ensuring consistent contribution to RMG strategic goals by focusing own & others performance on the most important priorities, measuring progress & ensuring accountability against key metrics.

Know the Business

- Using own understanding of basic business operations & RMG systems, processes, departments & functions to achieve business objectives & ensure growth; using knowledge of trends (e.g. operations, market, finance & industry) to understand & improve individual, team &/or RMG's results.

Making Sense of Data

- Collect, analyse, audit, & interpret information needed to manage Plant or business Unit performance, as well as ongoing team activities to achieve scorecard metrics & business objectives.

Building and Implementing Production Plans

- Planning, organising, coordinating & controlling resources & physical assets to deliver high quality results for RMG within allocated budget; managing operational risk through effective monitoring of relevant regulation to ensure ongoing compliance.

Leading Continuous Improvement

- Creating an environment that inspires people to think logically using data & facts, generating solutions to improve existing conditions & processes; identifying improvement opportunities, generating ideas & driving solution implementation. Trained to the equivalent of Continuous Improvement Practitioner Level 4 (training will be provided).

Stakeholder Management

- Identifying stakeholder's key needs & challenges; providing & provoking convincing insights that compel decision makers to discover or reconsider un-recognised problems & opportunities & the value of addressing them with new solutions to achieve better long-term results.

Project Management

- Define, sequence, plan & schedule activities with phases & milestones.

Extra Benefits

Family friendly support

- enhanced maternity pay, paternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave

Discounts and offers

- there are more than 800 offers to help you save on things like groceries, days out, holidays and your household bills.
Supportive and generous company

sick pay

Your Wellbeing

- you and your family have 24/7 access to services and tools to help you get the most out of life. From your physical and mental health to financial and social support and advice. It's free, and it's for everyone. Available only to perm employees

Next Steps

The next stage of the selection process will be a face-to-face assessment consisting of competency based and role specific questions, and a scenario task.



Trust is the foundation of Royal Mail. We aim to be transparent about the qualities we seek and what a career with us entails, building trust from the start of your journey with us. Your interview is the first step, and we want you to shine. To help you prepare, we'll provide your interview questions in advance, so you can have your best examples ready. At Royal Mail Group, we value trust and our people.



Royal Mail Group is committed to inclusion and representing the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals. As a proud Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, we especially encourage applications from the Armed Forces community, including cadet instructors and spouses/partners.



We are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to support you during the hiring process, please discuss these with your recruiter when contacted.



We are Forces family friendly and a Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant. We welcome applications from ex-Armed Forces personnel, reservists, veterans, cadet instructors and military spouses/partners.



For more information on Royal Mail Group and our values please click here: https://www.internationaldistributionsservices.com/en/about-us/



Closing Date:

Monday 27th October 2025

. Please note, this advert may close early if the appropriate number of applications has been reached.

Job reference 329952

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