Nicholas Kadunce · Plant Manager, Jennmar · Reedsville, West Virginia
Scope
Accountable for safety, quality, delivery, cost, working capital, the capital plan, and about a hundred people. Jennmar is a $1B+ global manufacturer of ground-control products for mining and tunneling, privately held and private-equity-backed. Reedsville makes roof bolts, cable bolts, plates, mats, and discs for underground mines in soft and hard rock. About 80 SKUs across 11 processes on 27 production assets, two shifts, five days. Demand follows mining cycles and roof conditions, so winters run heavier.
Reedsville is a profit center with its own revenue recognition. Revenue, materials, labor, freight, operating expense, and SG&A sit with the plant. Capital is proposed annually and approved above the plant; the 2026 plan was funded.
Sales owns the customer relationship. The plant is measured on delivering what sales brings in, so S&OPSales and operations planning: the monthly process that lines up demand, capacity, staffing, and inventory. is mine. I join the VP of Operations and the sales team for onboarding visits with new mining customers. Out of that came the plant's first sales budget, seasonality in the forecast, and slow-moving stock worked down with sales.
Purchasing issues the orders and sets terms. The plant decides what to order, when, and which critical spares to hold. On project work I negotiate scope and price, with two or more bids on larger purchases.
Seven direct reports: Superintendent (72 people), Maintenance Manager (12), Quality Manager (3), Dispatcher (3), Safety Manager, HR and Payroll Specialist, Inventory Control. Ninety hourly, ten salaried. Hiring authority for every role. New operators join through the company's services division for 90 days before going full-time.
Safety runs on leading indicators: layered audits, near-miss reporting, guarding that removes the hazard, dust collection. No citations. I am accountable for the plant's stormwater and waste permits, with primary and secondary containment added and no notices of violation.
| When | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Every morning | Daily Operations Review arrives by email | Plant leadership |
| Every Monday | Operations review | Division president, CFO, CPO, general counsel, VP of Sales, other division presidents |
| Every two weeks | Plant managers group | VP of Operations and the four plant managers |
| Every year | Capital submission; annual managers meeting | VP of Operations; executive team |
| Number | P&L line |
|---|---|
| Safety observations opened and closed | Workers' compensation and insurance cost |
| Daily deliveries to budget, month-to-date net income | Revenue and earnings |
| Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) | Overtime, labor, and controllable operating expense |
| On-time delivery | Revenue retention and customer relationships |
| Days of inventory on hand and valuation | Working capital and SG&A |
Headcount planning uses the sales projection and OEEOverall equipment effectiveness: availability × performance × quality, the share of planned time that produced good parts at rate. to set the lowest-cost staffing that meets demand. I own S&OP; the superintendent owns the production schedule.
I am one of four plant managers under the VP of Operations. The VP reports to the division president, who reports to the CEO.
Year one at Reedsville
The seat was open when I arrived in January 2025. The plant had customer orders, ISO 9001 registration, and a family culture worth keeping.
Delivery targets, downtime and defect tracking, a production schedule, supervisor standard work, and a way to measure OEE still had to be built. Leadership asked for a KPI system the executive team could see, improvement against it, and a start on lean.
These are the plant's numbers, delivered by about a hundred people.
Twelve months later: each row shows where it started and where it is now.
Percentages and rates are the published form of these results. Exact figures stay inside the company.
Six plants
Across all six plants, the division executive team follows sales to budget and open safety actions through the Daily Operations Review. The Reedsville team built it.
Most of what we built has been handed to IT, which owns it and is scaling it. That is the arrangement I wanted. Build the first version with the plant, prove it, hand it over, help the next plant stand it up.
When Reedsville was running well over its sales budget and a sister plant had capacity to spare, I proposed moving volume there. The VP of Operations and I took the decision jointly. Both plants met budget. Reedsville's overtime fell from 92 to 82 hours per employee biweekly over four months and held after the volume came back. A separate equipment move to a sister plant saves $35K a year in freight.
An automated daily email and dashboard: safety, machine availability, inventory, sales to budget, quality, headcount, capex, lean. Built with the plant team, demonstrated to the executive team, then stood up at each plant in person.
Projects month-to-date net income every day from ERP spend and delivery data plus a labor estimate. Its charts land in the Daily Operations Review automatically. Plants see cost against budget during the month, not after it. The projection is within about 10% of the month-end actual today; daily labor data should bring that to 3 to 5%.
Automated tensile test logs, SPC by heat number, Pareto, and tagged quarantine, rolled out plant by plant. The same logs settled a product complaint. With engineering, we traced it to the customer's installation equipment over-torquing the product. Once corrected, the issue disappeared and the relationship strengthened.
IT is now extending the system across the whole company, adding AI integration and live PLC connections. The Reedsville team keeps building the next version the same way, with the plant first.
People and decisions
The pattern has held at every plant. Walk the floor, find the constraint, build the system, develop the people, repeat. The lines below are from my article in Metals & Mining Review; the stories are from Reedsville.
When people understand what matters most, why it matters and how their work contributes, they are much more likely to take ownership of the result.
A target on a board is not a priority until the team knows what it means for the work in front of them.
Data should make problems easier to see, not create more work to find them.
I automate the flow of information so losses are visible without anyone assembling a report. Pareto and SPC point at the constraint; operators supply the context the data cannot.
A problem that can quietly return was never really solved.
The work is finished when the operation behaves differently because of what was learned, and the fix is built into the process.
The fastest way to stop seeing problems is to make people afraid to bring them forward.
Accountability starts with what happened and what needs to change, and it runs in both directions, so effort and problem-solving are recognized when things go well.
The real test is whether the improvement continues when the spotlight moved somewhere else.
The maintenance area at Messer still ran the same way months after I stopped visiting. The Reedsville systems were handed to IT on purpose, so they do not depend on me.
When I arrived, the plant ordered a fixed amount of material every month regardless of demand. The superintendent, nearly forty years with the company, had a reason: running short had always cost more than carrying extra. We split the SKUs into make-to-stock and make-to-order. We started with the low-risk make-to-order items, then set min/max levels tied to demand and on-hand stock for the rest. He came along with it.
When he retired, the production supervisor I had been developing stepped into the role as planned. Six months later inventory was down 27% and the storage areas were labeled, inside capacity, and safer.
I kept the family culture the plant already had. What changed was the reflex, from reacting to problems to preventing them. Most of the leadership team made that shift. A few did not, after ample time and conversation, and I changed those seats.
During a two-month slowdown, order intake dropped about 20%, and I let headcount drift down without replacing the people who left. Orders came back to normal over three days. Within 48 hours we moved shifts from eight to nine hours and ran a few mandatory Saturdays. I told the VP of Operations on day two. We met every delivery commitment, and the cost was a sizable overtime bill. The swing was seasonal and sharper than usual, since roof conditions in the mines drive orders up in cold months. Seasonality is now built into the demand forecast, staffing plan, and inventory levels.
New operators at Reedsville join through the company's services division for 90 days before becoming full-time. The local workforce is stable, and people stay.
In print
Leadership Perspectives · Cover feature · "Operational Performance Builder"
By Nicholas Kadunce, Plant Manager, Jennmar
"Capacity can be purchased, but performance has to be built."
The magazine asked for a piece on building operations that deliver. I wrote about what I would want a plant team to hear from me on day one. Priorities should reach the floor. Data should make problems easy to see. Accountability runs in both directions. Improvements should outlast the attention they got. The managing editor issued a Certificate of Editorial Recognition.
Read the articleReproduced with attribution to Metals & Mining Review.
Exhibits
Every exhibit recreates a real system or project with representative data. Live plant data stays inside the plant. Each one says who it was for, what it changed, and who owns it now. Process names are generic; the demo plant name is a placeholder.
Real system · representative data · built at Jennmar, in use at six plants
What changed: Press 2 die change finished inside the planned window. First shift ran at 103% of target through 10:00.
What we are working on: Thread-gauge rejects at Threader 1 traced to a single supplier heat. The lot is tagged and quarantined, the SPC chart for that heat number is updated, and the supplier has been notified.
Safety first: observations opened and closed, open corrective actions, layered audits.
OpsIQ · generated automatically each morning
Representative day under a placeholder plant name. The real report compiles itself each morning with minimal input and is the first thing the plant reads. OEE is availability × performance × quality.
Real system · representative data · built at Jennmar, in use at six plants
| Working day | Net income, month to date | Projected | Budget, cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.9 | 4.5 | |
| 2 | 8.8 | 9.1 | |
| 3 | 13.9 | 13.6 | |
| 4 | 17.6 | 18.2 | |
| 5 | 22.9 | 22.7 | |
| 6 | 28.4 | 27.3 | |
| 7 | 32.0 | 31.8 | |
| 8 | 35.1 | 36.4 | |
| 9 | 40.6 | 40.9 | |
| 10 | 46.3 | 45.5 | |
| 11 | 51.2 | 50.0 | |
| 12 | 55.0 | 54.5 | |
| 13 | 60.4 | 59.1 | |
| 14 | 65.1 | 65.1 | 63.6 |
| 15 | 69.8 | 68.2 | |
| 16 | 74.4 | 72.7 | |
| 17 | 79.1 | 77.3 | |
| 18 | 83.7 | 81.8 | |
| 19 | 88.4 | 86.4 | |
| 20 | 93.0 | 90.9 | |
| 21 | 97.7 | 95.5 | |
| 22 | 102.3 | 100 |
Net income month to date, indexed so no revenue can be read from it, against the cumulative budget.
Representative month, indexed so no revenue can be read from it. The forecaster runs as a Python and Excel automation and its charts are inserted into the Daily Operations Review automatically.
Real plan · amounts as approved · Jennmar, 2026
The three smaller projects are reliability and infrastructure work; their names stay inside the plant.
Real project · representative monthly figures · prepared for a CEO and COO plant visit
Swipe sideways to see the whole figure.
| Month | Cumulative cash position, $K |
|---|---|
| 0 | −750 |
| 6 | −615 |
| 12 | −480 |
| 18 | −345 |
| 24 | −210 |
| 30 | −75 |
| 36 | 60 |
| 42 | 195 |
| 48 | 330 |
Today: forging and assembly run as separate steps with handling between them.
Savings are derived from the payback the case was approved on; the cell is R&D-heavy and first of its kind in the company. Cycle time and operator figures are from the approved case.
Real result · representative mix · Jennmar, 2025
| Point | Days on hand |
|---|---|
| Start | 80 |
| Now | 65 |
| Year-end target | 45 |
Eighty days of inventory on hand when I arrived, with storage areas over capacity.
About 80 SKUs, roughly 40 of them made to stock. The mix is representative; the percentages and days are the real results. Six months in, the storage areas were labeled with min/max and overflow locations, inside capacity, and safer.
Real decision · representative monthly figures · Jennmar, 2025
| Month | Tons, % of budget | Hours per employee, biweekly | Volume at the sister plant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 112 | 92 | No |
| 2 | 110 | 92 | No |
| 3 | 100 | 82 | Yes |
| 4 | 100 | 82 | Yes |
| 5 | 101 | 82 | Yes |
| 6 | 100 | 82 | Yes |
| 7 | 108 | 81 | No |
| 8 | 109 | 82 | No |
Reedsville running well over budget, overtime at 92 hours per employee biweekly.
Both plants reached budget during the four months. When the volume came back, the hours held at 82.
Real project · representative data · Messer Americas, 2023
| Day | Output index | Mean | Lower limit | Upper limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 101 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 2 | 94 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 3 | 108 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 4 | 97 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 5 | 103 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 6 | 91 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 7 | 106 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 8 | 99 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 9 | 110 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 10 | 95 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 11 | 102 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 12 | 88 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 13 | 105 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 14 | 98 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 15 | 107 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 16 | 93 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 17 | 100 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 18 | 109 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 19 | 96 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 20 | 104 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 21 | 90 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 22 | 103 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 23 | 99 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 24 | 111 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 25 | 94 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 26 | 101 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 27 | 97 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 28 | 106 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 29 | 92 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 30 | 102 | 100 | 82 | 118 |
| 31 | 118 | |||
| 32 | 96 | |||
| 33 | 124 | |||
| 34 | 85 | |||
| 35 | 112 | |||
| 36 | 130 | |||
| 37 | 92 | |||
| 38 | 121 | |||
| 39 | 104 | |||
| 40 | 127 | |||
| 41 | 98 | |||
| 42 | 116 | |||
| 43 | 110 | |||
| 44 | 119 | |||
| 45 | 114 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 46 | 117 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 47 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 48 | 113 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 49 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 50 | 118 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 51 | 114 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 52 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 53 | 112 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 54 | 117 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 55 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 56 | 113 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 57 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 58 | 118 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 59 | 114 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 60 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 61 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 62 | 113 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 63 | 117 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 64 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 65 | 114 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 66 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 67 | 118 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 68 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 69 | 113 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 70 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 71 | 114 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 72 | 117 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 73 | 115 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
| 74 | 116 | 115 | 110 | 120 |
Thirty days of baseline: wide day-to-day variation around the old mean.
Representative values. Baseline output varied widely from day to day. Output swung as the change was implemented, then settled at a level 15% higher with far less variation and held inside recalculated control limits. The project also lowered hydrocarbon concentration risk in the process.
Every exhibit recreates a real system or project with representative data. Live plant data stays inside the plant.
Career
An open seat and an operating system to build.
Privately held, private-equity-backed global manufacturer of ground-control products for underground mining and tunneling, $1B+ revenue. Reedsville is the third-largest of six bolt plants in the division by revenue and headcount.
$90M+ P&L · about 100 people · 7 direct reports · about 25,000 tons a year across about 80 SKUs · 27 production assets · S&OP owner · reports to the VP of Operations
A public scale-up ramping against investor milestones.
Publicly traded US battery energy storage scale-up (zinc-based long-duration storage); 500 to 1,000 employees; three sites; revenue $16M in 2024 and $115M in 2025. UL-listed electrical products and corrosive electrolyte handling.
two production buildings · 11 supervisors and 6 team leads · 240 technicians at peak · reported to the Sr. Director of Operations · output presented daily to the executive team against investor milestones
Four air separation plants in three states, supported from one.
Privately held industrial gas producer formed from the Linde and Praxair divestiture; Messer Group about 4.4 billion euros in revenue; 5,000 to 10,000 employees in the Americas.
four air separation plants, about 80 employees combined · $400K project and expense budget · regional engineering role with weekly site travel
A fully automated, high-mix line under strict chemical handling.
Global catalyst manufacturer headquartered in the UK; the plant made heavy-duty diesel catalytic converters on a fully automated, high-mix line with strict chemical handling.
Contact
I am glad to talk about manufacturing performance, the operating systems behind it, and how plants develop their own leaders. Email is the fastest way to reach me.