Industrial Production Managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the work activities and resources necessary for manufacturing products in accordance with cost, quality, and quantity specifications.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Coordination
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Time Management
Key knowledge
- Production and Processing
- Administration and Management
- Customer and Personal Service
- Education and Training
- Mathematics
- Personnel and Human Resources
- English Language
- Mechanical
What the work involves
- Conduct site audits to ensure adherence to safety and environmental regulations.
- Develop or enforce procedures for normal operation of manufacturing systems.
- Implement operational and emergency procedures.
- Maintain records to demonstrate compliance with safety and environmental laws, regulations, or policies.
- Monitor permit requirements for updates.
- Optimize operational costs and productivity consistent with safety and environmental rules and regulations.
- Prepare reports on operations and system productivity or efficiency.
- Supervise subordinate employees.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (29.4% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (28.4%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (26.7%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Industrial Production Managers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 76% of occupations compared | 72% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Low | Lower on dealing with the public than 71% of occupations compared | 24% of surveyed respondents chose “Not important at all” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 73% of occupations compared | 55% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | High | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 73% of occupations compared | 56% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 76% of occupations compared | 41% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 72% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 63% of occupations compared | 32% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 53% of occupations compared | 30% of surveyed respondents chose “Serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 3.23%
- Contact with others most of the time: 24.76%
- Constant contact with others: 72.01%
n = 45, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 24.37%
- Fairly important: 17.82%
- Important: 24.3%
- Very important: 12.73%
- Extremely important: 20.79%
n = 44, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 2.73%
- Very important: 42.23%
- Extremely important: 55.03%
n = 44, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 2.6%
- Limited freedom: 11.14%
- Some freedom: 30.46%
- A lot of freedom: 55.8%
n = 44, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 3.23%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 14.98%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 40.57%
- Every day: 41.22%
n = 45, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 9.82%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.18%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 22.87%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 36%
- Every day: 11.13%
n = 45, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 7.98%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 32.44%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 20.89%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 29.37%
- Every day: 9.31%
n = 44, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 14.96%
- Fairly serious: 19.9%
- Serious: 29.55%
- Very serious: 19.01%
- Extremely serious: 16.58%
n = 44, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 11-3051.00 · SOC 11-3051 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8