First phase for a VP Operations: learn before you change
A VP of operations begins on the floor. Shadow shifts and meetings across the operation, and review safety, quality and delivery records with each site lead. The records tell you what is measured. The shadowing tells you what is real. Both are needed before changing anything.
Pay attention to how sites differ. Two locations running the same process often do it differently for reasons that are good or merely historical. Sort the differences into those worth keeping and those that cause problems. Announcing standardization before doing this sorting makes good site leaders defensive.
Talk with the customers who receive late or defective work, and with the people who handle those complaints. The operations record shows averages, while customer experience shows exceptions. Exceptions often point to a site, a shift or a supplier that the averages hide.
Second phase for a VP Operations: repairs people can see
The second phase is standard routines for daily management. A short start-of-shift meeting, a visible issues list and a clear escalation path do more than a large initiative. Then align supply, scheduling and maintenance on shared priorities. These three groups often optimize their own targets and undermine each other.
The tradeoff is consistency against local judgment. Too much standardization removes the knowledge of experienced site leaders. Too little leaves each site as a separate company. Decide which items must be identical, such as safety practice and reporting, and which sites can adapt.
Choose one site to pilot the routines before spreading them. A pilot lets you adjust to what the people there say and builds a local example others can visit. Rolling out to every location at once usually produces compliance in form and little change in practice.
Third phase for a VP Operations: make it hold
In the third phase the VP presents an operations roadmap and the team structure it needs. This is where gaps appear: a site without a strong leader, a role that does two jobs, a maintenance function that is always behind. Say so clearly, with the options.
Spend time developing the site leaders. A VP who is respected for being fair and clear creates more lasting change than one who issues instructions. Give site leaders a say in the measures they will be held to, and explain every change in operational terms.
How your situation changes the VP Operations plan
Situation changes the weight. In a vacancy, continuity of service to customers comes first. In a turnaround, find the sites and lines losing the most and act there. In an integration, map duplicate sites and processes before any decision on closing or merging.
In a vacancy, expect to find tasks the previous VP handled personally, such as supplier calls or schedule arbitration. In a transaction, keep site performance steady while due diligence takes attention. In a system rollout, make sure sites keep a working fallback until the new tool is proven.
Mistakes in the VP Operations brief
In the brief, specify how many sites, how they report and whether the VP will have authority over maintenance, supply and quality or only production. Candidates who read an unclear scope assume the worst. Also say what the VP's relationship will be with the COO or owner.
State whether the VP is expected to be on site regularly or to manage by reports. Travel and presence matter for this role. A brief that says nothing about it will attract candidates with very different assumptions, and some will decline later when the reality is clear.
Questions to settle before you brief a VP Operations
Before you brief, make a simple list of the sites, their products or services, and who leads each. Mark where leadership is strong and where it is thin. A new VP should not discover later that two of five sites have no real leader, and candidates like to see that you already know.
Decide as well how decisions about capital, staffing and customers are made. If the VP must ask the owner for everything, the role is smaller than the title. If the VP can approve within limits, write the limits. This one paragraph often decides whether a strong candidate accepts.
Finally, tell site leaders how the new VP fits with their own reporting lines before the person arrives. Confusion about who gives instructions causes quiet resistance that no plan can overcome. A single clear announcement, with the limits of the new role described plainly, lets site leaders focus on the work and shows the VP that management has done its part.