# Plant Manager First 90 Days Checklist > Source: https://netray.co/tools/plant-manager-first-90-days-checklist > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Free Tools ## Short answer A structured list for new plant managers covering safety, people, customers, performance data, systems and early priorities. ## Category manufacturing ## Industry Discrete Manufacturing ## Audience - Plant manager - Operations director - COO ## Tool **Kind:** checklist **Groups:** #### Safety and compliance **Items:** **Text:** Walk the entire plant on every shift in the first two weeks **Critical:** true **Text:** Review the last three years of recordable incidents and near misses **Critical:** true **Text:** Confirm lockout tagout, machine guarding and forklift programs are current **Critical:** true Check open regulatory findings and audit corrective actions Meet the safety lead and the employee safety committee Verify emergency plans and drills are documented and recent #### People and organization **Items:** **Text:** Hold one-on-one meetings with every direct report **Critical:** true Hold small group listening sessions with operators on each shift Learn the union agreement or labor terms and key contacts **Text:** Identify key skills at risk of retirement or attrition **Critical:** true Review open positions, absenteeism and overtime levels Clarify decision rights between plant, corporate and shared services #### Customers and suppliers **Items:** **Text:** Review on-time delivery, complaints and returns for the top customers **Critical:** true Call the top five customers to hear their view directly Check the status of every open corrective action request Identify the suppliers with the worst delivery or quality records Review the backlog and the quoted lead times against capacity #### Numbers and performance **Items:** **Text:** Collect scrap, yield, OEE, labor efficiency and delivery for the last 12 months **Critical:** true Understand how standard costs are set and how variances are explained Review inventory levels, obsolete stock and cycle count accuracy Confirm the daily management routine and how misses are escalated Validate that reported KPIs match what the floor sees Check the budget, capital plan and committed projects #### Systems and data **Items:** Learn what the ERP and MES do, and which spreadsheets fill the gaps **Text:** Identify who owns master data, routings and bills of material **Critical:** true Check how production, scrap and downtime are reported on the floor List open IT projects, upgrades and known system pain points Find out which reports leaders use every week and how they are built #### First priorities **Items:** **Text:** Write a one-page summary of what you found and share it with your team **Critical:** true Pick two or three priorities that will be visible within 90 days Agree success measures and owners for each priority Schedule a standing operations review with a fixed agenda Present the 90-day findings and plan to your manager **Scoring Note:** Aim to complete the critical items in the first 30 days. Re-open the list at day 60 and day 90 to see what you have learned and what is still unknown. ## Content **Intro:** A new plant manager gets one chance to learn the plant before habits and expectations set. This checklist keeps the first 90 days focused on safety, people, customers and facts, instead of reacting to whatever is loudest. **Sections:** #### How to use it **Body:** Work from the top. Safety and people come first because they set the trust you need for everything else. Tick items as you complete them and mark the ones you cannot answer so you can ask for help. Keep a notes file next to the list with what you heard and from whom, since patterns across conversations matter more than any single comment. #### How the list is organized **Body:** The groups follow the order in which most new leaders build their picture: first, what could hurt people or stop the plant; second, who does the work; third, who depends on the plant; fourth, what the numbers say; fifth, how data reaches decision makers; and finally what you will change first. Critical items are the ones that, if skipped, usually cause surprises later. **Bullets:** - Listen first on every shift, including nights and weekends. - Cross-check reported KPIs with the floor. - Do not announce a large change before day 60. #### Reading your progress **Body:** By day 30 you should have toured every area, met every direct report and know the top customer and safety issues. By day 60 you should be able to explain the plant's performance and its causes. By day 90 you should have a short plan with owners that the team recognizes as its own. If something is still unclear by day 90, name it openly. #### Common mistakes **Body:** New managers often start fixing too quickly, rely only on reports in the office, or ignore the night shift. Another mistake is trusting dashboards without asking how the numbers are produced. Ask who enters the data, when and why, before deciding what the data says. **Cta:** If reports take days to assemble, Netray can help build a read-only view over your ERP so a new leader can see delivery, scrap and inventory trends from the first week. **Faq:** #### Should I make changes in the first 90 days? **Answer:** Fix safety hazards and clear customer failures at once. Hold off on structural changes until you understand the causes. Quick, visible wins that the team asked for build credibility for larger changes later. #### How do I handle a plant with weak data? **Answer:** Say so openly, pick a few measures you can trust, such as safety, delivery and scrap, and verify them on the floor. Improve the data in parallel, since decisions made on unreliable numbers can do harm. #### How often should I be on the floor? **Answer:** Daily in the first month, on every shift at least once. After that, keep a regular routine. Time on the floor teaches you how work really flows and signals what you care about. #### Can I use this for a new operations director role? **Answer:** Yes, with adjustments. The groups are the same, but you would add reviews of each site and of the shared services that support them, and spread the schedule over more time. ## Search terms plant manager first 90 days, new plant manager checklist, plant manager onboarding plan, 30 60 90 day plan plant manager, operations manager first 90 days, taking over a manufacturing plant, new plant manager priorities, plant manager transition plan --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json