Executive HR Leadership for Manufacturers
The HR Problems That Show up on a Plant Floor
Manufacturing HR is unforgiving. Weak supervision, a botched discipline case or a compensation plan that ignores shift realities shows up quickly in scrap, safety and turnover.
Ken Sensanbaugher built his HR career inside Cummins and Honeywell. KNS Associates brings that manufacturing depth to your plants and your front office, without adding a full-time executive to payroll.
Two Workforces Under One Roof
Plant and salaried teams often run on different rules, different incentives and different loyalties. When that gap widens, supervisors get caught in the middle, trust erodes and turnover follows on both sides of the wall.
Labor Relations Risk
Whether you operate with a union or want to keep direct relationships strong, labor relations is won or lost at the supervisor level, long before a grievance is filed or an organizing campaign begins.
A Skills Pipeline Running Dry
Experienced machinists, maintenance techs and plant leaders are retiring faster than they can be replaced, and the knowledge in their heads rarely makes it into a system anyone else can use.
Safety and Lean as Culture, Not Posters
Lean initiatives and safety programs stall when they are treated as projects. They stick when leadership behavior, accountability and HR systems all reinforce the same expectations every shift.
HR Leadership Built in Manufacturing, Applied to Yours
This is the industry where Ken's approach to HR was formed, and it shows in how KNS works with plant leadership.
Manufacturing is where Ken Sensanbaugher built his career. He held HR leadership roles at Cummins and Honeywell, led global HR transformations, and serves as CHRO and VP of HR and Administration at JB Poindexter. He has stood on plant floors through launches, downturns, negotiations and lean transformations, and he knows HR decisions land differently in a plant than they do in an office.
KNS works directly with your CEO, COO and plant leadership to build HR systems that hold up under production pressure: supervision that can lead, compensation that fits shift realities, and workforce plans that keep skilled roles filled.
- Labor relations strategy grounded in a Cornell Master of Industrial and Labor Relations
- Supervisor and plant leadership development for the front line
- Workforce and skills pipeline planning for trades and technical roles
- Compensation and shift structures that reflect plant realities
- HR systems that reinforce lean and safety culture instead of fighting it
- Steady counsel through negotiations, reorganizations and plant transitions
Labor Strategy Remains a Core Strength
Ken holds a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. Engagements run on a fractional or interim basis, on site and remote, bringing Fortune 500 HR leadership to manufacturers in the $1M to $500M revenue range.
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Services Manufacturers Use Most
Most manufacturing engagements start with one of these.
Manufacturing HR Questions
Yes. Ken Sensanbaugher held HR leadership roles at Cummins and Honeywell, led global HR transformations, and serves as CHRO and VP of HR and Administration at JB Poindexter. Manufacturing is the environment his approach to HR was built in, which is why plant leaders find the advice practical rather than theoretical.
Labor relations is a core strength. Ken holds a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and has led HR through union environments and negotiations. KNS works alongside your labor counsel on strategy, supervisor capability and the day-to-day relationships that determine how labor matters actually go.
Engagements combine on-site time where it matters most with remote leadership across your locations. KNS is based in the Houston area and serves clients nationwide, so multi-site manufacturing coverage is normal, not an exception.
Put Manufacturing HR Leadership on Your Team
Talk through your plant and workforce challenges with an executive who led HR inside Cummins and Honeywell.