Hire a production supervisor in Greater Montreal
Hiring a production supervisor starts with the product. The National Occupational Classification notes little mobility between the types of supervisors within one group: experience on a millwork line is not the same as experience on a toy line. This page gives you a job description to copy, the requirements that actually hold up, and eight questions that tell a good line lead from a supervisor.
Job description to copy
Replace what is in brackets, then post it as is.
Production supervisor
Location: [city], Greater Montreal · Schedule: [day / evening / night], [number] h per week
Pay: [to be set] (benchmark: median $31/h in Quebec (Job Bank))
Responsibilities
- Supervise, co-ordinate and schedule the shift crew's work: assemblers, inspectors, operators
- Set the work methods that keep production on schedule
- Track the shift's output, rejects and downtime, and report on the gaps
- Solve problems on the line and propose measures to improve productivity and quality
- Train workers in their duties, safety rules and company policies
- Enforce the lockout and energy control procedure for each machine
- Requisition the line's materials and supplies
- Set up machines and equipment when needed
- Write production and incident reports, and hand over to the next shift
- Recommend personnel actions such as hiring and promotions
Requirements
- Several years of manufacturing or assembly experience, as an assembler or inspector, on a product comparable to yours
- Supervisory or lead-hand experience on a production line
- High school diploma
- Knowledge of workplace health and safety obligations, including the lockout that the Règlement sur la santé et la sécurité du travail requires before any work in a machine's danger zone
- Ability to train and to document: production reports, incident reports, training records
- Availability for the posted shift, handover overlap included
Assets
- DEC Technologie du génie industriel (235.B0) or DEC Technologie du génie des matériaux composites (241.C0)
- Knowledge of lean manufacturing (production à valeur ajoutée, PVA)
- Membership in the Ordre des technologues professionnels du Québec
- Experience with a product changeover, a line start-up or a new work method roll-out
- Up-to-date WHMIS training if your line uses hazardous products
What we offer
[benefits, insurance, shift premiums, training]
Production supervisor pay benchmark
| Region | Median | Offered in postings |
|---|---|---|
| All of Quebec | $31/h | — |
| Montérégie | Quebec figures | — |
| Montréal | Quebec figures | — |
| Laval | $29.74/h | — |
| Lanaudière | $30.08/h | — |
| Laurentides | $31.91/h | — |
Median published by Job Bank (NOC 92024) and median offered in job postings (6 months, February to August 2026); in brackets, the number of hourly postings.
Eight interview questions
- What product did you make, on how many stations, and how many people did you lead on your shift?
- Walk me through your first fifteen minutes on shift: what do you look at, and in what order?
- An operator unjams a machine without locking it out. What do you do on the spot, and afterwards?
- The reject rate doubles halfway through the shift. How do you trace the cause?
- Tell me about a work method you changed. What pushed back, and what did you measure afterwards?
- How do you train a new assembler, and how do you know they are ready to work alone?
- What could you stop without asking permission: a machine, a batch, an order?
- Which machine could you set up yourself, and at what point did you call maintenance?
Timelines and difficulties
The title is the first trap. “Production supervisor” spans plants that the classification splits across eleven unit groups: food (92012), pharmaceuticals (92011), plastics (92013), metal products (92023), furniture (92022), and so on; the table on the wage page only covers other products manufacturing (92024). A candidate from food processing and a candidate from millwork answer the same posting without knowing the same constraints, and the classification adds that there is little mobility between types of supervisors. So write the product, the processes and the standards of your line into the posting. The second point is the pool: the usual road runs through several years as an assembler or inspector in the same company, and the person who fits that exact requirement may already work for you. Look internally before posting. The third is status: the Loi sur les normes du travail, Quebec's labour standards act, excludes a company manager from the overtime premium at section 54. Say before the interview whether the role is treated as a management position, and spell out the shift, handover included.
We run this search for employers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore and the South Shore. Our recruitment service: manufacturing and production
If the placement does not hold six months, we replace it.
The replacement is on us. You do not pay twice for the same role.
A role to fill?
Fifteen minutes on the phone is enough to know whether we can deliver your mandate, and to tell you straight whether the salary range holds.
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