Manufacturing Supervisor who sees the workflow problem and builds the fix
I lead production teams in ISO 9001-certified manufacturing environments, and I build software to fix the problems I run into there. Twenty-three years in manufacturing, a full-stack development habit, and a CAPM I actually plan to finish.
I'm a Shop Floor Supervisor with 23 years of manufacturing experience, currently leading a 15-person team through electrical transformer production in an ISO 9001-certified environment. My background spans electrical/transformer manufacturing, food and consumer packaging, and precision CNC machining, and along the way I picked up something most supervisors don't have: a genuine full-stack development skill set.
I don't code as a side hustle disconnected from my day job, I code to fix problems I actually see on the floor. When our BOM process was slow and error-prone, I built a PowerShell tool to split transformer bills of materials into categorized shop sheets. When our production tracking needed a better home, I built an Excel-based dashboard with a color-aware status parser and a drag-to-reschedule calendar. That instinct, seeing a workflow problem and building the tool to solve it, is the throughline of everything below.
I'm CAPM exam-eligible through PMI and I bring that same builder's mindset to process and project work, not just code. Outside of work, I volunteer with Scouts Canada and spend a fair amount of time with my family, which is usually where my best ideas for what to build next actually come from.
Currently open to manufacturing leadership roles where technical fluency is a real asset, not just a nice-to-have.
A web app built to make shift-to-shift handoffs actually useful, automatically generating a shift report email that summarizes the day's activity, tracking open job issues so nothing falls through the cracks between shifts, and giving the incoming supervisor a clear picture of what changed since they left. Built with HTML, JavaScript, and Firebase for real-time updates across shifts.
A PowerShell GUI tool that splits transformer bills of materials into categorized shop sheets, cutting down manual sorting time and reducing errors on the floor.
A complete bookkeeping solution website built for Atlas Cove Inc., providing comprehensive financial services for small to medium businesses. Clean, professional design emphasizing trust and accessibility, with streamlined navigation for service discovery and client contact.
A 102-bin home inventory tracking web app with NFC tag integration, voice search, and a Siri Shortcut for hands-free lookups, built to solve a real organization problem the same way I'd approach one on the shop floor.
I'm currently focused on manufacturing leadership roles where my technical background adds real value, whether that's process automation, production reporting, or bridging the floor and the systems that run it. Feel free to reach out if that sounds like a fit.
hello@joelthistle.com