PPS Fairborn’s new Plant Manager, Greg St. Clair, was welcomed into a facility that resembled a construction zone—buzzing with renovation crews, shifting schedules, and the constant hum of production. It was the perfect chance for St. Clair to roll up his sleeves and show steady leadership in the middle of change.
St. Clair joined MPW’s PPS Fairborn facility on August 13 after serving as a plant manager at a steel manufacturing firm in the Midwest. A Fairborn resident, he lives just 10 minutes from the plant and already knew MPW from its previous work with a major automotive manufacturer. “I saw the position go up, and I reached out to a friend of mine who had done some work with MPW down in Alabama and up this way,” St. Clair said. “That connection helped me follow up on the opportunity.”
St. Clair was hired in the middle of major renovations at the plant, which meant his first challenge was keeping production on track while construction crews worked alongside employees. “We had to get creative with the layout of people,” he said. “The first thing we tried to do was make sure we didn’t have to work the Labor Day holiday. Then we spread people out across three shifts so second and third could carry the bulk of production while first shift worked around the construction guys.”
As renovations wrap up, St. Clair sees new possibilities for the plant. Large stacks of totes were removed, new tanks are being installed, and old equipment is being cleared to free up space. “It’s going to get amazingly different,” he said. “We’ll finally be able to organize things the way we should, like, this is where all the incoming stuff goes, this is where the outbound stuff sits, and then start to work on the 5S activities that we just can’t do right now.”
Looking ahead, St. Clair is determined to bring more structure to scheduling and to develop the next generation of supervisors. “What I want to do is formalize a scheduling process so we know what should be going on, what should be next, and then be able to measure that against what we actually produced,” he said. “And it’s my responsibility to grow up the guys who are in supervisor roles. They can’t just be managing chaos every day. They’ve got to learn to be clear communicators, set expectations, and step back a little to focus on leadership and people management.”
When asked about his one-year outlook, St. Clair pointed to the importance of data, communication, and making the most of the upgrades. “It’ll be interesting to see how the company redistributes work to take advantage of the new tank capacity,” he said. “But for me, it’s about settling in, figuring out what data matters most, and making sure I communicate that clearly to the guys on the floor. If we do that, then we can all grow together and maximize everything that’s going on here right now.”