Investing in the Future of Manufacturing Leadership

When Timken Vice President of Operations Tim Graham began overseeing the Operations Development Program (ODP), he understood how important it was for the company’s future. “The biggest challenge for manufacturers in the current era is identifying the right people and developing them into operations leaders,” he says. “If we can do that, we’ll win.”

ODP is an accelerated talent development program for plant managers and operations professionals. Participants represent the best and the brightest of Timken recruits, arriving at Timken right out of college to begin the two-year program. The experience sets them up for a career in manufacturing leadership, connecting them with skills, knowledge and a network that would otherwise take much longer to develop.

These young leaders bring energy and fresh perspectives to Timken innovation and help secure a strong future for the company and its customers.

“We have a responsibility, to our customers and to the world, to build the right kind of manufacturing leaders for the long term. Our Operations Development Program delivers that.”

Tim Graham
Vice President, Operations

The ODP experience

Hannah Smith, plant manager in Asheboro, North Carolina, grew up near Timken headquarters and interned with the company in college. “The ODP coordinator pulled me aside during the last month of my internship and told me I should apply,” she says.

ODP takes participants through six-month assignments in four key areas: quality, lean manufacturing, supply chain and operations supervision. Smith spent her first year doing demand planning and continuous improvement at Timken’s aerospace facility in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and then moved to Asheboro for quality and supervision.

Every six months, she traveled with ODP classmates to Timken headquarters for two weeks of networking, training, team building, and leadership team presentations. Graham, who oversees global operations for the bearing business which includes supply chain, quality, sourcing and environmental health and safety makes a point of sitting in on those presentations.

Every ODP participant is paired with a sponsor — a Timken executive who meets with them monthly, represents them on the leadership team and shepherds their career post-ODP. Graham was Smith’s sponsor, and though the relationship has changed now that she’s a plant manager and an ODP sponsor herself, the two keep in contact. “We’re pretty fortunate to have direct access to the expertise of our senior leadership team,” she says.

Value for the company. Value for customers.

The value of ODP for Smith’s career is hard to quantify. The supervision rotation, in particular, requires a degree of maturity and confidence that not everyone is capable of. “It’s uncomfortable to be a 23-year-old with 20 direct reports on the shop floor who have worked there for 30 years,” says Graham.

Smith says she relied on her ability to be flexible and to connect on a personal level with her colleagues. “To be a good manufacturing leader, you have to enjoy investing in people,” she says. As a woman in manufacturing, she’s passionate about bringing more women into the field and helping them be successful while navigating the challenges of being female in a traditionally male industry.

The accelerated training program, combined with the networking benefits — ODP participants, ODP graduates and their sponsors now comprise a large leadership network across the company —facilitates the kind of cross-functional collaboration that drives efficiency and innovation for Timken customers.

ODP participants today bring enthusiasm and fresh perspective to Timken’s leadership pipeline. They’re challenged during their lean rotations to conceptualize, demonstrate and put a cobot into production — an exercise that builds automation skills and improves safety in the workplace.

Graham says Timken customers understand that ODP is an investment in continued excellence. “They know we’re bringing the best and the brightest to lead their next project,” he says. “We have a responsibility, to our customers and to the world, to build the right kind of manufacturing leaders for the long term. Our Operations Development Program delivers that.”

Timken invests in leadership training for current employees, as well as new recruits. Their Manufacturing Academy brings employees from around the world together for advanced operational leadership training. Read more.

Last Updated: 2025/06/26

Published: 2025/03/10