Material Planner/Coordinator

Responsibilities

• Work with your manager, corporate purchasing, and the plant warehouse manager to set safety stocks for materials considerate of supplier lead times, contract stipulations with suppliers (as an example, does the supplier hold inventory on our behalf so we can hold less at the plant), demand and production needs over the material lead time horizon and historical variability of demand for the items
• Order/release materials from assigned suppliers to maintain material safety stocks/inventory levels considerate of the weekly production schedule and mid-range production plan at the plant
• Proactively communicate with your manager, the plant scheduler/s, plant leadership and corporate purchasing when material inventories or scheduled deliveries are not sufficient to support scheduled or planned production.
• Work with these partners to develop solutions to support the business need.
• Interact with suppliers to communicate material needs and develop solutions to material supply issues
• Work with vendors to provide needed quantities of materials to adequately support production demands in the circumstances such as changed production schedules or rejected deliveries and manage the return of any defective or rejected ingredients back to the vendor and ensure proper credits are issued
• Meet with vendors to discuss issues, and to ensure continuous improvement in areas of products and processes
• Own the supply of materials until they arrive at the plant. This includes personally working with suppliers to monitor deliveries where we are at risk of not having materials in the plant in time to support planned production.
• Own the supply of materials until they arrive at the plant. This includes personally working with suppliers to monitor deliveries where we are at risk of not having materials in the plant in time to support planned production.
• Participate in cycle counting and inventory level verification in support of the plant team when requested or where the material inventory situation is best owned by planning.
• While inventory record accuracy (floor count to system) is primarily a plant responsibility there will be some instances or materials where the planner/coordinator will need to own or engage in the process.
• Own resolution with suppliers when physical deliveries or delivery paperwork (CoA, BOL, etc.) do not meet receiving expectations. This includes being available to field calls or engage on the dock to confirm issues exist, partnering with warehouse and plant leadership to align on what to do immediately with the receipt (reject, receive and hold, etc.), working the immediate issue to resolution with the supplier, and working with the supplier and purchasing (as needed for 2nd level support) to have the supplier address repeat failures to prevent recurrence.
• In coordination with purchasing and marketing, plan, communicate and manage material transitions so that they are done with no plant production interruption and minimal to no obsolescence. Consider impact of scheduling decisions on shared resources throughout the plant (i.e., labor, equipment, etc.) and work with other personnel to resolve conflicts and improve productivity
• Attend daily and weekly plant scheduling meetings to: Review the production plans and understand plan changes, Communicate material inventory or delivery timing concerns and develop a plan to mitigate the risk, Review any planned material transitions so the operation understands what is changing and how to manage, Identify follows ups to be owned by you related to the above
• Learn about M3 planning and scheduling parameters and processes and use them to build and optimize the plan on your assigned materials. Over time, more of our planning and scheduling should be done in M3 and not Excel
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• BS or BA degree from an accredited university desired. Experience in lieu of degree considered
• 3 to 5 years of experience in planning and scheduling desired
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written including 'seeking to understand, then to be understood'
• Collaboration skills and an ability to work with others to create win-win outcomes
• Experience doing production planning in an ERP system
• Knowledge of plant operations and production scheduling
• MS Office skills inclusive of an ability to use Outlook, Word, and Excel
• Demonstrated ability to learn new skills and new ways of working, and apply them in a professional environment
• Initiative and follow through, self-starter.
• Ability to work independently and meet goals/objectives
• Ability to identify, effectively resolve (most of the time) and escalate (some of the time, when needed) issues that will negatively impact the business
• Continuous improvement mindset including being willing to challenge the status quo when business needs are not being met