Production Planner

Major Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain detailed production schedules to support customer delivery requirements and operational priorities.
• Plan and schedule work orders across machining, EDM, grinding, assembly, cleaning, inspection, testing, and other manufacturing processes.
• Release and prioritize work orders to ensure efficient workflow through manufacturing operations and bottleneck resources.
• Cook up production schedules with material availability, labor resources, machine capacity, and customer priorities.
• Monitor daily production performance and adjust schedules as required to address changing priorities, material shortages, equipment downtime, or customer expedite requests.
• Track work-in-process (WIP) and ensure timely movement of orders through the manufacturing process.
• Cook up internal and external processing requirements, including metallization, coating, plating, welding, heat treatment, testing, and other subcontracted operations.

Material Planning & Supply Chain Coordination

• Review material requirements and coordinate with Purchasing to ensure timely availability of raw materials, components, and outside processing services.
• Monitor material shortages and supplier delivery performance, identifying risks that could impact production schedules.
• Support inventory management initiatives by balancing material availability with inventory investment objectives.
• Aid in the management of safety stock levels and replenishment requirements for critical materials and components.

Customer Order Management

• Support customer order fulfillment by ensuring production schedules align with committed delivery dates.
• Collaborate with Customer Service and Sales to provide order status updates and communicate potential delivery risks.
• Manage expedite requests and changing customer priorities while minimizing disruption to overall production schedules.
• Aid in establishing realistic production completion dates based on capacity, material availability, and operational constraints.

EPICOR ERP & Planning System Management

• Utilize EPICOR ERP planning and scheduling tools to manage production schedules, work order releases, and material requirements.
• Maintain accurate planning data including work orders, scheduling information, lead times, and inventory transactions.
• Review EPICOR MRP recommendations and coordinate actions with Purchasing, Operations, and the Master Production Scheduler.
• Ensure Bills of Material (BOMs), routings, and planning parameters accurately support production requirements.
• Generate reports and planning metrics to support daily production management and operational decision-making.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives related to EPICOR utilization, data accuracy, and planning effectiveness.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Participate in daily and weekly production meetings to review priorities, capacity constraints, material shortages, and customer commitments.
• Collaborate with Engineering on changes, new product introductions, and process improvements impacting production schedules.
• Work closely with Operations, Quality, Purchasing, and Supply Chain teams to resolve issues affecting production flow and customer deliveries.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration or Liberal Arts or equivalent experience required.
• 4 to 8 years of product planning experience required.
• Ability to read, analyze and interpret mechanical drawings, technical journals and basic statistical reports.
• Must have an understanding of MRP software; EPICOR preferred.
• Strong general working knowledge of basic computer programs including, but not limited to MS Word, Excel, Web, etc.
• Familiarity with standard production and manufacturing concepts including, but not limited to: scheduling, costing, technical drawings, bills-of-material, production rates, purchase orders, work orders, sales orders, work centers, written procedures & work instructions, work order routes, production capacity, etc.
• Must have a working understanding of planning horizons, product forecasts, forecast consumption, product families, target inventories, just-in-time and Lean management concepts.
• Organizational skills to allow for the integration of multiple planning and scheduling activities simultaneously.
• Appropriate interpersonal skills to allow for professional, courteous and productive interaction with subordinates, co-workers and supervisors.