Production Planner

About the role

Want to be part of building our wireless world? Technology like 5G and IoT aids emergency responders, enables intelligent warehouses and factories, increases safety on college campuses, helps energy companies provide better service, improves safety and efficiency of various modes of transportation, and more. It enhances the consumer experience for things like entertainment, shopping, and communications. In fact, wireless technology touches every aspect of our daily lives. Building Our Wireless World, Together®. The Production Planner is responsible for planning and coordinating production-related activities within the distribution center, including kitting, cable cutting, labeling, packaging, and other value-added services. This position is located on-site in Lewisville, TX.

Responsibilities

A key responsibility of this position is supporting one of Tessco’s major customers. The Production Planner will serve as the primary operational planning contact for the customer, translating forecasts, project requirements, sales orders, deployment schedules, and changing priorities into actionable production and material plans.

• Customer Planning: Serve as the primary operational planning contact for the assigned customer, build a strong working relationship with the customer’s supply chain, operations, procurement, and project-management representatives, and participate in recurring customer planning, forecast, project-readiness, and order-status meetings.
• Production Planning and Scheduling: Develop daily, weekly, and longer-range production schedules based on customer demand, open sales orders, inventory availability, production capacity, and required ship dates.
• Inventory and Material Coordination: Confirm that required components, cable, reels, raw materials, packaging, labels, and finished goods are available before work is scheduled, identify material shortages, and communicate requirements to Purchasing, Inventory Control, Operations, and the customer when appropriate.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Serve as the communication link between operations and Project Management team, lead or participate in daily internal production-planning meetings, and communicate production priorities, customer requirements, and schedule changes to supervisors and production employees.
• System and Data Management: Create, review, update, and close production work orders in NetSuite or the applicable ERP/WMS, monitor work order status from release through completion and shipment, and develop and maintain saved searches, reports, dashboards, or spreadsheets used to track customer demand and production performance.
• Performance Monitoring and Continuous Improvement: Track planned production against actual production, monitor schedule attainment, backlog, work order aging, labor utilization, material shortages, forecast accuracy, and on-time completion, and analyze customer service failures, production delays, and recurring scheduling problems.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Associate or bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, operations, business, logistics, telecommunications, or a related field preferred.
• Three or more years of experience in production planning, scheduling, warehouse operations, inventory control, supply chain coordination, or customer account planning.
• Experience supporting a major customer account or working directly with external customers preferred.
• Experience in telecommunications distribution, cable products, network infrastructure, electronics, or a related industry strongly preferred.
• Experience working in a distribution center, light manufacturing, assembly, kitting, cable cutting, or value-added services environment preferred.
• Working knowledge of inventory control, material planning, bills of material, capacity planning, and order fulfillment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including formulas, lookups, pivot tables, filters, and data analysis.
• Experience with NetSuite, RF-SMART, or a comparable ERP/WMS system preferred.

Skills

• Strong customer-facing communication and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to communicate operational constraints clearly while maintaining a positive customer relationship.
• Strong planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage changing customer priorities in a fast-paced distribution environment.
• Strong analytical, forecasting, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to identify risks early and develop practical recovery plans.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Strong attention to detail and data accuracy.

Work Environment and Schedule

The position operates in a distribution center environment with exposure to warehouse traffic, material-handling equipment, noise, and changing temperatures. The normal schedule is M-F 7a.

Physical requirements include the ability to work in both an office and warehouse environment, walk through production and warehouse areas regularly, stand or walk for extended periods when reviewing production activities, and occasionally lift and move materials weighing up to 25-50 pounds.