Production Planner Manager

About the role

The Planning Manager is responsible for overseeing production planning, scheduling, materials planning, inventory control, and the availability of materials required to support manufacturing operations and customer requirements. The position develops and maintains production plans that align customer demand with manufacturing capacity, material availability, inventory objectives, and operational priorities, ensuring effective coordination between Production, Customer Service, Inventory, and other relevant functions to achieve production and customer commitments. The role provides leadership and direction to planning and inventory-related activities and drives continuous improvement in planning, scheduling, inventory accuracy, and materials management processes. Operating in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment, the Planning Manager must balance customer requirements, production capacity, material availability, inventory levels, and changing priorities while developing accurate production plans, balancing inventory levels, ensuring material availability, managing competing priorities, optimizing work‑in‑process and finished goods inventory, maintaining accurate planning data, bills of materials, routings, and manufacturing orders, coordinating planning across multiple locations, and identifying opportunities to improve planning accuracy, inventory levels, production efficiency, and overall supply chain performance.

Responsibilities

• Production planning and scheduling.
• Materials requirements planning.
• Raw material, work-in-process, and finished goods inventory planning and control.
• Forecasting material and production requirements.
• Manufacturing order planning and coordination.
• Production planning requirements for the GMD plate production plant.
• Forecasting Boonton and Toronto plate requirements from GMD.
• Inventory accuracy and cycle count coordination.
• ERP/MRP planning data and system accuracy.
• Cross-functional coordination with Production, Customer Service, Inventory, and other departments.
• Reporting and analysis of planning, inventory, and production performance.
• Develop, maintain, and execute production plans and schedules to meet customer requirements and manufacturing objectives.
• Monitor and maintain appropriate levels of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods inventory in accordance with established guidelines and targets.
• Forecast production and material requirements based on customer demand, forecasts, historical requirements, inventory levels, and production capacity.
• Coordinate material requirements to ensure materials are available to support production schedules.
• Identify and coordinate initiatives to reduce excess inventory, work-in-process, and finished goods while maintaining customer service levels.
• Analyze inventory discrepancies and coordinate corrective actions to improve inventory accuracy.
• Coordinate and analyze cycle counts and physical inventory counts.
• Develop and implement improvements to production planning, scheduling, inventory control, and materials planning processes.
• Maintain accurate planning parameters and information within the ERP/MRP system.
• Issue and maintain Manufacturing Orders in accordance with production requirements.
• Maintain accurate Bills of Materials and routings for finished goods.
• Liaise with Customer Service and Production regarding customer requirements, production priorities, delivery commitments, and changes to schedules.
• Lead production planning and scheduling meetings.
• Monitor production schedules and identify potential delays, capacity constraints, material shortages, and other risks that may impact customer delivery.
• Develop and maintain planning reports and key performance indicators related to production, inventory, and material requirements.
• Maintain quarterly Hyperion reporting related to planning and inventory requirements.
• Maintain production planning for the GMD plate production plant.
• Forecast Boonton and Toronto plate requirements from GMD.
• Analyze production and inventory data to identify trends, risks, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Support cross-functional initiatives related to capacity planning, inventory optimization, production efficiency, and customer service.
• Provide leadership, support, coaching, and direction to employees involved in planning and inventory-related activities, as applicable.
• Promote continuous improvement in production planning, scheduling, inventory management, and materials planning.
• Ensure planning processes comply with applicable company policies, procedures, ISO requirements, and established controls