Production Planner

Position Summary:

The Production Planner role involves planning and scheduling production work orders to maintain inventory levels, achieve internal financial goals, and meet customer deliveries. This position analyzes demand data, adjusts schedules for raw material delays, and collaborates with various departments to optimize inventory flow. Responsibilities include maintaining data in Oracle, leading cost reduction projects, and participating in safety and continuous improvement initiatives. 

This role requires onsite work 5 days/week in Eden Prairie, MN. Working Hours for this role are: Monday-Friday 7am - 4pm (flexible on start/end times). This role is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship or H1B Transfer. Employment authorization requiring OPT is not supported for this position.

What You'll do as a Production Planner:

• Plan and schedule manufacturing work orders to maintain appropriate inventory stock levels to meet on-time customer delivery.
• Analyze backorders, sales history, and forecasted demand data to prioritize and schedule production orders in line with labor and machine capacity.
• Adjust manufacturing schedules in response to raw material delays to minimize customer impact.
• Collaborate with purchasing, quality control, production, and warehouse staff to plan and optimize inventory flow throughout the material life cycle.
• Establish labor standards for production process to ensure accurate planning and KPI reporting.
• Create and maintain Bill of Materials (BOM), Resources, and Routings for all make items in Oracle.
• Maintain Netstock planning software with accurate planning parameters for Make items.
• Recommends and implements improvements in material planning to drive down inventory levels.
• Generate prioritization and KPI reporting to communicate the current state. Complete root cause analysis and implement cross-functional plans for improvement in response to the identified shortfall.
• Manage packaging and supply materials and inventory levels, including vendor communication, purchase order placement, and management of invoicing questions.
• Lead cost reduction projects related to production materials and planning.
• Participate in Phase In / Phase Out Product meetings to eliminate/reduce obsolete inventory impact.
• Develop and maintain procedures and work instructions for production planning.
• Active participation in Safety, Continuous Improvement, and Training initiatives, which include but are not limited to Safety Observations, Monthly Safety Audits, eSQDC board maintenance, upgrade, and administration of KPI for the area, proposal and execution of CIP (Cost Improvement Projects), and upgrade and maintenance of initiatives using the deploy system.

The Experience, Skills, and Abilities Needed:

Required

• Vocational/Technical.
• Plus 2 years of experience in supply chain position related to planning. 
  • OR High School Diploma/GED. 
  • Plus 4 years of experience in supply chain position related to planning.
• Thorough knowledge of ERP systems, Production Scheduling, Material Requirement Planning (MRP) and capacity planning.
• Must have strong computer skills in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• Demonstrated effective interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills.
• Strategic thinking, strong analytical skills, able to synthesize considerable amounts data.
• Ability to adapt to changing duties and responsibilities.
• Able to influence people in opinions, attitude, or judgments; to generalize, evaluate and make decisions in stressful situations.

Preferred

• APICS (CPIM, PM), or other related Supply Chain Certifications.

Other

• Ability to work independently under general guidelines and supervision.
• Demonstrated excellent organizational, oral and written communication skills and the ability to interface across levels and departments within the company.
• Must exhibit a high level of flexibility and an ability to multi-task at all times.
• Possess problem-solving skills.