Production Planner

A Norwich-based manufacturing business is seeking a Production Planner to manage the scheduling of production and ensure customer expectations are set and met correctly.

A day in the life of the Production Planner is to review incoming customer orders against the factory production and material schedule to ensure customer-scheduled shipment dates are kept up to date.

The Production Planner also liaises with the Production Team Leader(s) on assembly/technician resources to frequently update Distribution Centres on shipment plans.

The role offers significant levels of flexibility in the day-to-day schedule, allowing the ideal candidate to define their own schedule, set production priorities, and optimize processes as they see fit.

Prior experience with complex production scheduling and communication is essential, as you will be the centre of factory-to-customer communication.

Previous experience may be in a role such as Production Planner, Production Team Leader, Production Manager, Manufacturing Supervisor, etc.

Key responsibilities:

• Responsible for the scheduling of all manufacturing priorities, including but not limited to, Build, Test, Calibration, and Shipment priority in cooperation with Production Team Leaders.
• Communicates the overall Production plan/capabilities to supporting functions including Finance and Customer Service to ensure seamless business forecasting and customer expectation management.
• Prepares monthly PSI plan (Production, Sales & Inventory) for review and approval by the Operations Manager prior to submitting into Forecast.
• Maintains the "Line of Balance" charts for Operations, to ensure visibility of the production plan for the Materials team and awareness of potential shortages.
• To create, maintain, and schedule open WIP (Work In Progress) Jobs in the company ERP system (Oracle) to ensure correct reflection of customer demand.
• Uses the Daily Management process to monitor team performance, drive production priority, focus, and prioritize production support activities.
• Advises the Operations and Production Manager on gaps in customer demand and where PDBL (Past Due Backlog) and OTD (On Time Delivery) misses will be present to escalate key production issues.

Key attributes:

• Prioritization skills
• Self-Starter
• PC Literacy including Microsoft Office, preferably also Jira/Confluence & Oracle
• Excellent communication skills
• Advanced Microsoft Excel knowledge desirable (Complex Formulas, Macros, VBA)