About the position
Morgan Advanced Materials is seeking a Production Planner to join our Thermal Ceramics division in Augusta, GA. This role is integral to our supply chain operations, focusing on production scheduling, inventory management, and maintaining customer service levels for assigned product lines. The Production Planner will report directly to the Supply Planning Manager and will collaborate closely with the demand planner to analyze historical and projected demand patterns. This analysis will inform the creation of purchase requisitions and the scheduling of production runs. The successful candidate will also work in tandem with Customer Service, Demand Planning, and Warehousing/Traffic teams to ensure timely delivery of products to our customers. In this position, the Production Planner will be responsible for managing inventory levels to meet established targets, issuing manufacturing work orders, and identifying obsolete or excess inventories. The role requires participation in physical inventory counts and a solid understanding of product costs to make informed inventory decisions. The Production Planner will generate production schedules that align with efficient manufacturing practices and customer service needs, while also establishing long-range production plans. A key aspect of this role is to maintain effective communication with other Thermal Ceramics plants to ensure cohesive production planning across locations. The Production Planner will also be tasked with establishing promise ship dates for customer orders, proactively managing any backlog, and ensuring that shipping dates are communicated clearly and accurately. This position is essential in developing product demand forecasts based on historical data and close collaboration with Sales, Customer Service, and Demand Planning teams. The ideal candidate will possess strong organizational skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team, ensuring that all production planning activities align with the company's goals of sustainability and quality improvement.
Responsibilities
- Manage inventory levels for assigned products to meet agreed upon inventory targets in terms of weeks of supply.
- Establish stock levels for individual SKU's.
- Issue manufacturing work orders, purchase requisitions, and transfer of stock orders.
- Identify obsolete and excess inventories and initiate remedial action.
- Participate in physical inventory counts.
- Understand standard costs of products to ensure proper inventory decisions.
- Generate production schedules for assigned products that support efficient manufacturing, inventory management and customer service needs.
- Issue manufacturing work orders and monitor work order variances.
- Establish long range production plans.
- Develop a good understanding of the production process, including purchase and manufacturing costs. Support cost down programs in manufacturing.
- Develop and maintain contact with other Thermal Ceramics plants that produce products common to the assigned product responsibility.
- Establish the promise ship dates for customer orders, while recognizing that on time delivery is a key objective.
- When delays occur, reschedule orders, and communicate deviations to the Customer Service timely.
- Proactively manage the backlog to ensure that shipping dates are clear and accurate.
- Develop product demand forecasts based on historical data and through close contact with Sales, Customer Service and Demand Planning.
- Maintain a listing of formalized customer stocking agreements.
Requirements
- High School Diploma or GED.
- 3+ years of scheduling experience or manufacturing experience.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point).
- Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills including negotiation experience.
- Ability to work cohesively within a team and independently with minimal supervision.
Nice-to-haves
- BA or BS degree in business is desired.
- Experience with ERP Systems.
- Previous experience with procurement desired.
- APICS CSCP or CPIM (in process or certified) is desired.
