Production Planner

$60,320 - $99,840/Yr

Actalent - East Hartford, CT

Full-time - Entry Level

Hybrid - East Hartford, CT

10,001+ employees

Administrative and Support Services

About the position

The Production Planner at Actalent is responsible for coordinating and improving production flow within the manufacturing environment. This role involves managing production activities, including customer demand planning, job routing, and scheduling, while utilizing lean enterprise principles to enhance processes and product quality.

Responsibilities

• Create and establish production planning processes through cross-functional collaboration between sales, engineering, purchasing, quality, and manufacturing teams.
• Drive on-time shipments through the creation of daily production schedules that optimize capacity utilization, raw material allocation, WIP, and finished good inventory levels.
• Establish planning controls and inventory levels that accommodate forecast fluctuations with keen attention to production lot sizes.
• Coordinate and monitor daily performance, production output, scheduling commitments, inventory cycle counts, on-time releases, and overdue releases.
• Manage material requirement planning data and issue job travelers (routers) to the production floor that optimize manpower, machinery utilization, and inventory levels.
• Plan work orders for manufacturing with respect to customer demand and subcontract (OV) cost (lot charges vs piece prices), monitor over/under production.
• Create expedite job completion timelines for external customers and communicate any changes in schedule or delivery dates to all affected parties.
• Ensure sufficient supplies of parts and materials are available.
• Load shop floor planner in ERP when releasing job routers.
• Interface effectively with internal and external customers and support teams.
• Provide input during the development of production schedules and associated costs.
• Assess the need for and implement corrective action on an ongoing basis. Inform management, purchasing, manufacturing, and customer service of schedule slippages, bottlenecks, or other problem areas in a timely manner.

Requirements

• Associates Degree in a manufacturing or engineering-related field.
• Two years of scheduling, planning, and/or inventory control experience in a manufacturing environment involving machining or similar processes.
• Prior ERP/MRP experience, with Epicor ERP being a plus.
• Strong MS Office skills (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.).
• Strong organizational, verbal, and interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability to apply lean enterprise principles to eliminate waste.
• Ability to work under stringent deadlines and have a sense of urgency.
• Ability to work in a team environment.

Nice-to-haves

• Previous Sales-Inventory-Operation-Planning (SIOP or S&OP) methodology knowledge is a plus.
• Experience in production control logistics.
• Ability to run weekly master lists, start lists, date changes, and other reports as necessary.
• Capability to compile weekly push-out/pull-in reports.
• Responsibility for cycle counts and inventory.
• Use Lean practices to continuously improve manufacturing processes and maintain 5S levels.

Benefits

• Medical, dental & vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan - Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Short and long-term disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)