As a Manufacturing Planner, you will play a critical role in keeping production running efficiently by ensuring work orders, materials, engineering documentation, quality requirements, and production priorities are aligned before work reaches the shop floor. Your efforts will help reduce delays, improve production readiness, and support on-time delivery by connecting manufacturing, engineering, quality, procurement, and operations teams around a common execution plan.
The Manufacturing Planner supports manufacturing operations by coordinating production readiness, work order execution, material availability, and cross-functional communication. This role serves as a central point of coordination between manufacturing, engineering, quality, inventory, and procurement teams to identify constraints, resolve issues, maintain visibility into production status, and ensure work can be executed safely, accurately, and on schedule. Success in this role requires strong organizational skills, ERP proficiency, attention to detail, and the ability to proactively drive follow-up across multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
Required
- 3+ years of experience in manufacturing, production coordination, production control, materials planning, inventory control, supply chain, or a related industrial environment.
- Working knowledge of manufacturing operations, work orders, production schedules, inventory availability, bills of material (BOMs), and routing structures.
- Experience using ERP/MRP, manufacturing, inventory, or production planning systems to review work order status, material availability, shortages, and planning data.
- Ability to read and interpret basic engineering drawings, BOMs, technical documentation, work instructions, and production schedules.
- Strong organizational, prioritization, and follow-up skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to coordinate effectively across manufacturing, engineering, quality, procurement, inventory, and operations teams.
- Demonstrated problem-solving skills with the ability to identify production constraints, gather information, escalate issues, and drive timely resolution.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and standard business software applications.
Preferred
- Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Manufacturing Technology, Business, Engineering Technology, or a related field.
- Experience in industrial equipment, oilfield services, drilling technology, heavy manufacturing, machinery, aerospace, defense, or a similar manufacturing environment.
- Experience supporting production planning, production control, scheduling, manufacturing readiness, or shop floor operations.
- Familiarity with quality management systems, inspection processes, nonconformance workflows, engineering change processes, or controlled documentation environments.
- Experience coordinating with engineering, quality, procurement, inventory control, and manufacturing teams to support production execution.
- Exposure to ERP data management, BOM maintenance, routing updates, shortage tracking, backlog reporting, or production readiness reporting.
- APICS/ASCM certification, Lean, Six Sigma, or other operations and continuous improvement training.
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Production Readiness & Work Order Coordination
- Coordinate production readiness by ensuring work orders have the required materials, documentation, drawings, routings, specifications, and quality requirements before release to manufacturing.
- Monitor production schedules and communicate shortages, delays, documentation gaps, and other constraints that may impact delivery commitments.
- Track work order status, priorities, and due dates while ensuring issues are escalated to the appropriate stakeholders for resolution.
- Support manufacturing operations by providing visibility into production readiness risks and required follow-up actions.
Material & ERP Coordination
- Utilize ERP/MRP systems to review work orders, inventory availability, shortages, BOMs, routings, and planning data.
- Partner with buyers, inventory control, receiving, and manufacturing teams to identify and resolve material-related constraints.
- Help maintain planning data accuracy by identifying discrepancies in BOMs, routings, inventory status, or supporting documentation and routing issues to the appropriate owner.
- Provide regular updates on material availability and production constraints to support scheduling and operational decisions.
Cross-Functional Coordination
- Serve as a liaison between manufacturing, engineering, quality, planning, procurement, and operations teams to support production execution.
- Coordinate follow-up actions related to engineering changes, drawing releases, quality holds, inspection requirements, and production readiness issues.
- Facilitate recurring production status meetings, track action items, and communicate progress, risks, and escalations.
Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Maintain production readiness reports, backlog trackers, shortage reports, and operational status updates.
- Analyze recurring production disruptions, material shortages, documentation issues, and process bottlenecks to identify improvement opportunities.
- Maintain accurate records and documentation to support operational visibility and audit requirements.
- Support continuous improvement efforts focused on planning processes, communication, production readiness, and schedule execution.