Production Planner
- Birmingham Elmdon, West Midlands
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Schedule the supply of materials/components to meet production requirements and minimum safety stock levels
- Plan, develop, implement and evaluate processes for material delivery from supplier to point of fit
- Assess volume requirements against planning assumptions
- Analyse forecasts, material availability, and capacity constraints to plan production effectively.
- Understand and manage risks to minimise impact on production schedule
- Take follow up actions in relation to material shortages that affect production
- Implement all processes to agreed standards and targets and support continuous improvement initiatives and identify areas of improvement
- Utilise any Material Requirements Planning system (MRP) or IT system that is in place and ensure that data is accurate and up to date and resolve any issues as required
- Monitor the integrity of Bill of Materials (BOM) and manage inventory accuracy
- Monitor inventory levels against agreed target levels
- Support inventory checks to validate inventory accuracy
- Minimise obsolete stock and ensure business is left with minimum liability
- Create regular statistical reports and analysis and update others in the organisation
- Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to forecast, plan and facilitate on-time materials to the production line as and when required, avoiding disruption to production
- Collaborate with supply chain and inventory teams to maintain optimal stock levels.
- Identify scheduling conflicts or bottlenecks and implement solutions to maintain service levels.
- Develop and implement processes and work with suppliers on continuous improvement initiatives
- Support continuous improvement efforts to streamline planning processes and improve KPIs (OTIF, schedule adherence, etc.).
- Participate in S&OP meetings and provide input on production capacity and constraints.
- Quickly identifies, analyses, and resolves scheduling issues or supply constraints using structured problem-solving approaches.
- Develop and manage short- and long-term production schedules using Excel/ERP/MRP systems.
- Resolve supplier concerns and evaluate supplier performance in conjunction with members of the purchasing team
- Adhere to any health, safety and environmental policies and procedures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of self, staff and visitors
- Effectively manages competing demands, negotiates timelines or resource allocation, and gains buy-in from key stakeholders.
- Actively seeks out opportunities to improve planning processes, streamline workflows, and reduce production inefficiencies.
- Proactively contributes to the team.
- Good communicator with the ability to form and maintain good relationships internally and externally.
- Strong interpersonal, negotiation and influencing skills.
- Commercial and financial awareness with a full understanding of how failure impacts the costs, production, manufacture and customer order fulfilment.
- Results orientated and organised with the ability to plan and deliver against deadlines.
- Experience coordinating across cross-functional teams and resolving planning conflicts.
- Project management skills.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a detail-oriented mindset.
- GCSE Level A-C, IVQ Technician certificate, BTEC first certificate or equivalent NVQ level 2 qualification.
- Commitment to work towards professional accreditation with an industry related body.
- Proven experience of production planning/scheduling in a manufacturing or supply chain environment.
- Good understanding of supply chain processes and their interdependencies
- Strong understanding of production workflows, capacity planning, and inventory management.
- Strong IT systems knowledge and skills including advanced Excel skills
- Knowledge and experience of using MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems or similar.