Sr. Production Planner

Company Description

It started with a simple idea: what if surgery could be less invasive and recovery less painful? Nearly 30 years later, that question still fuels everything we do at Intuitive. As a global leader in robotic-assisted surgery and minimally invasive care, our technologies—like the da Vinci surgical system and Ion—have transformed how care is delivered for millions of patients worldwide.

We’re a team of engineers, clinicians, and innovators united by one purpose: to make surgery smarter, safer, and more human. Every day, our work helps care teams perform with greater precision and patients recover faster, improving outcomes around the world.

The problems we solve demand creativity, rigor, and collaboration. The work is challenging, but deeply meaningful—because every improvement we make has the potential to change a life.

If you’re ready to contribute to something bigger than yourself and help transform the future of healthcare, you’ll find your purpose here.

Job Description

Primary Function of Position

This position is seeking a creative and flexible individual to help lead the Planning activities for the Instrument or Systems Manufacturing lines. Responsible for the overall status of order fulfillment and managing inventory levels throughout the manufacturing process.

The Sr Production Planner will be assigned critical Operations, NPI or Sustaining projects to manage.  Expected to seek out and recommend process improvements, assist in developing team members skill sets in the planning, take on leadership responsibilities for strategic planning activities that enable the department capabilities to scale to the growing business needs.

The candidate will work with multiple cross-functional teams, Manufacturing, Supply chain, Quality, Engineering and other teams to achieve both tactical and strategic goals assigned.  This by fully understanding production demand and supply needs, balancing operational goals while incorporating Lean Manufacturing principals, and identify and coordinate issue resolution and continuous improvement opportunities with other departments. This position requires strong presentation and clear communication abilities. 

Essential Job Duties

• Manage assigned NPI/Sustaining projects at both strategic and tactical level. Evaluate current process and recommend continuous improvement to evolve process.
• Provides mentorship through tactical training to team members to improve their skill sets in NPI/ Sustaining planning. Lead efforts to create and/or updating work instructions (WI) & Departmental Operating Procedures (DOP).
• Lead and support department or organizational projects. Gain project team consensus, track/ monitor scope, scope changes, project plan time lines against phase review objectives, variances and contingencies that surface during implementation of projects. Escalate where necessary to management.
• Engage Manufacturing teams in the continuous improvement process to ensure assigned projects are identified, prioritized and implemented in a timely and effective manner.
• Identify potential supply risks and inventory exposures by aligning supply chain processes with production plan milestones/targets. Illuminate impact to supply continuity for Finished Goods Inventory (FGI).
• Applying knowledge of concepts and principles of planning to develop solutions to a variety of problems, particularly with supply constraints.
• Perform capacity analysis in to support what-if scenarios, forecast changes, and plan for production growth.             
• Maintain department metrics; analyze trends and results. Drive appropriate corrective actions where needed.
• Provide direction to various NPI programs/projects as subject matter expert, to support product transitions to sustaining manufacturing lines.
• Collaborate with Purchasing and Engineering to review proposed changes and establish Engineering Change Order (ECO) affectivity.  Execute ECO implementation requirements.
• Support production activities and ensure maximum line up-time
• Determine and manage potential line shortages by analyzing build schedules, shortage reports, on hand inventory reports and supplier delivery information
• Develop communication relationship with Production, Engineering, Purchasing, Shipping, and Customer Service to manage supply and demand
• Resolve work order variances, and determine/track root cause. Work with Cost Accounting for month end close
• Monitor and adjust planning parameters in SAP

Qualifications

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 2 years’ experience in SAP.(Mandatory)
• Advanced MS Office skills, understanding of vlookup, Piv