Production Planner

Job Summary:

The Production Planner is responsible for coordinating, scheduling, and monitoring production activities to ensure on-time delivery of harness and box build products at Ag Express Electronics. This role aligns customer demand, material availability, labor resources, and production capacity to optimize workflow, reduce bottlenecks, and support operational performance. The Production Planner plays a critical role in balancing people, parts, and processes to drive efficiency and accountability across manufacturing operations.

Key Responsibilities:

Production Planning & Scheduling

• Develop and maintain production schedules for harness and box build manufacturing, ensuring alignment with customer demand and stock build plans.

• Balance production capacity across multiple shifts and sites (Des Moines, Sulphur Springs, Grand Island) to optimize throughput.

• Monitor work order status daily to ensure on-time delivery, escalating issues when required.

Operations & Labor Coordination

• Partner with Production Managers and Supervisors to allocate labor effectively across work centers and shifts.

• Anticipate labor shortages, absences, or training gaps that may impact production schedules and recommend adjustments.

• Support workforce planning by identifying areas requiring overtime, cross-training, or resource reallocation.

• Provide clear direction to operations teams on daily/weekly priorities to align work execution with the master schedule.

Coordination & Communication

• Act as the central point of communication between Sales, Materials Management, and Production teams to align priorities.

• Review new Sales Orders for feasibility against current schedule, labor capacity, and material availability.

• Provide timely updates to stakeholders on schedule changes, labor constraints, and recovery plans.

Material & Capacity Alignment

• Partner with Materials Management to ensure timely availability of parts, harness components, and assemblies.

• Coordinate with Production Managers and Supervisors to identify equipment and labor constraints.

• Recommend adjustments to schedules, overtime, or resource allocation to meet deadlines.

Tool Development & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and maintain planning tools (Excel or similar platforms) to balance labor, work centers, and equipment capacity.

• Analyze production and labor data to identify trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities for efficiency.

• Establish forecasting, capacity planning, and material requirements planning (MRP) processes.

• Create dashboards, reports, and KPIs to track schedule adherence and workforce utilization.

• Support Lean and ISO 9001 continuous improvement initiatives.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

Technical Skills

• Advanced Excel (pivot tables, Power Query, macros, scenario modeling).

• ERP/MRP system use for scheduling, capacity planning, and work order management (Acumatica preferred).

• Familiarity with production scheduling software or planning modules.

• Data analysis and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or similar).

• Understanding of Lean manufacturing principles and capacity modeling.

• Abil