Production Planner

At Post Consumer Brands, we have more than 125 years of experience making the breakfast cereals that people love. And even after a century, we're still innovating. We are driven by our mission to Make Better Happen - and we want YOU to join our team!

With names like Pebbles, Honey Bunches of Oats, Great Grains, and Malt-O-Meal in our portfolio, we’ve earned more spots in the top 50 best-selling brands than any other cereal company. And as the third-ranked company in the cereal category, our business is growing. That’s where you come in. Our company is a hearty mix of ambitious people who want to make great things happen. 

Northfield, Minn. is home to two Post Consumer Brands manufacturing plants, the Campbell Mill and Ames Mill, two distribution centers, and more than 750 team members producing a wide variety of Post cereal products. Northfield is a town steeped in history, featuring two colleges and the original Ames Mill where the Malt-O-Meal Company got its start. 

The Production Planner is accountable for the establishment and the management of the production schedules for the entire sites including lines, flavor types, display pallets, and co-manufactured products within their portfolio.  This includes the creation of production schedules that balance the competing needs of customer service levels, manufacturing efficiencies, and proper lead times while maintaining inventory levels within the range set forth through the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process.  Primary responsibilities of the Production Planner are to prepare, plan, issue and control production schedules to meet ongoing and promotional demand.  It is important to follow the standard processes, leverage technology and improve best practices to positively impact results.  Support, implement, and maintain food safety and quality practices as required through SQF.  Other key functions the position works with:

• Customer Solutions – to maintain service level targets on customer orders
• Master Supply Planning – to understand and implement the supply plans, to coordinate flavor type changes, and to problem solve and prioritize as needed to maximize customer service levels
• Demand Planning – to increase service levels through refinement and understanding of the demand signal
• Transportation - to coordinate loads to Co-Manufacturers, ensure availability when needed, minimize excess product movement, and schedule direct plant shipments
• Material Planning - to assure production schedules and modifications are compatible with ingredient and packaging lead times and availability
• Operations – to create schedules as efficiently as possible for processing and packaging given current demand requirements, labor plans, promotions and service levels
• Other Production Planners – to coordinate production plans across networks, and to confirm and increase availability of required finished good and semi-finished good items
• Co-Manufacturing Planning – to coordinate production schedules and requirements across businesses

Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Develop and implement appropriate production strategies and best practices for a complex and evolving set of SKU’s across production sites, lines, flavor types, and promotions
• Create and maintain long-term and daily production schedules that meet target customer service levels, are operationally efficient, maintain flexibility, and reduce risk of excess inventory
• Responsively adjust production schedules to meet changing demands within the guidelines of lead times, labor planning, packaging and ingredient availability, production lock windows, and stated planning timelines
• Communicate at multiple levels both inside and outside the organization to discuss causes and impacts of schedule changes, compare capacity and demand, and escalate risks for awareness and mitigation
• Use Short Interval Controls on Key Performance Indicators to identify issues and make appropriate revisions within the production schedule. Escalate as needed for root cause analysis or cross-functional problem solving to pursue opportunities and resolve recurring issues
• Align weekly and daily production schedules with the S&OP supply and network plans
• Integrate with operations, warehousing and Co-Manufacturers to achieve operations efficiency through proper production sequencing and understanding of operational limitations
• Demonstrate continuous improvement in the schedule sequencing, routing, labor planning, communication and/or the scheduling process
• Provide recommendations to improve service and reduce costs through process improvements
• Provide cross-functional leadership and expertise within the assigned production sites, lines and flavor types
• Cross train in Materials Planning owning a pre-determined portion of the Purchased Materials (ingredients or packaging)
• Provide back-up coverage as needed for Materials Planners
• Other duties as assigned

Work Location: This position will be in person at our Northfield, MN Manufacturing facility.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting or related field is preferred
• Integrated planning systems training like ERP/DRP/MPS/MRP/CRP is required
• Professional certification from APICS and/or ISM is desirable

EXPERIENCE:

• Would prefer a minimum of 5 years of combined related experience operating in areas of inventory control, production scheduling, master planning, demand management, capacity management, materials management, or distribution resource planning; with preference in food processing/packaging
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing systems and processes
• Able to build relationships

Salary : $81,900 - $104,000