Production Control Manager

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nElevate Operating Solutions (EOS) is seeking an experienced Production Control Manager to lead the planning, scheduling, coordination, and control of production activities at our Jackson, Georgia manufacturing facility. The Production Control Manager is responsible for ensuring that customer requirements, production schedules, inventory objectives, manufacturing capacity, and delivery commitments are effectively coordinated and consistently achieved. This position will provide overall leadership to the Production Control function and will be responsible for developing and maintaining production plans based on customer demand, available manufacturing capacity, material availability, labor resources, equipment capability, inventory levels, and business requirements. The Production Control Manager will also ensure the effective use and accuracy of SAP, MES, ERP/MRP, and other production-control systems used for production planning, scheduling, production tracking, inventory control, material requirements, reporting, traceability, and customer delivery requirements. This is a highly cross-functional leadership role requiring close coordination with Production, Materials, Purchasing, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance, Logistics, Finance, and Plant Management. Key Responsibilities Production Control Leadership & Department Management Provide overall leadership, direction, coaching, and support to the Production Control department.Directly supervise Production Control Supervisors, Planners, Schedulers, Coordinators, and other assigned personnel.Establish departmental goals, priorities, performance expectations, and accountability standards.Develop appropriate staffing plans and ensure sufficient departmental coverage to support plant operations.Monitor employee attendance, performance, productivity, quality, teamwork, and adherence to established procedures.Conduct employee performance evaluations and provide ongoing coaching and feedback.Recognize strong employee performance and address performance concerns promptly and professionally.Identify employee training needs and establish appropriate development plans.Establish cross-training programs to improve departmental flexibility and operational coverage.Ensure Production Control personnel are properly trained in SAP, MES, ERP/MRP systems, production scheduling, customer requirements, and company procedures.Promote a culture of accountability, communication, teamwork, responsiveness, customer service, data accuracy, and continuous improvement. Production Planning & SchedulingDevelop daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term production plans based on customer requirements and available manufacturing capacity.Review customer orders, forecasts, releases, schedules, and delivery requirements.Translate customer demand into realistic and achievable production schedules.Establish production priorities based on customer requirements, material availability, inventory levels, equipment availability, plant capacity, labor resources, and business needs.Monitor production schedules and adjust plans based on changes in customer demand, materials, staffing, equipment conditions, quality concerns, and actual production performance.Ensure production schedules and priorities are communicated accurately and timely to all affected departments.Monitor schedule attainment and identify deviations from production plans.Develop recovery plans when production schedules or customer requirements are at risk.Develop short-term and long-term production plans as required.Coordinate planned shutdowns, holidays, preventive maintenance, equipment downtime, and other events affecting production capacity.Adjust production schedules following equipment breakdowns, quality holds, material shortages, labor shortages, or other production interruptions.Maintain effective communication between shifts regarding schedules, customer priorities, shortages, production performance, and unresolved issues. Capacity Planning & Manufacturing CoordinationMonitor production capacity and identify potential bottlenecks, constraints, and capacity limitations.Coordinate with Production Management regarding available labor, equipment capacity, line availability, output, and schedule attainment.Work with Maintenance to incorporate planned downtime and preventive-maintenance activities into production schedules.Work with Engineering regarding equipment capability, process changes, new products, engineering changes, and production requirements.Participate in capacity planning, forecasting, and business-planning activities.Assist management in evaluating future labor, equipment, tooling, and other resource requirements.Support line balancing, capacity analysis, production-flow improvement, and manufacturing-efficiency initiatives.Identify production-flow constraints and work cross-functionally to improve utilization and schedule performance. Material Requirements & Inventory ControlWork closely with Materials to ensure raw materials, components, packaging, and other production requirements are available to support scheduled production.Monitor material availability against production schedules and requirements.Identify potential material shortages before they negatively affect production.Establish and communicate shortage-recovery plans.Coordinate emergency and expedited material requirements when necessary.Work with Purchasing regarding supplier shortages, late deliveries, supplier performance, and material-availability risks.Monitor work-in-process inventory and ensure WIP levels support production requirements without creating excessive inventory.Monitor finished-goods inventory against customer requirements and delivery schedules.Support inventory-reduction initiatives while maintaining customer service and production continuity.Identify opportunities to reduce WIP, improve inventory performance, and improve manufacturing flow. SAP, MES & ERP/MRP System ManagementEnsure production-control systems are effectively and accurately utilized to support manufacturing operations.Ensure production orders are released, scheduled, monitored, and completed according to established requirements.Verify production orders accurately reflect part numbers, quantities, revisions, customer requirements, and planned completion dates.Monitor production-order aging and address delays or discrepancies.Ensure production transactions are completed accurately and timely within ERP/MRP systems.Ensure SAP production orders, material requirements, inventory transactions, production confirmations, and manufacturing data are accurate and completed according to company procedures.Utilize MES to monitor production status, production quantities, work orders, downtime, scrap, traceability, production performance, and related manufacturing information.Ensure SAP and MES information accurately reflects actual manufacturing activities.Identify and resolve discrepancies between SAP, MES, production records, and physical inventory.Maintain accurate production-planning data, including lead times, production rates, lot sizes, capacity, and scheduling parameters.Review and maintain MRP parameters as required.Identify incorrect system information that could affect production planning, material requirements, inventory, or customer delivery.Coordinate with appropriate departments to correct system-data issues.Support efforts to improve SAP, MES, ERP/MRP, and production-control system accuracy. Customer Demand & Delivery ManagementMonitor customer demand, forecasts, releases, cancellations, expedites, schedule increases, and other changes.Evaluate the impact of customer changes on production capacity, material requirements, inventory, and delivery commitments.Communicate significant customer schedule changes to Plant Management and affected departments.Coordinate customer expedites and urgent production requirements.Monitor customer delivery requirements and identify potential risks before they affect shipments.Support achievement of on-time customer delivery objectives.Coordinate with Logistics and Materials regarding customer delivery requirements and shipping priorities.Monitor finished-goods availability against customer schedules.Establish corrective actions when customer delivery commitments are at risk.Maintain strong focus on customer service, responsiveness, and delivery performance. New Product Launches & Engineering ChangesCoordinate production requirements for new product launches, engineering changes, production transfers, and customer programs.Ensure production schedules support launch timing, production trials, validation builds, and customer requirements.Coordinate production requirements related to engineering and process changes.Work with Engineering and Quality to establish appropriate timing for process changes, trials, validation activities, and product releases.Evaluate production capacity and resource requirements associated with new programs and manufacturing changes. Production Disruption & Recovery ManagementIdentify production constraints, material shortages, capacity limitations, schedule disruptions, system-data issues, and customer-delivery risks.Develop contingency and recovery plans for significant production interruptions.Coordinate production recovery following equipment failures, material shortages, quality issues, labor shortages, and other disruptions.Establish production priorities during periods of constrained capacity or limited resources.Establish effective escalation procedures for Production Control issues.Ensure critical production and customer issues are promptly communicated to Plant Management.Coordinate cross-functional resources to minimize the effect of disruptions on production and customer delivery. Production Performance, KPIs & ReportingMonitor actual production output against planned production.Analyze schedule attainment, production output, downtime, shortages, inventory, WIP, lead time, scrap, production capacity, and other key performance indicators.Establish and maintain Production Control KPIs.Monitor metrics including:Production schedule attainmentOn-time deliveryProduction-plan adherenceWIP levelsInventory levelsMaterial shortagesProduction capacityProduction lead timeDowntimeProduction efficiencyPremium freightPrepare and communicate production-control reports and performance metrics.Utilize SAP and MES data to identify trends, production issues, schedule performance, downtime, scrap, and opportunities for improvement.Report performance trends and significant concerns to Plant Management.Develop corrective-action plans when departmental or plant performance goals are not achieved. Root-Cause Analysis & Continuous ImprovementIdentify recurring production-control problems and develop appropriate corrective actions.Lead or support root-cause analysis related to schedule misses, production delays, material shortages, inventory issues, system discrepancies, and customer-delivery concerns.Develop and implement corrective and preventive actions.Identify opportunities to improve production efficiency, schedule attainment, inventory performance, lead times, customer service, and overall plant performance.Support Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Kanban, Just-in-Time, standard work, root-cause analysis, and continuous-improvement activities.Lead or participate in cross-functional problem-solving activities.Lead or support projects designed to improve production planning, scheduling accuracy, production flow, system accuracy, inventory performance, and customer delivery.Monitor premium freight and identify opportunities to reduce expedited transportation costs. Standard Work, Documentation & Audit SupportEstablish and maintain standard work for production planning, scheduling, reporting, system transactions, and departmental communication.Ensure Production Control procedures are followed consistently.Maintain accurate Production Control records and documentation.Ensure customer and production requirements are properly documented and controlled.Support customer, internal, regulatory, and third-party audits as required.Provide production schedules, reports, planning information, system records, and supporting documentation during audits. Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with:Production regarding capability, output, staffing, priorities, and schedule attainment.Materials regarding inventory, shortages, material availability, and material flow.Purchasing regarding suppliers, shortages, late deliveries, and delivery requirements.Quality regarding quality concerns, production holds, containment activities, and product-release requirements.Engineering regarding equipment capability, process changes, engineering changes, product launches, and production requirements.Maintenance regarding equipment availability, preventive maintenance, planned downtime, and emergency equipment failures.Logistics regarding customer shipments, finished goods, and delivery priorities.Finance regarding inventory, production costs, and planning information.Plant Management regarding production performance, capacity concerns, customer risks, significant disruptions, and recovery plans. Required Skills & QualificationsStrong leadership skills with the ability to lead, coach, develop, motivate, and hold employees accountable.Strong understanding of production planning, scheduling, capacity planning, and inventory control.Strong understanding of material requirements planning and inventory management.Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and production flow.Ability to interpret customer forecasts, releases, schedules, production requirements, and inventory information.Ability to develop realistic production schedules based on capacity, labor, equipment, materials, inventory, and customer requirements.Ability to identify production bottlenecks and develop effective recovery plans.Strong analytical, organizational, planning, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.Ability to analyze production, inventory, downtime, scrap, capacity, and customer-delivery data.Strong communication, interpersonal, and conflict-resolution skills.Strong attention to detail, particularly regarding schedules, customer requirements, inventory, system accuracy, and delivery commitments.Ability to manage multiple changing priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.Ability to make sound decisions independently and escalate critical issues appropriately.Ability to work effectively under production and customer-delivery pressure.Ability to work cross-functionally with manufacturing and support departments.Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Excel, reporting tools, ERP/MRP systems, and production-planning software.Ability to work in a manufacturing environment and comply with applicable safety requirements.Ability to work fluctuating shifts and overtime when business and production needs require. Education & ExperienceBachelor’s deg