Master Production Scheduler

Master Production Scheduler

Job Summary: The Master Production Scheduler is responsible for all aspects of scheduling, reporting, plant floor activity coordination, bill of material and work orders. Own, develop, maintain, and communicate the master production schedule across multiple manufacturing facilities.

Essential Job Functions and Duties:

• Translate customer orders, backlog, forecasts, and business priorities into realistic and executable production plans.
• Develop and maintain short-, medium-, and long-range production planning horizons.
• Establish production priorities based on customer requirements, operational capabilities, material availability, available capacity, and business priorities.
• Maintain schedule stability while effectively managing legitimate changes in customer demand, materials, capacity, and operational requirements.
• Ensure production schedules align with established customer commitments and operational objectives.
• Maintain the integrity of the master production schedule within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and associated planning tools.

Capacity & Constraint Planning

• Develop and maintain capacity models across facilities and departments.
• Compare current and forecasted demand against available labor, equipment, facility, and production capacity.
• Identify capacity constraints, bottlenecks, and potential production shortfalls before they impact customer commitments.
• Develop recommendations to address capacity imbalances through production sequencing, overtime, outsourcing, or movement of work between facilities.
• Analyze demonstrated versus theoretical capacity and improve planning assumptions using actual production performance.
• Provide leadership with forward-looking capacity analysis to support staffing, capital, facility, outsourcing, and operational decisions.

Production & Material Readiness

• Evaluate order readiness before scheduled production, including production-order status, bill-of-material requirements, material availability, routings, engineering requirements, and other production dependencies.
• Use Business Central planning and manufacturing data to identify material shortages, production-order conflicts, capacity issues, and other risks to scheduled production.
• Partner with Procurement, Materials, Engineering, Operations, Customer Service, and other functions to identify and communicate constraints affecting the production plan.
• Maintain visibility of material shortages and other dependencies that threaten scheduled production.
• Facilitate resolution and escalation of planning constraints while maintaining clear functional ownership for corrective actions.
• Ensure production schedules reflect realistic material and operational availability rather than theoretical capacity alone.

Schedule Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Measure and report schedule attainment across assigned manufacturing facilities.
• Analyze scheduled versus actual production performance and identify root causes of schedule misses.
• Monitor backlog, past-due production, schedule changes, capacity utilization, and other key planning metrics.
• Other duties as assigned

Position Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, Industrial Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant manufacturing-planning experience.
• 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in production planning, master scheduling, manufacturing planning, production control, or a related manufacturing function.

Skills/Abilities:

• Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining complex production schedules.
• Strong understanding of capacity planning, constraint management, production sequencing, material requirements planning, and manufacturing operations.
• Strong experience using ERP/MRP systems within a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze demand against labor, equipment, material, and production capacity.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite or similar software.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and demonstrated experience developing production, capacity, or operational analyses.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Physical Demands/Work Environment:

• Able to function capably in an office environment with long periods of sitting and using standard office equipment (telephones, computers, copiers, scanners etc.).
• Able to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Participate in required company safety programs, training programs and PPE guidelines.