Production Planning Manager

Position Purpose:

The Production Planning Manager owns the site Master Production Schedule (MPS) and leads production planning and scheduling to translate customer demand into executable plans. The role balances labor, equipment capacity, and material availability; identifies constraints; and partners with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, and Customer Service to improve throughput, inventory, schedule performance, and on-time delivery.

Essential Duties and responsibilities

• Own and maintain the site Master Production Schedule (MPS) and weekly/daily production schedules.
• Align customer demand with labor, equipment capacity, and material availability.
• Release, prioritize, and monitor work orders; adjust schedules for expedites, engineering changes, and constraints.
• Level factory loading and drive schedule adherence, schedule attainment, throughput, and on-time delivery.
• Analyze labor and machine capacity, identify bottlenecks, and develop recovery plans for missed schedules and capacity gaps.
• Support staffing forecasts and evaluate capacity requirements for new programs, growth, and demand changes.
• Partner with Supply Chain to confirm material readiness and align raw material, WIP, and finished goods inventory with production needs.
• Participate in SIOP and demand planning and communicate risks, constraints, and mitigation plans to leadership.
• Monitor planning KPIs, including forecast accuracy, backlog, past-due orders, capacity utilization, inventory turns, and customer delivery performance.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for planning and scheduling issues.
• Improve ERP/MRP planning parameters, standard work, reporting, and visibility.
• Lead planning-focused continuous improvement activities and support new product introductions and program transitions.
• Lead, coach, and develop planners and schedulers; establish clear expectations and accountability.
• Follow and enforce Vaupell policies, SOPs, and applicable safety, quality, regulatory, and customer requirements.
• Other duties as assigned.

Job Qualifications/Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years of manufacturing planning, production control, or supply chain experience, including 5+ years leading planners, schedulers, or production control personnel.
• Strong ERP/MRP planning experience, preferably EPICOR, with advanced Excel and data-analysis skills.
• Demonstrated experience with labor and machine capacity planning, schedule recovery, and data-based problem solving.
• Strong leadership, communication, cross-functional collaboration, and change-management skills.
• Ability to read, speak, understand, and follow instructions in English.
• Must be able to wear and properly use required personal protective equipment.
• Preferred: APICS CPIM certification; aerospace or regulated manufacturing/AS9100 experience; Lean or continuous improvement experience.

Candidates must be a "US Person" (i.e. US Citizen or Permanent Resident) to ensure Vaupell's compliance with ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations)


Environmental Condition

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently exposed to moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to fumes, airborne particles, and vibrations. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to occasionally loud. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.


Physical Requirements

This position requires frequent standing, walking, grasping, handling, finger dexterity, keyboarding, pulling, hearing, and visual acuity; regular sitting, bending, reaching, turning or twisting, carrying items under 25 pounds, and eye-hand-foot coordination; and occasional lifting or carrying up to and over 50 pounds, pushing, climbing stairs or ladders, balancing, kneeling, and crawling. The employee must be able to perform these physical requirements with or without reasonable accommodation and properly use required personal protective equipment.

Vaupell reserves the right to change, modify or add to the Essential Duties and Responsibilities of any position at any time.

Vaupell is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, belief and spirituality, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ethnicity/national origin, pregnancy, genetic information, veteran or disability status.

We encourage applications from veterans and individuals with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities.