Production Planner

Summary

The role of Production Planner is responsible to deliver and lead the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process for their respective production areas (Midland, Chemicals & CVD, Finishing & Slimrod, and MROS).

Essential Functions

Shared duties between areas:

• Translate the S&OP process into a viable production plan for the area.
• Ownership of KPIs for the area (ex: Produce to Plan).
• Responsible for Material Master Data for Scheduling Views.  Work with Scheduler to collect data and perform necessary updates and improvements.
• Recognize when RCI trigger criteria has been met.  Lead RCIs and document via EXP.
• Partner with Finance to execute month end reconciliation for the area.
• Work with the overall Team to elevate current work process and tools to eliminate non-value added work and increase efficiency.  This includes touch points and handoffs with other Teams within HSC.
• Provide direction and influential leadership to the Schedulers.
• Assist the Schedulers with Bill Of Materials (BOMs), Production Versions (PVs), and Master Recipes (MRs).
• Assist the Schedulers in troubleshooting Production Variances.
• Forecast anticipated Production Variances for Finance on a monthly basis.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing Cost Manager and area Scheduler annually to revise costed BOMs and Master Recipes prior to costing run to reduce Production Variance in future months.
• Responsible for measuring and reporting Produce To Plan.  Identify gaps and propose solutions to close them.
• Understand the impact of the site turnaround cycles and ensure that is incorporated into the production plan.
• Expand documentation of supply chain processes and workflows and update existing team documentation published in HSC Document Management System (Falcon).
• Support site expansions coming online in the area of Planner Ownership.  Including, but not limited to:

cont.

• • New material number creation/master data setup/production version/BOM/recipe development/MOC routing/product costing through finance
  • Product Spec application updates
  • Adding functionality to existing planning and scheduling tools or creating new tools to accommodate and plan for new assets, materials, workflows, etc.
  • Project leadership of new supply chain workflows needed
  • Drafting scheduling workflows and coaching schedulers through changes
  • New Spotfire tool development to make area planning and scheduling more efficient
  • Developing and publishing relevant supply chain documentation
  • Attending meetings led by manufacturing, process engineering, capital projects, site expansion, commercial, quality, or other functions and running supply chain scenarios/providing supply chain team input to support decision making

cont.

Specific duties for Midland

• Ownership of SigmaFine mass balance model for Midland.
• Primary liaison between HSC and Supplier for TCS (Dow) and Customer for HCl (DuPont).
• Work with Manufacturing to execute the EG production rate per S&OP process.  This includes ramping up and ramping down assets in Midland as appropriate.
• Assist in troubleshooting when physical inventory and SigmaFine does not match SAP inventory during the monthly cycle count process.  Assist in review of cycle count indicators annually. 
• Management of site raw material (Si, Bicarb).
• Ownership of work process for sales of Chemicals.
• Month end and year end reconciliation with Dow to perform adjustment on inventory/production recording.
• Monitor ongoing disputed methods of calculating raw material consumption between HSC and Dow.
• Participate in monthly JS&OP with Dow for forecasting purposes.
• Lead Planner for turnaround planning for both HSC internal parties and communications with Dow.

cont.

Specific duties for Chemicals & CVD

• Planner Owner of DP HOST assets coming online in 2025.
• Ownership of SigmaFine mass balance model for Chemicals and CVD.  Work with Manufacturing to transition troubleshooting and maintenance of model to this role so that they are only needed as ad hoc.
• Primary liaison between HSC and Supplier for TCS and Customer for HCl.
• Work with Manufacturing to execute the urod production rate per S&OP process.  This includes ramping up and ramping down assets in Chemicals and CVD as appropriate.
• Responsible for the trailer asset resourcing plan (which includes planned maintenance and onsite storage capacity) to meet the production plan, as well as chemical sales to customers. 
• Assist in troubleshooting when physical inventory and SigmaFine does not match SAP inventory during the monthly cycle count process.  Assist in review of cycle count indicators annually. 
• Management of site inventory level (TCS, STC, etc.), raw material (CO2, H2, etc.) and critical materials (reactor gaskets, reactor sockets, etc.).
• Incorporate electricity demands and supplier contract terms into the production plan. 
• Ownership of work process for sales of Chemicals.
• Change action board (CAB) voting member for Supply Chain as it pertains to CVD. Backup CAB representative for Finishing requests.

cont.

Specific duties for Finishing & Slimrod

• Responsible for blocked and slow-moving inventory.  This includes developing and maintaining plans to reduce.
• Responsible for developing optimized Finishing Operator resourcing plan to meet the production plan.
• Responsible for planning the feed to Finishing.  This includes determining supply chain requirements for semi vs. solar vs. UTP urod splits as well as fallout forecasting.
• Accountable for maintaining inventory to meet targets.
• Provide direction to customer service and shipping by developing proposed monthly finished product shipment schedule.
• Responsible for formal review of completed production campaigns.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing for creation and maintaining of planning rates and yield.
• Develop Finishing product wheel, product changeover guidelines, and scheduling guidelines.
• Ownership of work process for maintaining the appropriate number of CVD reactor batches per finished product batches.
• Assist in troubleshooting when physical inventory does not match SAP inventory during the monthly cycle count process.  Assist in review of cycle count indicators annually.
• Change action board (CAB) voting member for Supply Chain as it pertains to Finishing. Backup representative for CVD requests.
• Run various supply and demand scenarios through Finshing Planning tools to provide direction on the feasibility of various plans and give guidance to HSC Finance and Commercial Teams by forecasting upcoming material shortages.
• Support Finishing Scheduler in reviewing manufacturing/process engineering trials, reserving material, and scheduling time for them into the production plan.

cont.

Specific duties for MROS

• Develop supply KPIs and present metrics/visuals in the monthly supply meeting
• Manage phase outs of materials as new materials are created
• Develop RCI triggers and lead RCIs for stock outs
• Manage changes to internal/external packaging configurations
• Advanced planning and forecasting of most critical ERSAs
• Establish frequency to review less critical ERSA safety stocks and reorder points
• Owner of critical material list as it pertains to Procurement, Supply Chain, and Quality to ensure alignment
• Own and optimize the stock add workflow
• Create a dashboard and escalation workflow for late orders from vendors
• Schedule/Plan resourcing for sub-contracted processes (Arnold Center/Hammers)

Additional Duties/Responsibilities

• Attend and actively participate in routine operations meetings led by Manufacturing.
• Production Planners back each other up as primary.  Secondary backup for all other roles within the Team.
• Train, develop, and coach fellow Team members.
• Ability to lead and participate in root cause investigations.
• Working knowledge of the following applications.  If not currently understood, a strive to attain:
  • SigmaFine, Spotfire, SAP, ECS, Material Picker, Product Spec, Excel PivotTables
• Ability to update and create Standard Work Instructions (SWIs), Quality Job Plans (QJPs), and Business Process Documents (BPDs).

Behaviors

• The individual must exhibit the following behaviors:
  • Model and be a champion of the Team’s vision within the Company.
  • Identify missing tasks, procedures, work processes, and tools to successfully deliver the Team’s vision.
• Be comfortable with vague and/or not completely defined work.  Have the initiative to take that information and work independently to create tangible results.
• A propensity for documentation, procedural discipline, data based decisions, and adherence to business processes.
• Ability to communicate with all levels of the organization.
• Excellent written verbal and written communication skills.
• Cause and effect thinking.
• Positive, can-do, and professional attitude.
• Free flowing sharing of information.
• Service oriented mindset for both internal and external customers/suppliers.

Required Work Experience

A minimum of 2+ years in the manufacturing industry.

Minimum Required Education/Certification

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering is the minimum educational requirements for this role.  Other science and critical thinking degrees can be considered.
• Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification preferred.