Production Planner

Our award-winning company - a leading chilled and frozen food manufacturer - is recruiting for a Production Planner to develop and maintain efficient production schedules to meet customer demand within a fast-paced chilled and frozen food manufacturing environment.

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Location: Northern Ireland

Department: Operations / Supply Chain

Reports To: Production Manager / Supply Chain Manager

Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent

The Production Planner is responsible for developing and maintaining efficient production schedules to meet customer demand within a fast-paced chilled and frozen food manufacturing environment. The role also plays a key part in the effective use, maintenance, and ongoing development of the ERP system to support accurate planning, stock control, and operational decision-making. In addition, the role oversees the annual seasonal stock build and the coordinated despatch of this stock during the peak trading period each December.

• Create, issue, and maintain daily and weekly production schedules using ERP- generated sales forecasts, confirmed orders, and capacity constraints.
• Coordinate with Production, Engineering, Technical/QA, Procurement, and Sales teams to manage plan changes and resolve issues promptly.
• Monitor production output through ERP reporting and adjust plans as required to ensure customer orders are fulfilled on time.
• Plan labour allocation and machine utilisation to maximise efficiency and reduce downtime.
• Schedule chilled and frozen production runs, considering shelf life, shift patterns, product segregation and storage capacity.

• Plan and oversee the annual seasonal stock-build programme within the ERP system, ensuring sufficient production volumes are achieved ahead of peak December demand.
• Coordinate with procurement, production, warehouse, and logistics teams to ensure materials, capacity, and storage requirements are accurately reflected in the system during the stock-build period.
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• Manage the controlled and timely despatch of seasonal stock throughout December using ERP despatch and order management functionality.
• Maintain accurate system-based scheduling, stock visibility, and order tracking to ensure seasonal orders are fulfilled in full and on time.
• Review ERP data following the seasonal period to evaluate performance and recommend system or process improvements for future years.

• Act as a key user of the ERP system for production planning, scheduling, and stock management activities.
• Ensure master data accuracy, including bills of materials, routings, lead times, yields, capacities, and production parameters.
• Identify opportunities to improve planning accuracy, efficiency, and visibility through better use of ERP functionality.
• Support the development, testing, and implementation of ERP enhancements, upgrades, or new modules relevant to planning and supply chain operations.
• Work closely with IT, system providers, and internal stakeholders to resolve ERP-related issues and improve system performance.
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for ERP planning processes.
• Provide ERP system support and training to colleagues as required to ensure consistent and effective system use.

• Attend daily and weekly production meetings and provide updates on production schedules, ERP data accuracy, and seasonal stock status.
• Communicate plan changes to production and support teams in real time, ensuring system updates are completed promptly.
• Liaise with Technical/QA regarding specifications, changeovers, and compliance requirements within the ERP framework.

• Maintain accurate, timely, and reliable planning data within ERP systems.
• Produce routine and seasonal stock-build progress reports using ERP and supporting data tools.
• Review production performance, downtime, variances, and forecast accuracy using system-generated reports.
• Develop and maintain KPI dashboards relating to schedule adherence, throughput, stock levels, and seasonal despatch performance.