Maintenance Planner & Scheduler

ALAMANCE FOODS INC•Burlington, NC

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Maintenance Planner & Scheduler is responsible for improving equipment reliability and maintenance effectiveness by developing detailed maintenance plans, coordinating weekly schedules, and analyzing equipment downtime and maintenance data. This position works closely with Maintenance, Engineering, Operations, and other plant departments to ensure maintenance resources are focused on the highest-priority work. A key component of this role is converting downtime events, work-order history, and equipment performance data into actionable maintenance plans. The successful candidate will identify recurring failures, recommend preventive and predictive maintenance activities, and help the maintenance team transition from reactive repairs toward a more planned and data-driven maintenance program.

Requirements

Associate or bachelor’s degree in engineering, industrial maintenance, manufacturing technology, data analytics, or a related field preferred.
Three or more years of experience in maintenance planning, maintenance supervision, reliability, engineering, or manufacturing operations preferred.
Experience working in a high-speed manufacturing environment is strongly preferred.
Experience in food, beverage, dairy, consumer packaged goods, or another regulated manufacturing environment is a plus.
Working knowledge of mechanical, electrical, controls, pneumatic, hydraulic, utility, and facility systems.
Experience using a CMMS to manage work orders, preventive maintenance tasks, equipment records, and maintenance history.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret downtime, maintenance, and production data.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, formulas, charts, and data analysis.
Experience with Power BI, Tableau, Ignition, SQL, OEE systems, or other reporting and visualization tools is preferred.
Familiarity with preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, root cause analysis, and reliability-centered maintenance principles.
Ability to read equipment manuals, technical drawings, electrical schematics, and P&IDs is preferred.
Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced plant environment.
Ability to translate maintenance and downtime data into clear priorities and actionable work.
Strong understanding of maintenance workflow, from work identification through planning, scheduling, execution, and closeout.
Ability to communicate effectively with maintenance technicians, operations personnel, engineers, vendors, contractors, and plant leadership.
Detail-oriented approach to job planning, documentation, and data accuracy.
Ability to challenge incomplete or inaccurate information and work collaboratively to improve reporting quality.
Sound judgment when prioritizing work based on safety, food safety, production impact, cost, and equipment risk.
Ability to spend time in production and maintenance areas to understand equipment issues firsthand.
Self-motivated, dependable, and comfortable working with limited supervision.
Continuous-improvement mindset with a focus on reducing recurring failures and increasing planned maintenance.

Nice To Haves

Experience in food, beverage, dairy, consumer packaged goods, or another regulated manufacturing environment is a plus.
Experience with Power BI, Tableau, Ignition, SQL, OEE systems, or other reporting and visualization tools is preferred.
Ability to read equipment manuals, technical drawings, electrical schematics, and P&IDs is preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop detailed job plans for preventive, corrective, predictive, and project-related maintenance work.
Define the required labor, estimated hours, tools, equipment, parts, safety requirements, permits, and job steps for planned maintenance activities.
Review incoming work requests and verify that each request contains sufficient information before it is added to the maintenance backlog.
Conduct field inspections and coordinate with technicians, supervisors, operators, engineers, and vendors to properly define job scope.
Ensure parts, materials, drawings, manuals, and other resources are available before work is scheduled for Work Orders & Preventative Maintenance.
Create and maintain standard job plans for recurring maintenance activities.
Maintain an organized and prioritized backlog of maintenance work.
Support the development and improvement of preventive and predictive maintenance programs based on equipment condition, failure history, and operational risk.
Develop weekly and daily maintenance schedules based on equipment priorities, labor availability, production requirements, and material readiness.
Facilitate weekly scheduling meetings with Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, and other stakeholders.
Coordinate planned downtime, equipment access, sanitation requirements, contractors, and production changeovers with production planners and departments.
Balance available maintenance labor across preventive maintenance, corrective work, projects, and emergency repairs.
Monitor schedule compliance and identify the reasons planned work was delayed, interrupted, or not completed.
Coordinate with Maintenance leadership to reschedule incomplete work and address recurring scheduling obstacles.
Assist with planning and scheduling plant shutdowns, major repairs, installations, and equipment overhauls.
Review downtime events, work-order history, alarm data, operator comments, and equipment performance trends to identify recurring failures and reliability concerns.
Validate and organize downtime data to improve the accuracy of equipment, failure mode, cause, and corrective-action reporting.
Develop dashboards and reports that clearly communicate downtime trends, maintenance backlog, schedule compliance, preventive maintenance performance, labor utilization, and equipment reliability.
Analyze downtime by production line, asset, system, failure category, shift, duration, and frequency.
Identify chronic equipment issues and recommend maintenance activities based on production impact, failure risk, and repair history.
Use data to help prioritize preventive maintenance revisions, equipment inspections, spare-parts requirements, and reliability improvement projects.
Track repeat failures and verify whether completed maintenance actions produced measurable improvements.
Assist with root cause analysis by gathering equipment history, downtime data, work-order details, and supporting documentation.
Present findings and recommendations to Maintenance, Engineering, Operations, and plant leadership.
Maintain accurate equipment records, work orders, job plans, preventive maintenance procedures, asset hierarchies, and failure codes within the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
Review completed work orders for accurate labor hours, parts usage, failure information, corrective actions, and equipment history.
Work with maintenance technicians and supervisors to improve work-order quality and timely closeout.
Support CMMS reporting, data cleanup, system improvements, and user training.
Maintain equipment manuals, drawings, bills of materials, vendor information, and technical documentation.
Help establish consistent maintenance planning and reporting practices across departments and facilities.