Maintenance Planner

Howmet Aerospace • La Porte, IN

5d • Onsite

About The Position

The Maintenance Planner/Scheduler improves workforce productivity and work quality by anticipating and eliminating potential delays through planning and coordination of labor, parts, materials, and equipment access. The role supports effective maintenance execution to maximize plant reliability, efficiency, and safety.

The position develops job plans and maintenance schedules; reviews work requests and coordinates priorities, resources, and equipment downtime; and ensures materials, tools, and equipment are ready before work begins. It maintains CMMS records and work backlogs, analyzes maintenance trends and KPI performance, and works with storeroom and procurement resources on parts availability and critical spares. The planner also helps ensure safety procedures are incorporated into maintenance plans and coordinates scheduled activities across maintenance, operations, engineering, production, and other departments.

This is an on-site position based primarily in an office, with frequent time on the factory floor. Remote work is not offered. The role may require occasional overtime, weekend, or on-call work, and requires working in hot, cold, and noisy industrial environments. Minimal travel is required.

Requirements

• Associate degree or higher in Engineering, Industrial Maintenance, or a related technical field.
• At least 4 years of maintenance planning or scheduling experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States; employment eligibility verification is required at hire, and visa sponsorship is unavailable.
• Ability to lawfully obtain access to export-controlled items, as employment offers are conditioned on this access.

Nice To Haves

• Technical certifications or trades training in mechanical, electrical, or instrumentation fields.
• 5 or more years of maintenance planning or scheduling experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Proficiency with CMMS systems such as MP2, eMaint, or Infor EAM.
• Experience with lean manufacturing, TPM, or RCM principles.
• Proficiency with SharePoint, Power Automate, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications.
• Strong knowledge of maintenance practices, industrial equipment, and parts management.
• Ability to interpret drawings from engineering disciplines, codes, and similar materials.
• Basic knowledge and understanding of industrial mechanical and electrical systems.
• Ability to communicate ideas effectively to peers and senior staff.
• Proficiency with Office 365.

Responsibilities

• Develop detailed job plans for preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance activities.
• Create and maintain daily, weekly, and long-term maintenance schedules using a CMMS or similar system.
• Review work requests and convert them into planned jobs with task sequences, labor requirements, estimated durations, materials, tools, and safety procedures.
• Prioritize work orders with maintenance, operations, and engineering teams.
• Coordinate with production planners to schedule maintenance during optimal equipment downtime.
• Ensure necessary materials, tools, and equipment are procured and staged before job execution.
• Maintain accurate CMMS records, including equipment history, job plans, labor records, and materials used.
• Monitor the maintenance backlog and ensure work is captured and scheduled.
• Analyze maintenance trends and performance data to improve planning effectiveness and equipment reliability.
• Generate regular KPI reports, including schedule compliance, planned versus unplanned work ratio, maintenance backlog, PM completion rate, MTBF, wrench time, and findings from PM inspections.
• Work with storeroom and procurement vendors to ensure parts availability and maintain minimum inventory levels.
• Maintain, modify, and create standard job plans or model work orders for recurring maintenance tasks.
• Identify, optimize, and manage critical spare parts for critical equipment.
• Ensure maintenance plans include job safety analyses and lockout/tagout procedures and comply with plant safety policies.
• Participate in daily and weekly maintenance planning meetings with operations and maintenance teams.
• Coordinate between maintenance, engineering, production, and other departments to support scheduled activities.
• Communicate schedule updates and modifications to relevant stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Associate degree