MASTER PLANNER

Power Drives Inc•Buffalo, NY

About The Position

The Master Planner owns the master production schedule from customer demand intake through shipment, maintaining a stable, executable plan in the ERP (Sage X3) that meets customer requirements while balancing capacity, materials, and inventory. This is a working-manager role: the Master Planner is both the senior individual contributor for master scheduling and the leader of the planning function, supervising and developing the planning/scheduling team. The role is the central link between customer demand signals and the production floor, partnering closely with sales, purchasing, manufacturing, engineering, and quality to align materials, manpower, and equipment to priorities.

Requirements

7+ years in production planning, master scheduling, or materials management in a discrete manufacturing environment, including at least 3 years in a supervisory or managerial role with direct reports.
Proven track record of managing complex supply chains and leading a planning or scheduling team in a manufacturing or distribution environment.
Demonstrated command of master production scheduling (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP), and rough-cut capacity planning, including lot-sizing, safety-stock, and planning-time-fence methodology.
Hands-on experience translating customer demand signals (release portals, EDI 830 forecasts and 862 firm releases) into ERP-actionable schedules.
Proficiency with a manufacturing ERP system; Sage X3 strongly preferred.
Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, operations management, or business — or equivalent planning experience.
APICS / ASCM certification (CPIM or CSCP).

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in supply chain management, operations management, or business administration.
Automotive or OEM-supplier experience (PPAP, EDI releases, customer scorecards).
Lean / Six Sigma exposure.

Responsibilities

Supervise, coach, and develop the planning/scheduling team; set goals, conduct performance reviews, and build planning capability through training and cross-training.
Manage team workload allocation and coverage — including for unplanned absences — to keep the schedule moving without single-point dependencies.
Own departmental planning processes, standards, and SOPs; lead hiring and onboarding for the planning function.
Represent planning in S&OP / production and leadership meetings, communicating performance, risks, and corrective actions to stakeholders.
Build and maintain the master production schedule to optimize capacity utilization, raw-material allocation, WIP, and finished-goods inventory while protecting customer delivery dates.
Set and enforce planning time fences; own change-control authority over the firm schedule, including defined rules for accommodating customer drop-in requests.
Establish and maintain planning parameters in the item master — lead times, lot sizes, safety stocks, and reorder points — and own the integrity of this data, including correct part-number formatting and lead-time adjustments as delivery patterns change.
Convert customer demand (portal downloads, EDI forecasts and releases) into clean, correctly formatted ERP orders and schedules.
Run MRP and issue work orders to the floor that balance manpower, machine utilization, and inventory levels.
Re-plan and adjust schedules in response to demand changes, supply-chain disruptions, unplanned absences, and equipment downtime.
Coordinate and monitor daily production output, scheduling commitments, on-time releases, and overdue releases.
Own and report core KPIs: schedule adherence / plan attainment, on-time delivery (OTD/OTIF), past-due backlog, inventory turns, forecast accuracy, and capacity utilization.
Partner with purchasing to ensure sufficient parts and materials are available against the plan.
Establish production-planning processes through collaboration with sales, engineering, purchasing, quality, and manufacturing.
Interface effectively with internal teams and external customers on commitments, expedites, and changes.
Generate reports and analyses to assess the effectiveness of planning strategies and identify areas for improvement.
Surface root causes of misses, propose corrective actions, and communicate performance metrics to relevant stakeholders.
Drive measurable reduction in past-due backlog and improvement in schedule stability over time.