Production Planner

Church & Dwight•Lakewood, NJ

11d

About The Position

The Production Planner owns the production schedule and material plan for assigned Lakewood lines, translating Corporate Supply Chain demand into an executable, efficient, fully supplied plan. Using SAP S/4HANA and Swisslog WMS, the planner balances customer service, line efficiency, and inventory investment by sequencing production to minimize changeovers and washouts, ensuring materials flow from suppliers, and meeting weekly Brand attainment and plant KPIs within budget. The role requires proactively identifying supply, capacity, and inventory risks in advance, acting to prevent production disruptions, and explaining schedule misses and corrective actions clearly. The planner works closely with Operations, Corporate Supply Chain, Warehouse, Inventory Control, Quality, Procurement, vendors, and Brand Teams. Responsibilities include production scheduling and improvement, daily MRP and purchase-order activity, inventory management, KPI and budget reporting, SAP master-data and transaction maintenance, and adherence to standard work, SOPs, FDA Good Manufacturing Practices, and safety policies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
Minimum 2–3 years of production planning, production scheduling, or MRP/materials planning experience in a manufacturing environment; warehouse, inventory control, or logistics experience alone does not meet this requirement.
Hands-on experience planning in SAP; S/4HANA is strongly preferred.
Experience meeting KPIs and working within a budget or inventory target.
Experience placing and managing purchase orders and working directly with suppliers on delivery dates.
Working proficiency in SAP S/4HANA PP/MM planning transactions, including MD04 stock/requirements list, MRP runs and exception handling, purchase-order creation and maintenance, Bills of Material, and production versions.
Solid understanding of MRP logic, capacity planning, lead times, safety stock, lot sizing, and inventory management principles.
Ability to sequence production by formulation and package size to reduce changeovers and washouts and improve line efficiency.
Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, and data analysis.
Ability to write clear, concise, fact-based explanations of misses, cuts, and risks for plant and corporate leadership.
Proactive ownership, including anticipating problems, acting without prompting, and following through to resolution; consistent adherence to standard work and attention to detail.
Familiarity with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams), a Warehouse Management System (WMS), PLM, and CLICK applications.
Ability to build positive working relationships with Operations, Quality, Warehouse, Procurement, vendors, and Corporate Supply Chain.
Ability to manage competing priorities and make sound decisions in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
Understanding of and compliance with applicable SOPs, FDA Good Manufacturing Practices, and safety policies.

Nice To Haves

Power BI and/or CoPilot/AI experience.
ASCM/APICS CPIM or CSCP certification, or actively pursuing one.
Experience in consumer packaged goods, OTC healthcare/drug, personal care, or other FDA/cGMP-regulated manufacturing.
Lean or Six Sigma training (Yellow/Green Belt).

Responsibilities

Review the bi-weekly production plan from Corporate Supply Chain Planning and turn it into a feasible, sequenced line schedule based on capacity, staffing, and material availability.
Collaborate with Packaging and Processing Operations on production planning.
Sequence production by formulation, bulk, and package size to minimize downtime and maximize line efficiency (OEE).
Identify planning and production inefficiencies, such as avoidable changeovers, short runs, bulk/fill timing gaps, and rework, and recommend or implement improvements.
Account for planned maintenance, sanitation and washouts, plant trials (PTRs), and new product starts when building the schedule.
Revise production schedules when component availability, capacity, or demand changes, documenting the reasoning and impact.
Coordinate production time for Plant Trials (PTRs) and attend Brand Team meetings.
Run MRP daily; convert planned orders and purchase requisitions, place purchase orders, and assign delivery dates according to production need.
Expedite or de-expedite open purchase orders with vendors to prevent production disruptions and unnecessary inventory build-up.
Run daily Hot Items and open purchase order reports; follow up with vendors on outstanding deliveries and confirm component availability through SAP, Supply Network Collaboration (SNC), or email.
Review raw material and component inventory against SAP, WMS, and physical counts, and resolve discrepancies with Warehouse, Inventory Control, and Quality.
Manage raw material inventory to target levels, monitoring days of supply, aged, expiring, blocked, excess, and obsolete materials.
Provide weekly demand forecasts to vendors through SAP.
Issue Requests for Inventory Disposition (RIDs) based on disposal approvals.
Own and report planning KPIs, including weekly SKU schedule attainment, inventory levels and days of supply, material availability, and changeover/washout impact.
Operate within the plant’s inventory and operating budget and support cost reduction by reducing excess inventory, expedite freight, write-offs, and avoidable downtime.
Provide clear, detailed explanations for schedule misses, production cuts, and material shortages, including root cause, business impact, and corrective and preventive actions.
Address SAP MRP exceptions and maintain MRP health, including lead times, lot sizes, safety stock, and rounding values, in partnership with Master Data.
Create production Bills of Material and Production Versions in SAP; review and confirm new or changed components in PLM.
Process SAP workflow IDOCs and resolve transactional errors that affect planning or receiving.
Look ahead across the planning horizon to diagnose supply, capacity, and inventory risks, and escalate early with options.
Follow department standard work and planning routines, and help document and improve standard work.
Adhere to SOPs and demonstrate understanding of how FDA Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) affect production processes.
Participate in job-related safety training and comply with safety policies and procedures.
Perform other duties as assigned.