Production Planner

Nancy's Probiotic Foods•Eugene, OR

20d•Onsite

About The Position

Nancy’s Probiotic Foods Springfield Creamery Inc. is a family-owned producer of cultured dairy foods, based in Eugene, Oregon, with more than 65 years of history in the natural foods industry. The Production Planner owns the production schedule for a plant producing yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, and butter. The role turns sales forecasts, customer orders, and cross-functional input into a clear, current production plan, and owns fluid milk procurement. The planner also maintains and improves the advanced Excel workbook used for planning and helps shape the company’s future ERP transition. This is an onsite position in Eugene, Oregon, five days per week. The planner collaborates with Sales, Production, Supervisors, Maintenance, QA, Procurement, Logistics, Shipping, R&D, and the warehouse to support a stable, predictable plant. The position oversees one direct report responsible for production entry and inventory scanning.

Requirements

At least 3 years of production planning, scheduling, or supply planning experience in manufacturing; food or beverage experience is ideal.
Advanced Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables, and modeling with large data sets.
Working knowledge of MRP/ERP systems and inventory control practices.
Professional and organized approach to supplier communication and competing priorities across departments.

Nice To Haves

Understanding of shelf life, lot control, and traceability in a perishable environment.
Experience in dairy, organic, or specialty product lines such as grass-fed or protein.
New product launch experience.
APICS/ASCM certification (CPIM or CSCP).
Familiarity with Redzone.
Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, operations, business, or a related field.
Bilingual English/Spanish.

Responsibilities

Build and publish the weekly production schedule by line and shift, with a rolling four-week outlook.
Translate sales forecasts, customer orders, and promotions into production requirements by SKU.
Plan new product launches and line trials with R&D, Operations, and Sales, including first-production dates and ramp-up.
Evaluate the impact of schedule changes, communicate changes clearly, and maintain one current version of the plan.
Calculate fluid milk requirements from the schedule, place milk orders with suppliers, and coordinate receiving volumes and timing.
Coordinate with Procurement on supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, and delivery dates; identify conflicts before they cause downtime.
Coordinate with Logistics and Shipping so production supports truck schedules, distributor orders, and customer delivery windows.
Lead cycle counts and inventory reconciliation with the warehouse; investigate and resolve variances.
Run a short weekly planning meeting with Production, Procurement, Logistics, QA, and Maintenance to lock the upcoming week.
Communicate the daily plan and changes to Shift and Department Supervisors in a consistent, standard format.
Use Redzone or equivalent data to track plan attainment and incorporate actual line performance into planning assumptions.
Maintain planning master data, including bills of materials, run rates, batch sizes, pack configurations, and lead times.
Build food safety requirements into the schedule, including allergen sequencing, sanitation windows, hold-and-release timing, and organic/grass-fed segregation.
Follow GMPs, SQF requirements, and plant policies while on the production floor.
Track plan attainment and weekly KPIs, and continually improve planning tools and processes.
Oversee one direct report who handles production entry and inventory scanning.