Production Planning Manager

L&L FABRICATION, INC • Loveland, CO

6d • $80,000 - $110,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

L&L Fabrication is seeking a Production Planning Manager to own production schedule visibility, capacity forecasting, and delivery commitment communication across their fabrication facilities. This is a new role designed to fill a gap in business operations and will have a direct impact on the company's growth. The Production Planning Manager will act as a bridge between the shop floors and the Sales team, providing real-time insights into facility booking, constraints, and realistic delivery commitments. This role involves building the planning system, scheduling infrastructure, and data discipline necessary for L&L Fabrication to scale. The foundation includes strong shop leadership, a Smartsheet-based tracking platform, and an experienced engineering team, but the forward-looking capacity and scheduling function requires a dedicated owner.

Requirements

• 5+ years of production planning, scheduling, or manufacturing operations experience in a job-shop, make-to-order, or custom fabrication environment.
• Experience in weld fabrication, pressure vessel manufacturing, industrial fabrication, or O&G; production equipment manufacturing.
• Demonstrated ability to own a production schedule across multiple facilities or production lines simultaneously.
• Strong capacity forecasting and level-loading experience.
• Comfortable leading daily scheduling meetings with shop leadership and aligning cross-functional teams around a shared schedule.
• Strong Excel and data skills; able to build and maintain scheduling views, capacity models, and reporting tools.
• Clear, direct communication style — able to translate production complexity into plain language for Sales and leadership.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Smartsheet, ERP/MRP systems (NetSuite, Epicor, JobBOSS, SAP, or similar), or production scheduling software.
• Familiarity with ASME pressure vessel fabrication stages, NDE scheduling, and QC inspection coordination.
• Experience improving scheduling data discipline in an environment transitioning from informal to systematic production tracking.
• Familiarity with S&OP, master scheduling, or formal production planning methodologies in a manufacturing context.
• Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Operations Management, Industrial Technology, Manufacturing Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the production schedule from outside sales commitments through internal shop execution across Douglas, WY and Northern Colorado facilities.
• Maintain accurate, real-time visibility into how far each facility and key workcenter (weld booths, downstream stations, assembly) is booked out.
• Track each job through the full production sequence: Not Started, Welding, Hydro, Sandblast/Paint, Rigout, Electrical, Insulation, Final QC, Ready to Ship.
• Identify schedule risks, bottlenecks, late-job exposure, and capacity constraints before they reach customers.
• Validate job status, workcenter dates, part numbers, and scheduling assumptions in the scheduling platform daily.
• Perform capacity forecasting across weld booths, welders, downstream workcenters, and material constraints at each facility.
• Evaluate level-loading opportunities between Douglas and Northern Colorado facilities to balance workload and protect delivery performance.
• Monitor material readiness for long-lead items (heads, shells, specialty components) against forecasted weld start dates.
• Track empirical production performance using actual start and completion dates by workcenter to continuously improve forecast accuracy.
• Review staffing, booth capacity, material readiness, and downstream workcenter needs against the forward schedule and flag gaps proactively.
• Provide Sales with clear, realistic delivery time frames based on actual shop capacity and current backlog.
• Lead and support daily production scheduling meetings with production leadership, project management, and shop teams.
• Communicate schedule changes, risks, and recovery plans early and accurately to internal teams and as supporting data for customer conversations.
• Give leadership clear visibility into backlog, booked-out capacity, and bottlenecks through consistent reporting.
• Own the day-to-day accuracy of scheduling data within the Smartsheet platform and help evolve the scheduling logic, forecasting views, and reporting tools.
• Improve coordination between Sales, production, procurement, and project management through better data and more disciplined scheduling processes.
• Help evaluate and shape the technology direction, including the evolution of scheduling and ERP tools.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
• Annual bonus eligible based on company financial results and individual performance
• Health, dental, and vision insurance per company plan
• Paid time off per company policy
• Mileage reimbursement for multi-site travel
• HSA and PPO Health Insurance plans
• Accident and Critical Illness Plans
• 401k with up to a 5% safe harbor employer match
• Life insurance
• AD&D policy provided by the organization and expandable
• Ken Garff Ford – Fleet Vehicle access for purchase
• Advocacy and partnership via Benefit Partner
• Paid Leave/Paid Time Off Policy that is in alignment with CO-FAMLI (CO ONLY)

What This Job Offers

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