Production Planner OPERATIONS/PRODUCTION/ SKILLED TRADES PRODUCTION PLANNER No matter the size, all companies plan when they produce products. Planning maximizes human resources, equipment, and ingredients. It takes time to make productive production plans, but they are essential for any manufacturing facility. Here are just a few of the advantages to production planning: • Delivering products on time • Reduced labour costs • Optimized equipment usage and increased capacity Sounds like some great advantages! That’s why there is a job just for planning production runs in production facilities. Who actually does the planning? Production Planners do! These are professionals who make sure that products are made on time with high efficiency. 1. Production Planners Plan Production Schedules Production planners create production schedules for manufactured goods. Production schedules are plans for individual products to be produced in a certain time period. Some factors that these schedules consider include customer demands, the amount of materials needed and how much labour is required. An example of a simple production schedule is scheduling to produce product A for three days a week and product B for four days a week. Production planners monitor the execution of these schedules and resolve any potential issues in a timely fashion. Production informs them of any setbacks so they can reorganize the schedule if necessary. Production planners prepare production schedules based on customer demands, raw material availability and production capacity. To create schedules, they use demand planning software and work with upper management. Planners consult with other departments such as sales and marketing to determine how much product is required. Finally, planners maintain reports for production planning activities by comparing how much time they predicted would be needed versus how much time was required. 2. Production Planners Forecast Trends One of the most difficult tasks for a production planner is forecasting how much product needs to be made. This isn’t always easy because no one can see into the future. So how do planners actually make these predictions? They take into consideration the following factors: • Historical sales trends and seasonal trends • Market demands • Potential future trends • The budget of the company (i.e., labour costs, materials) Using these considerations, they make educated guesses as to what the company will need and plan the best they can. 3. Production Planners Have Degrees in Business or Supply Chain Management It is not uncommon for production planners to have bachelor’s degrees in business, engineering, supply chain management or statistics. Alternatively, there are some companies who hire individuals who have college diplomas in business administration, operations management, and supply chain management. However, having a postsecondary degree is not an absolute requirement for this profession. Many individuals only have a high school diploma or equivalent. These individuals generally have Production Planner Scheduling production in a fast-paced environment Photo by Karolina Grabowska/pexels.com Photo by REDPIXEL/stock.adobe.com 30
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