Production Flow Planner — Lean Scheduling & NPI

Thorlabs; Ely; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contributed Pension Scheme

Private Health Care

Group Life Cover

Group Income Protection

Job summary

Thorlabs in the United Kingdom (Ely) is seeking a Production Planning professional to coordinate assembly and in-house machining schedules. You will balance customer demand with manufacturing capacity, manage MRP parameters, and support NPI and obsolescence activities to ensure on-time delivery.

The role requires strong Excel skills, experience in manufacturing planning, and collaboration with Stores, Production, Engineering, and Machine Shop teams. Competitive benefits apply.

Qualifications

• Previous Planning, Inventory Controller, or other Supply Chain related experience
• Experience in a manufacturing environment preferred
• Project management experience preferred
• Lean/continuous improvement methodologies applied to planning
• Scheduling techniques including bottleneck management and capacity scheduling

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain production plans aligning with MRP demand, inventory, and capacity.
• Oversee allocation of work during regular production reviews.
• Monitor capacity utilisation, identify risks, and escalate interruptions.
• Maintain planning-related ERP/MRP parameters for data accuracy.
• Respond to lead time and delivery updates from global sales teams.
• Analyse KPIs (late orders, open WO, stock shortages) to drive improvements.
• Lead NPI, obsolescence, and transition to in-house manufacturing planning.
• Apply root cause analysis and PDCA/Lean to resolve planning issues.

Skills

Planning

Inventory control

Lean/continuous improvement

Scheduling

Bottleneck analysis

Kanban

Excel

Analytical skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Clear communication

Tools

MRP/ERP systems

Microsoft Excel

D365 planning

Job description

Thorlabs in the United Kingdom (Ely) is seeking a Production Planning professional to coordinate assembly and in-house machining schedules. You will balance customer demand with manufacturing capacity, manage MRP parameters, and support NPI and obsolescence activities to ensure on-time delivery.

The role requires strong Excel skills, experience in manufacturing planning, and collaboration with Stores, Production, Engineering, and Machine Shop teams. Competitive benefits apply.