Manufacturing Planner & Scheduler

Product Society; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Product Society is seeking an analytical Manufacturing Planner & Scheduler to turn customer demand into an executable plan across compounding, filling, packaging, and warehouse operations. You will partner with cross-functional teams to optimize capacity, materials, labor, and sequencing, and you’ll build data-driven insights to prevent delays and protect customer commitments.

The role blends planning rigor with continuous improvement, requiring hands-on execution and leadership in ERP/MRP data

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years in manufacturing planning, production scheduling, or supply planning.
• Experience in batch-manufacturing environments such as CPG, beauty, cosmetics, or supplements.
• Experience planning across multiple lines/centers within an ERP/MRP system.
• Advanced Excel skills and ability to translate data into actionable priorities.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain daily, weekly, and monthly production schedules.
• Sequence production to maximize throughput and minimize changeovers.
• Coordinate schedules across compounding, filling, packaging, and warehouse teams.
• Analyze capacity, identify bottlenecks, and surface constraints early.
• Own planning data accuracy in ERP/MRP and develop reports.
• Lead continuous improvement in planning processes and tools.

Skills

Manufacturing planning

Production scheduling

ERP/MRP

Advanced Excel

Data analysis

Cross-functional coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Industrial Engineering, or related field

Tools

ERP/MRP

Excel

Job description

Job Overview

Product Society is seeking an analytical, hands‑on Manufacturing Planner & Scheduler to join our Supply Chain team. You’ll turn customer demand and production requirements into an executable plan and schedule across compounding, filling, packaging, and warehouse operations.

This is more than a scheduling role. You’ll analyze capacity, surface constraints before they become problems, strengthen our planning processes, and give leadership data‑driven recommendations — partnering closely with the Director of Supply Chain and with Manufacturing, Materials, Purchasing, R&D, Quality, Customer Service, and Finance so the right materials, capacity, labor, and sequencing are in place to meet every customer commitment.

The ideal candidate brings experience from CPG, beauty, cosmetics, personal care, supplements, or another batch‑manufacturing environment where schedules are shaped by demand, material availability, equipment capacity, labor, changeovers, and tight customer timelines.

Why this role matters

as Product Society grows, this role helps move us from a largely reactive production environment to a structured, data‑driven planning process — so manufacturing has a clear plan, materials arrive when needed, constraints are visible in advance, and leadership can act before issues reach our customers.

Responsibilities & Duties

Production Planning & Scheduling

• Build and maintain daily, weekly, and monthly production schedules from sales orders, forecasts, inventory targets, and customer priorities.
• Schedule batching, filling, and packaging across multiple lines and work centers, balancing equipment, labor, materials, and capacity.
• Sequence production to maximize throughput and minimize changeovers, cleaning, downtime, and disruption.
• Coordinate schedules across compounding, filling, packaging, sanitation, and warehouse teams.
• Spot conflicts early and adjust with Manufacturing leadership when equipment, staffing, quality, materials, or priorities change.
• Keep the production schedule accurate and current in the ERP system.

Capacity & Production Analysis

• Analyze capacity by line, equipment, department, shift, and labor availability; identify bottlenecks that limit output.
• Compare actual versus planned production to find recurring gaps; track run rates, downtime, changeover times, batch sizes, and labor efficiency.
• Build capacity models to support growth, new customer launches, and new SKUs or packaging formats.
• Recommend actions when capacity is tight — overtime, added shifts, staffing, equipment, outsourcing, or schedule changes.

Material & Inventory Planning

• Partner with Purchasing, Materials, and Warehouse to ensure raw materials and packaging components are on hand for the schedule.
• Review inventory, open POs, and lead times to flag shortages and supply risks before they hit production; set required‑by dates and priorities.
• Plan against confirmed material availability, not assumed arrivals.
• Help set inventory and safety‑stock levels, and use production planning to consume excess and obsolete materials.

Demand & Forecast Analysis

• Analyze customer forecasts, historical demand, and open orders to anticipate impacts on capacity, labor, materials, and inventory.
• Track forecast‑versus‑actual variance and communicate upcoming requirements and capacity gaps.
• Bring accurate production and capacity data to weekly and monthly planning meetings.
• Work with Customer Service and Sales to understand customer priorities and timing.

ERP & Data Management

• Own the accuracy of planning data in the ERP/MRP system — lead times, production rates, work centers, and routings.
• Ensure production orders reflect real manufacturing capability; identify and correct data issues that undermine planning.
• Build and maintain reports and dashboards on production performance and schedule adherence using Excel and other analytical tools.

Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Track and report key metrics: schedule attainment, on‑time production, capacity utilization, throughput, changeover time, downtime, labor utilization, material availability, backlog, and forecast accuracy.
• Lead root‑cause analysis when plans are missed and drive improvements in planning accuracy, flow, inventory, and schedule reliability.
• Develop standardized planning processes and tools that scale as the business grows.
• Support Lean and continuous‑improvement initiatives, building a proactive planning culture in place of last‑minute changes and firefighting.

This role is a key link across the order‑to‑ship flow: Customer Service → Supply Chain → Materials / Purchasing → Manufacturing → Filling → Packaging → Warehouse → Shipping. You’ll communicate production priorities clearly and elevate quickly when customer commitments, capacity, materials, or quality are at risk.

Qualifications

Required

• 3–5+ years in manufacturing planning, production scheduling, supply planning, or manufacturing analytics.
• Experience in CPG, beauty, cosmetics, personal care, supplements, food, pharmaceutical, or a similar batch‑manufacturing environment.
• Experience planning across multiple lines, work centers, or departments within an ERP/MRP system.
• Strong grasp of manufacturing processes, capacity, material requirements, and inventory planning.
• Proven ability to use production, inventory, demand, and capacity data to drive decisions and turn large data sets into clear priorities.
• Advanced Excel skills — PivotTables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, complex formulas, and reporting.
• Excellent communication and cross‑functional coordination skills.

Preferred

• High‑SKU‑count environments with frequent changeovers and sanitation requirements.
• Batch manufacturing combined with filling and packaging operations.
• Contract manufacturing or private‑label customers, especially in beauty, skincare, or personal care.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous‑improvement experience.
• Building capacity models, dashboards, or planning tools.
• Working with customer forecasts, demand planning, new product launches, and production scale‑ups.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Industrial Engineering, Business Analytics, Manufacturing, Business, or a related field preferred. Equivalent planning and analytical experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.

Work Environment

You think beyond the schedule. When you look at a production plan, you’re already asking: Do we have the materials, labor, and capacity? Where’s the bottleneck? What needs to run first, and what can move? How will a change in demand affect the next two to four weeks? Are we using our equipment and people efficiently? What data supports the decision?

You’re comfortable in a fast‑paced environment where priorities shift, yet you keep the plan structured, disciplined, and accurate — analytical enough to identify the problem and operational enough to help solve it.

How Success Is Measured

• Higher production schedule accuracy and adherence.
• Greater visibility into capacity and constraints.
• Fewer delays caused by material or planning issues.
• Improved on‑time completion of customer orders.
• Better utilization of manufacturing capacity and labor.
• Fewer last‑minute schedule changes and less firefighting.
• Reliable reporting and planning tools that let leadership decide faster.