Production Planner

TESSCO Inc; Kent (WA); On-site; USD 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K with company matching

Medical, dental, vision plans

Tuition subsidy

Job summary

Tessco Inc. is seeking a Production Planner to translate forecasts, orders, and schedules into pragmatic production and material plans.

The role requires coordinating with Warehouse Operations, Purchasing, and Customer Service to meet production and delivery commitments on-site in Lewisville, TX. The ideal candidate has 3+ years in production planning, strong Excel and ERP/WMS skills, and experience supporting major customer accounts.

Qualifications

• Three or more years of experience in production planning or related fields.
• Experience with customer accounts or project planning is advantageous.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and ERP/WMS systems is required.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary planning contact for the customer and coordinate with cross-functional teams.
• Translate forecasts and orders into production schedules and capacity plans.
• Develop and maintain daily, weekly, and long-range production plans.
• Ensure materials and finished goods are available before production starts.

Skills

Excel

Forecasting

Inventory coordination

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

High school diploma

Associate or bachelor's degree preferred

Tools

NetSuite

RF-SMART

Job description

Lewisville, Texas, United States

Position Title: Production Planner

Want to be part of building our wireless world? Technology like 5G and IoT aids emergency responders, enables intelligent warehouses and factories, increases safety on college campuses, helps energy companies provide better service, improves safety and efficiency of various modes of transportation, and more. It enhances the consumer experience for things like entertainment, shopping, and communications. In fact, wireless technology touches every aspect of our daily lives.

Building Our Wireless World, Together.

Position Summary

The Production Planner serves as the primary operational planning contact for one of Tessco's largest customers, translating forecasts, project requirements, sales orders, deployment schedules, and changing priorities into production and material plans.

This role develops and maintains production schedules based on customer demand, inventory, labor and equipment capacity, project timelines, and required ship dates. The Production Planner partners with Warehouse Operations, Inventory Control, Purchasing, Customer Service, Sales, Project Management, and the customer to ensure production and delivery commitments are met.

This position is located on-site in Lewisville, TX

Duties and Responsibilities

Customer Planning

• Serve as the primary operational planning contact for the assigned customer and build strong relationships with customer supply chain, operations, procurement, and project teams.
• Participate in forecast, project planning, and order status meetings while reviewing forecasts, deployment schedules, sales orders, delivery dates, and changing priorities.
• Translate customer demand into production schedules, labor plans, and capacity requirements for cable cutting, assemblies, kitting, configured products, packaging, labeling, and staged deployments.
• Understand customer product specifications, packaging, labeling, documentation, and shipping requirements.
• Provide Project Management and customers with updates on production status, material availability, completion dates, shortages, risks, and recovery plans based on inventory, capacity, and lead times.
• Document customer commitments, forecast revisions, and priority changes while maintaining confidentiality of customer information.
• Monitor service level agreements and support customer business reviews with operational metrics and improvement plans.

Production Planning and Scheduling

• Develop, prioritize, and maintain daily, weekly, and long-range production schedules and work orders based on customer demand, inventory, capacity, and shipment requirements.
• Optimize labor, equipment utilization, and production flow while minimizing downtime, changeovers, scrap, and unnecessary material movement.
• Coordinate assembly, kitting, cable cutting, labeling, packaging, configuration, and other value-added production activities.
• Adjust production schedules to address changing demand, staffing, material availability, equipment constraints, and customer priorities while proactively managing at-risk orders, backlogs, and recovery plans.

Inventory and Material Coordination

• Ensure required materials, components, packaging, labels, and finished goods are available and properly allocated before production begins.
• Identify and resolve material shortages and inventory discrepancies with Purchasing, Inventory Control, Operations, and customers when appropriate.
• Support accurate inventory, production, and material transactions.
• Monitor and manage excess, obsolete, damaged, or substituted inventory resulting from forecast or project changes.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as the communication link between Operations, Project Management, Sales, Shipping, Warehouse leadership, and the customer.
• Lead or participate in daily production planning meetings and communicate production priorities, schedule changes, and realistic completion dates.
• Escalate material shortages, capacity constraints, equipment issues, or specification questions that could impact customer commitments.
• Coordinate customer escalations through resolution while balancing production, receiving, picking, packing, and shipping priorities.

System and Data Management

• Create, maintain, and monitor production work orders in NetSuite or the ERP/WMS from release through shipment.
• Investigate delayed, uncommitted, or incomplete work orders and resolve processing issues.
• Maintain reports, dashboards, production plans, order trackers, shortage reports, and planning documentation to support customer and operational performance.

Performance Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

• Monitor schedule attainment, production performance, backlog, labor utilization, material shortages, work order aging, and on-time delivery.
• Analyze production delays and customer service issues, perform root-cause analysis, and implement corrective actions.
• Identify and implement improvements to production flow, inventory accuracy, communication, staging, and order visibility.
• Support quality initiatives, cycle counting, process improvements, and customer-specific procedures and documentation.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required; associate or bachelor's degree in supply chain, operations, business, logistics, telecommunications, or a related field preferred.
• Three or more years of experience in production planning, scheduling, inventory control, supply chain, warehouse operations, or customer account planning.
• Experience supporting major customer accounts and working directly with customers preferred.
• Experience in telecommunications, electronics, distribution, manufacturing, or other related industries preferred.
• Experience in production scheduling, forecasting, work orders, inventory control, material planning, capacity planning, and order fulfillment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and ERP/WMS systems such as NetSuite, RF-SMART, or similar.

Compensation: $70,000 - $80,000

Why Join Our Team?

• Positive workplace culture
• 401K with a company match to help you invest in your future
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and prescription plans to keep you at your best
• Hone your skills or learn new ones with tuition subsidy

We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.