Senior Production Planner

Interlake Mecalux, Inc.; Melrose Park (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Interlake Mecalux, Inc. is seeking a Senior Production Planner (Planning Engineer) at our Melrose Park, IL headquarters. You will lead production planning across U.S.

plants and distribution centers, coordinating with Production, Sales, Shipping, Engineering, and Management to optimize schedules and ensure on-time delivery. The role requires strong analytical skills, on-site work at Melrose Park, and the ability to travel to other U.S. facilities as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering; Master’s degree preferred.
• 5–10 years of experience in a related role.
• Strong analytical and communication skills; able to interact with personnel at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and expedite flow of work and materials per master schedule.
• Schedule and control production plans based on inventory and customer orders.
• Participate in daily Plant Management meetings to track progress and deadlines.
• Help meet daily manufacturing and shipping goals while reducing scrap.
• Assess shipping capacities and allocate workload to meet lead times.
• Identify delays and adjust schedules; communicate delays to sales and management.
• Report daily output and shipments across plants and distribution centers.
• Reduce obsolete inventory and support continuous improvement.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Communication

Team coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

SAP

Job description

We are seeking a Senior Production Planner (Planning Engineer) to lead production planning activities to ensure the efficient flow of materials and work across manufacturing and distribution operations. Based at our Melrose Park, IL corporate headquarters and reporting to the General Manager, this role serves as a senior planning leader supporting production and logistics planning across all U.S. manufacturing plants and distribution centers. Working alongside a team of approximately five planning professionals, the Sr. Planning Engineer collaborates closely with Production, Sales, Shipping, Engineering, and Management to optimize schedules, meet customer demand, improve operational performance, and achieve on-time delivery objectives.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials according to the master schedule.
• Schedule, review, follow, and control production plans according to material inventory and customer orders in SAP, conferring heavily with production management in US and Mexico plants and distribution centers.
• Participate in the daily Plant Management meeting, conferring with department supervisors to determine progress of work and completion dates in order to plan work.
• Ensure that the designated manufacturing and shipping daily goals are met while contributing to the efforts in the plants to reduce scrap.
• Analyze the shipping capacities based on location and product and available resources in order to properly match the workload to the number of resources and meet lead times as needed by sales department.
• Analyze delays or interruptions and adjust production schedule accordingly to meet deadlines. Recommends methods for improving utilization of material, and utilities to reduce downtime and increase productivity. Communicate heavily with sales on delays that may affect lead times.
• Communicate among departments like sales, shipping, plants, engineering and Management in Barcelona to update goals and report on tons manufactured and shipped on a daily basis.
• Work to reduce obsolete inventory and other duties as needed.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering with Master’s Degree preferred.
• 5 – 10 years of experience in a similar position or otherwise related experience
• Personality: Candidates must have integrity, be highly analytical, and have a strong desire to be deeply involved in the business. Candidates must be organized and methodical in their work, with the ability to learn quickly and adapt easily to change. Candidates must be able to preserve through difficult work challenges with the highest degree of dedication. Candidates must have strong interpersonal skills with the confidence to interact and communicate effectively with personnel from all levels of the organization.
• Ability and desire to work on-site at our Melrose Park, IL headquarters
• Ability to travel 10% - 20% of the time to our other U.S. facilities (mainly Pontiac, IL and Sumter, SC)
• Fluency in English and Spanish is preferred.