Strategic Production Planner - High-Mix Manufacturing

Layup; Huntington Beach (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Layup is seeking a highly organized Production Planner in Huntington Beach, CA to own and optimize the factory schedule across multiple work centers. You will translate demand into executable plans and continuously improve capacity utilization, WIP, and on-time delivery.

In this role you’ll partner with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality to ensure commitments are achievable, while developing short- and long-range plans and driving planning meetings to mitigate risks.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of production planning, manufacturing planning, master scheduling, or operations planning experience.
• Experience in a high-mix manufacturing environment.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing workflows, capacity planning, scheduling, and material planning.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with strong attention to detail.
• Highly organized with exceptional communication skills across technical and operational teams.
• Experience working with ERP/MRP systems and production planning software.
• Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the production schedule across multiple manufacturing work centers, balancing customer priorities, material availability, machine capacity, and labor resources.
• Translate customer demand, sales forecasts, engineering release schedules, and new program launches into executable production plans.
• Continuously evaluate production capacity, staffing levels, machine utilization, and bottlenecks to optimize factory throughput.
• Partner closely with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Production, and Quality to ensure customer commitments remain achievable.
• Prioritize work orders based on customer demand, due dates, manufacturing constraints, and changing business priorities.
• Develop short-, medium-, and long-range production plans while adjusting schedules in real time as priorities shift.
• Monitor work-in-progress (WIP) throughout the factory and proactively resolve scheduling conflicts that could impact delivery.
• Coordinate production sequencing across composite layup, curing, machining, additive manufacturing, inspection, finishing, and assembly operations.
• Analyze demand trends, backlog, forecasted orders, and pipeline opportunities to ensure the factory is appropriately staffed and prepared for future workload.
• Drive production planning meetings and communicate schedule updates, risks, and recovery plans to cross-functional stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to improve planning processes, scheduling accuracy, inventory flow, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Utilize ERP/MRP, MES, and production planning tools to maintain accurate schedules, production status, and reporting.
• Develop production metrics and dashboards that provide visibility into schedule adherence, capacity utilization, on-time delivery, and factory performance.

Skills

Production scheduling

Manufacturing planning

ERP/MRP

MES

Excel/Sheets

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred

Tools

ERP/MRP software

MES

Job description

Layup is seeking a highly organized Production Planner in Huntington Beach, CA to own and optimize the factory schedule across multiple work centers. You will translate demand into executable plans and continuously improve capacity utilization, WIP, and on-time delivery.

In this role you’ll partner with Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality to ensure commitments are achievable, while developing short- and long-range plans and driving planning meetings to mitigate risks.