Senior Planner

Role Summary

The responsibilities of this position are to prepare and maintain sales forecast and MPS for kits; production schedules for components, capacity plan for all; provide oversight and problem solving for planners. Provide backup guidance and JSA enforcement. Perform additional duties as assigned.

Responsibilities

• Management of special requirements of high complexity for OEM customers and distributors (i.e., lead-times, lot number, expiration dates). Represent planning team in customer facing meetings as needed.
• Taking on difficult new SKUs and product families independently.
• Employee is expected to be highly independent on complex/custom customer orders while developing others in these inquiries.
• Having extensive knowledge of Bio-Techne software and participated in improvements to the software.
• Ability to troubleshoot novel and highly difficult situations independently. Upon solving problems, making changes to standard practices to mitigate future issues.
• Determine the start date, due date and quantity of each item to be manufactured based on master production schedule. Using planning principles, effectively manage and help others on customer and internal requirements while optimizing inventory value and minimizing scrap.
• Maintain a forecast and safety stock levels using historical sales data while analyzing large amounts of data using our databases and Excel spreadsheets effectively.
• Implementing measures and changes to continuously improve the department.
• Manage open production orders, past due production orders, past due planned orders.
• Communicate and outline expectations with relevant manufacturing, quality and customer care teams while influencing the teams on changes.
• Monitor and achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPI), including daily review of customer backorders
• Identify expired Items, salvage useable components, and re-work when possible.
• Perform rough cut capacity planning in coordination with all work centers. Make re-schedule decision as needed
• Perform user acceptance testing and functionality of IT-related projects. Propose future IT-related projects.
• Ability to troubleshoot and solve issues of high complexity independently
• Lead continuous process improvement initiatives and troubleshoot problems. Develop project plan and assign actions to project team members. Influence cross functional teams to drive change within the organization.
• Lead meetings and collaborate with other departments on initiatives, coordinate activity of multiple departments and to influence change initiatives that would impact multiple departments.
• Train and mentor other planners and act as a SME for the planning team.
• May lead projects and new initiatives for the department
• Follow company policies, practices and safety guidelines as outlined
• Demonstrates EPIC values and is recognized by the team and other departments for this.
• Demonstrated ability to complete all duties of the Planner II role with a keen understanding of how Planning fits in with other departments.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree or equivalent with a minimum of 10+ years of related experience. Master’s degree or APICS certification with a minimum of 5+ years of related experience.
• Experience working in an ERP environment required.
• Microsoft Dynamics AX experience preferred.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel are required.
• Computer entry and/or typing skills are desirable.
• Must be a self-starter, able to work in a fast-paced environment, multi task, problem solve and have good communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Lean and/or Six Sigma training and/or experience preferred.

Education

• Bachelors degree or equivalent required; Master’s degree or APICS certification considered a plus.

Skills

• ERP system proficiency, data analysis, and forecasting
• Advanced Excel usage and database analysis
• Problem solving and decision making
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Cross-functional collaboration and leadership

Additional Requirements