Who we are. What we do. We are Bystronic – a global technology company passionate about creating an impact for a sustainable future with sheet metal and beyond. We want to work with people who support us in creating innovative solutions to move our industry forward. Our focus is on automating the complete material and data flow of the laser cutting and bending process chain.
Summary:
The Production Planner owns the executable manufacturing plan for U.S.-built machines from sales-order review through work-order completion. This role uses the SAP production planning module to create, schedule, release, and monitor production jobs; verifies material availability by job and by the point of use within the build cycle; and drives timely resolution of shortages or other constraints. The planner is the assembly technicians’ first line of support for job, material, documentation, and coordination needs and owns Jira process related to installation requirements originating from U.S.-built machines.
Responsibilities & Duties
Production Planning and SAP Job Control:
Own and maintain the production capacity schedule for U.S.-built machines, balancing customer commitments, labor capacity, material availability, engineering status, and operational priorities. Use the SAP production planning module to convert sales orders and demand into production jobs/work orders with accurate dates, quantities, work centers, routings, and requirements. Create, schedule, and release production jobs at the appropriate time and maintain accurate order status throughout the build. Monitor each job from release through completion, including confirmations, open operations, missing transactions, job progress, and timely closure. Maintain schedule discipline and communicate changes, risks, and recovery actions to Production, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, Sales, Project Management, and other stakeholders.
Material Readiness and Shortage Management:
Review material availability by production job—not only aggregate inventory—to confirm components are assigned and available when required.
Establish and monitor need-by dates based on the build sequence so materials are available for the production start date or, when appropriate, before the specific operation in which they are consumed.
Identify shortages, late purchase orders, allocation conflicts, inaccurate inventory, missing components, and job-specific material risks before they affect assembly.
Lead shortage follow-up with Procurement, Inventory, Material Handling, Quality, and Engineering; document owners, committed recovery dates, and escalation needs.
Support accurate staging, kitting, consumption, substitutions, returns, and job closeout to protect inventory and WIP accuracy.
Assembly Technician Support:- Serve as the assembly technicians’ first line of defense for issues involving the job, missing or incorrect material, BOM or routing questions, drawings, priorities, and cross-functional coordination.
- Resolve issues directly when possible and engage the correct function quickly when Quality, Engineering, Procurement, Inventory, IT, or leadership support is required.
- Track open constraints to closure and provide technicians with clear status, ownership, and expected resolution timing.
- Escalate recurring or high-impact issues and support root-cause and corrective-action activity that improves future builds.
- U.S.-Built Machine Installation Jira Ownership
- Act as the Jira owner and central coordinator for installation needs, punch-list items, and build-related issues identified during installation of machines built in the United States.
- Create or ensure creation of complete Jira tickets with machine, customer, serial number, issue description, evidence, priority, required action, accountable owner, and due date.
- Route tickets to the appropriate internal team, monitor progress, remove roadblocks, maintain current status, and escalate overdue or customer-impacting items.
- Coordinate with Project Management, Installation, Service, Production, Quality, Engineering, and Supply Chain until the requirement is resolved and closure is verified.
- Feed lessons learned from installation issues back into BOMs, routings, work instructions, checklists, and future production planning as applicable. Assist engineering and quality to complete RCCACross-Functional Planning and Continuous Improvement
- Coordinate production priorities and finished-machine readiness with Sales, Project Management, Logistics, and Shipping to support committed delivery and installation dates.
- Monitor capacity, throughput, schedule attainment, material readiness, WIP, and on-time completion; provide concise reporting and recovery plans.
- Maintain the accuracy of planning-related master data, including holidays, resources available, work centers, routings, lead times, production versions, and manufacturing throughput assumptions; route formal corrections through the proper change-control process.
- Support standard work, visual management, daily accountability, and continuous improvement of the planning-to-build process.
- Support all company safety policies and perform other related duties as assigned.
Requirements
Education and Experience:
Associate or bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Business, Engineering, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
Three or more years of production planning, scheduling, materials planning, or comparable manufacturing experience; complex equipment or machine-build experience preferred.
Hands-on experience with an ERP/MRP production planning system required; SAP production planning experience strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to create and release work orders, analyze job-level material requirements, manage shortages, and coordinate cross-functional recovery actions.
Working knowledge of BOMs, routings, work centers, production lead times, inventory transactions, WIP, and manufacturing change control.
Experience with Jira or a similar issue-management system preferred.
Strong analytical, organizational, prioritization, follow-through, and problem-solving skills.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to escalate risk and hold owners accountable to commitments.
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and standard business software; ability to read and communicate effectively in English.
