Title: Sr Production Planner
ABOUT ADVANCED ENERGY
Advanced Energy (Nasdaq: AEIS) is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of highly engineered, precision power conversion, measurement and control solutions for mission-critical applications and processes. AE’s power solutions enable customer innovation in complex applications for a wide range of industries including semiconductor equipment, industrial, manufacturing, telecommunications, data center computing and healthcare. Advanced Energy has devoted four decades to perfecting power for its global customers and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
WHY BE A PART OF ADVANCED ENERGY?
Some people say it’s like working in the best of two worlds. We operate like an agile, growing, small company – you can see your work make a difference to the company every day. Things move quickly and you can see and feel it. At the same time, we’re a global company founded in 1981 and have been publicly traded for more than 28 years. We have a strong cash position, deep trust and partnership with leading customers, a global best-in-class operations capability, and a proven leadership team. We have a track record and resources to make things happen both organically and inorganically. Being part of a nimble company with a solid foundation attracts team members that are capable, driven and like a challenge. Our employees collaborate and know how to have fun inventing, working, building and winning together. At our core, we are Advanced Energy – powering the future, together
POSITION SUMMARY:
- Own and maintain the Master Production Schedule (MPS) by translating demand, supply, inventory, material readiness, and capacity assumptions into a feasible production plan.
- Coordinate short-term and long-term production planning to align customer demand, service levels, inventory targets, capacity, labor, materials, and operational priorities.
- Act as the key planning liaison across S&OP, demand/supply planning, material planning, manufacturing, warehouse, engineering, quality, finance, and site leadership to ensure execution alignment.
- Proactively identify, assess, and escalate capacity, material, and scheduling constraints, supporting scenario analysis, risk management, and decision-making.
- Ensure schedule quality, planning data accuracy, clear-to-build readiness, KPI performance, and compliance with global planning standards, governance, and system controls.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Develop, maintain, and communicate a valid master production schedule aligned with demand forecasts, customer orders, inventory strategy, capacity availability, material readiness, financial priorities, and approved planning assumptions.
- Translate S&OP, S&OE, supply planning, and demand handoff outputs into a time-phased production plan that can be executed by site planning and manufacturing teams.
- Convert the master production schedule into feasible daily, weekly, and rolling production plans based on customer priorities, capacity, labor, materials, tooling, routings, work centers, production versions, and operational constraints.
- Coordinate planned order conversion, production order readiness, and schedule release activities in accordance with business rules, freeze horizons, shop-floor readiness, clear-to-build status, and system governance.
- Validate production feasibility by reviewing capacity, material availability, labor, tooling, lead times, routings, BOMs, work centers, planning parameters, production versions, inventory availability, and operational constraints before confirming schedule commitments or production priorities.
- Lead or support MPS reviews, production readiness reviews, clear-to-build reviews, daily management routines, weekly planning cadence, S&OE forums, KPI reviews, and escalation meetings.
- Identify demand-supply gaps, capacity overloads, material constraints, plan instability, schedule risks, backlog exposure, customer-service risks, WIP risks, production bottlenecks, and execution-readiness gaps; escalate issues with clear impact, options, owners, and timing when they cannot be resolved within the planning cadence.
- Recommend trade-offs, schedule priorities, production sequencing, recovery actions, overtime, line balancing, alternate routings, production priority changes, inventory actions, and escalation options based on service, cost, inventory, capacity, and execution impact.
- Maintain schedule governance within the approved planning horizon, including firming rules, freeze-window discipline, prioritization, change control, exception management, schedule release discipline, and escalation of major schedule shifts for approval.
- Partner with material planners, warehouse teams, procurement, and manufacturing operations to validate component readiness and clear-to-build status before production order release or sequencing.
- Coordinate with manufacturing operations to align planned production with shift patterns, staffing, tooling, equipment availability, routings, line constraints, production priorities, and safety or operational requirements.
- Monitor production progress against plan and support schedule adjustments when delays, shortages, quality holds, engineering changes, equipment downtime, labor constraints, material readiness issues, or customer priority changes occur.
- Perform scenario planning and what-if analysis for demand upside, capacity shifts, product transitions, new product introduction, engineering changes, allocation decisions, constrained supply, and recovery planning.
- Manage planning impact from engineering changes, NPI, rework, repair, make-to-order, make-to-stock, mixed-source, special builds, product transitions, and phase-in/phase-out activities.
- Maintain accurate master scheduling and production planning data in SAP IBP, SAP S/4HANA, MES, WMS, Power BI, and approved planning systems, including order dates, quantities, priorities, assumptions, constraints, exception status, planning-relevant master data inputs, and recovery actions.
- Support inventory optimization by balancing customer service, finished goods inventory, WIP, production efficiency, working capital, excess exposure, obsolete exposure, and days-of-supply targets.
- Communicate production priorities, schedule changes, constraints, risks, recovery plans, decision needs, owners, and escalation timelines to manufacturing, customer fulfillment, supply chain, warehouse, quality, engineering, finance, and leadership stakeholders.
- Support global and site planning governance by following approved RACI ownership, escalation rules, access controls, segregation-of-duties requirements, master data workflows, change control rules, and audit expectations.
- Drive continuous improvement in schedule adherence, plan stability, production flow, WIP control, bottleneck visibility, clear-to-build discipline, planning cadence, data accuracy, system adoption, KPI reporting, exception-based planning, and decision-support reporting, with emphasis on measurable actions that improve service, inventory, cost, and execution performance.
- Act as a subject matter expert for master scheduling and production planning processes, supporting training, standard work adoption, process improvement, planning capability development, and global planning alignment across assigned sites or scopes.
- Perform other duties as assigned, consistent with business needs, site requirements, and local employment rules.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Business, Engineering, Materials Management, Computer Information Systems, or equivalent education and/or experience.
- Strong understanding of master production scheduling, production planning, MRP, capacity planning, inventory management, production execution, clear-to-build readiness, lead times, routings, BOMs, work centers, production versions, production orders, and order fulfillment processes.
- Hands-on experience with ERP, MRP, master scheduling, production planning, and approved advanced planning systems; SAP S/4HANA, SAP IBP, SAP ECC, PP/DS, Oracle, or equivalent systems preferred.
- Practical working knowledge of SAP MDG, PLM, MES, WMS, Power BI, and approved advanced planning or scheduling tools as they support master data workflows, engineering change visibility, shop-floor feedback, inventory and staging visibility, KPI reporting, and exception-based planning.
- Strong knowledge of manufacturing execution processes, production readiness, WIP control, shop-floor constraints, schedule adherence, production feedback, and production performance management.
- Uses planning data, exception reports, capacity analysis, execution feedback, KPI dashboards, and scenario analysis to support cross-functional decisions.
- Advanced Excel and analytical capability required; experience with Power BI, ad hoc reporting, relational databases, or other visualization tools preferred.
- Strong understanding of planning master data, including planning parameters, production versions, routings, work centers, BOM effectivity, lead times, capacity calendars, source data, and production-relevant attributes.
- Ability to interpret, summarize, and communicate statistical reports, planning outputs, supply-demand signals, production performance, and business risks.
- Excellent judgment, initiative, prioritization, and decision-support capability, including the ability to balance service, cost, inventory, capacity, feasibility, efficiency, and execution-risk trade-offs.
- Communicates risks, assumptions, options, owners, escalation needs, recovery plans, and decision impacts clearly to operational teams and leadership in written and verbal formats.
- Strong stakeholder management, facilitation, and cross-functional leadership capability across planning, manufacturing, procurement, warehouse, engineering, quality, finance, customer fulfillment, IT/systems support, and leadership teams.
- Strong process-control orientation, data accuracy discipline, access-governance awareness, continuous improvement mindset, and ability to lead standard work adoption across planning and manufacturing stakeholders.
- Minimum five (5) years of experience in master scheduling, production planning, production control, supply planning, manufacturing planning, or related supply chain planning roles.
- Experience working in a manufacturing or production environment with exposure to production orders, capacity planning, routings, BOMs, work centers, shop-floor execution, material readiness, and production readiness.
- Experience with demand-supply matching, schedule governance, clear-to-build reviews, production plan execution, backlog recovery, customer commitment management, and cross-functional escalation.
- Experience with SAP, ERP/MRP, advanced planning systems, production planning systems, and performance reporting.
- Experience working cross-functionally with manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, warehouse, engineering, quality, finance, customer fulfillment, master data, and IT/systems teams.