PRODUCTION PLANNER

STS Metals is a unified organization composed of five businesses working together to deliver high-quality titanium, stainless and alloy steel, and nickel products. We proudly serve the aerospace, medical, industrial, and space industries with a commitment to innovation, manufacturing excellence, and superior customer service.

This position is classified as regular, full-time. The Production Planner is responsible for planning, scheduling, coordinating, tracking, and monitoring production activities to ensure customer orders are completed on time, within scope, and in alignment with material availability and production capacity. This role supports both forward-looking production planning and day-to-day production control by releasing and maintaining work orders, tracking work-in-progress, communicating schedule changes, identifying constraints, and partnering cross-functionally with Production, Sales, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, and Customer Service. The Production Planner serves as a key liaison across departments to support schedule adherence, workflow efficiency, on-time delivery, and customer commitments.

The responsibilities of this role include but are not limited to:

• Plan, schedule, and release manufacturing work orders based on customer demand, sales forecasts, material availability, production capacity, and business priorities.
• Monitor and manage production work order status from release through completion, including movement of materials and work-in-progress (WIP) through the production lifecycle.
• Coordinate with Production, Purchasing, Warehouse, Logistics, Quality, Engineering, Customer Service, and Sales to align schedules, priorities, materials, resources, and customer commitments.
• Track jobs through each stage of production to identify delays, bottlenecks, material shortages, quality holds, or other constraints that may impact on-time delivery.
• Update and maintain production schedules in the ERP/MRP system and communicate schedule changes, priority shifts, and recovery plans to appropriate stakeholders.
• Monitor inventory levels, safety stock, raw material availability, and component readiness to support production schedules and reduce shortages or downtime.
• Respond to changes in customer demand, expedited requests, late jobs, production constraints, material rejections, or quality issues by adjusting schedules and escalating concerns as needed.
• Collaborate with Quality and Engineering to support accurate bills of material (BOMs), routings, documentation, travelers, certifications, and quality records aligned with job requirements.
• Understand and apply approved material substitutions when necessary to support production continuity and prevent avoidable downtime.
• Support daily production meetings by providing updates on key orders, schedule status, constraints, WIP, late jobs, and delivery risks.
• Interface with Customer Service and Sales regarding order status, customer changes, expedited requests, and potential delivery impacts.
• Generate, maintain, and review reports and tracking tools related to on-time delivery (OTD), lead time, WIP aging, schedule adherence, inventory discrepancies, and production flow.
• Assist with inventory audits, ERP data accuracy, work order integrity, and corrective actions related to inventory or scheduling discrepancies.
• Work closely with the Supply Chain Manager, operations leadership, and other planners to align priorities, resource planning, and production execution.
• Participate in continuous improvement initiatives focused on throughput, visibility, data accuracy, cost reduction, lead-time improvement, schedule adherence, and production control processes.
• Serve as the voice of the customer within planning and production control activities to help ensure customer commitments are met.
• Perform other duties as assigned by management.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required; Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations, or related field preferred.
• One to three years of experience in production planning, production control, scheduling, materials management, or a similar manufacturing environment preferred.
• Working knowledge of ERP/MRP systems, work order management processes, and Excel-based tracking tools required.
• Basic understanding of manufacturing, fabrication, metals, aerospace, or production operations preferred.
• Strong organizational, analytical, time-management, and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Effective communication skills and ability to collaborate across departments and levels of the organization.
• General understanding of inventory control, WIP tracking, lean manufacturing concepts, and ERP data integrity preferred.
• Ability to identify scheduling risks, escalate issues appropriately, and support corrective action planning.

We offer benefits designed to support you at work and at home:

• Medical: Choice of Kaiser or Anthem, with the company covering a generous portion of the employee contribution on the base plan, plus the option to choose from multiple plan levels
• Dental & Vision: Company-sponsored coverage, including a base dental plan with buy-up options and vision coverage
• Retirement: 401k with up to a 6% company contribution
• Wellness: Monthly wellness program with opportunities to participate and earn monthly raffle prizes
• Education: Tuition reimbursement to support continued learning and career development
• Time Off: Paid holidays, 2 floating holidays, vacation, and sick time
• Stability & Support: Year-round operation, clear expectations, and leadership and HR support