Production Planning Manager

Production Planning Manager

L&L Fabrication is a Rocky Mountain region ASME-certified pressure vessel and process equipment manufacturer serving the oil and gas industry. From our fabrication shops in Wyoming and Colorado, we build pressure vessels, heater treaters, separators, and process skids for a consistent regional customer base. We run a relationship-driven operation — our customers come back because we deliver on our commitments and build equipment they can stake production on.

We carry a high-volume, high-complexity active backlog across multiple facilities simultaneously. Getting the right work to the right shop at the right time — and telling Sales what we can actually commit to — is one of the most valuable things this role will do for the business.

We're looking for a Production Planning Manager to own production schedule visibility, capacity forecasting, and delivery commitment communication across our fabrication facilities. This is a newly created role — one that fills a real and immediate gap in how we run the business — and the right person will have a direct, measurable impact on our ability to grow.

You'll be the bridge between our shop floors and our Sales team. You'll know how far each facility is booked out, where the constraints are, what we can realistically commit to and when, and you'll lead the daily conversations that keep production, procurement, and sales aligned around the same picture.

This is a builder role. You'll be creating the planning system, the scheduling infrastructure, and the data discipline that L&L needs to scale from here. The foundation exists — strong shop leadership, a Smartsheet-based tracking platform, and an experienced engineering team — but the forward-looking capacity and scheduling function needs an owner. That's this job.

Production Scheduling & Capacity Visibility

• Own the production schedule from outside sales commitments through internal shop execution across our Douglas, WY and Northern Colorado facilities.

• Maintain accurate, real-time visibility into how far each facility and key work center is booked out — weld booths, downstream stations, and assembly.

• Track each job through the full production sequence:

¦ Not Started ? Welding ? Hydro? Sandblast/Paint? Rigout ? Electrical? Insulation? Final QC? Ready to Ship

• Identify schedule risks, bottlenecks, late-job exposure, and capacity constraints before they reach customers.

• Validate job status, work center dates, part numbers, and scheduling assumptions in our scheduling platform daily.

Capacity Forecasting & Level Loading

• Perform capacity forecasting across weld booths, welders, downstream work centers, and material constraints at each facility.

• Evaluate level-loading opportunities between Douglas and our Northern Colorado facility to balance workload and protect delivery performance.

• Monitor material readiness for long-lead items — heads, shells, specialty components — against forecasted weld start dates.

• Track empirical production performance using actual start and completion dates by work center to continuously improve forecast accuracy.

• Review staffing, booth capacity, material readiness, and downstream work center needs against the forward schedule and flag gaps proactively.

Sales & Leadership Communication

• Provide Sales with clear, realistic delivery time frames based on actual shop capacity and current backlog — not estimates based on gut feel.

• Lead and support daily production scheduling meetings with production leadership, project management, and shop teams.

• Communicate schedule changes, risks, and recovery plans early and accurately — to both internal teams and as supporting data for customer conversations.

• Give leadership clear visibility into backlog, booked-out capacity, and bottlenecks through consistent reporting.

Systems & Continuous Improvement

• Own the day-to-day accuracy of scheduling data within our Smartsheet platform and help evolve the scheduling logic, forecasting views, and reporting tools as the business grows.

• Improve coordination between Sales, production, procurement, and project management through better data and more…