Production Planning Manager

About L&L Fabrication

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.

Production Planning Manager – owner of production schedule visibility, capacity forecasting, and delivery commitment communication across our fabrication facilities. This newly created role will directly impact our ability to grow by ensuring production, procurement, and sales are aligned around a single, accurate schedule.

• Own the production schedule from outside sales commitments to internal shop execution in Douglas, WY and Northern Colorado.
• Maintain real‑time visibility of facility and key work center bookings (weld booths, downstream stations, assembly).
• Track each job through full production sequence.
• 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 daily in the scheduling platform.

• Perform capacity forecasting across weld booths, welders, downstream work centers, and material constraints.
• Evaluate level‑loading opportunities between locations to balance workload and protect delivery performance.
• Monitor material readiness for long‑lead items against forecasted weld start dates.
• Track empirical production performance to improve forecast accuracy.
• Review staffing, booth capacity, material readiness, and downstream needs against the forward schedule and flag gaps proactively.

• Provide Sales with realistic delivery time‑frames based on actual shop capacity.
• Lead and support daily production scheduling meetings with leadership and shop teams.
• Communicate schedule changes, risks, and recovery plans early and accurately.
• Provide leadership with clear visibility into backlog, booked‑out capacity, and bottlenecks through consistent reporting.

• Own day‑to‑day data accuracy within our Smartsheet platform and evolve scheduling logic, forecasting views, and reporting tools.
• Improve coordination between Sales, production, procurement, and project management through better data and disciplined scheduling.
• Help evaluate and shape our technology direction, including scheduling and ERP tools.

• 5+ years of production planning, scheduling, or manufacturing operations experience in a job‑shop, make‑to‑order, or custom fabrication environment.
• Experience in weld fabrication, pressure vessel manufacturing, industrial fabrication, or O&G production equipment manufacturing.
• Demonstrated ability to own a production schedule across multiple facilities or production lines simultaneously.
• Strong capacity forecasting and level‑loading experience – balanced workload across work center constraints.
• Comfortable leading daily scheduling meetings with shop leadership and aligning cross‑functional teams.
• Strong Excel and data skills; able to build and maintain scheduling views, capacity models, and reporting tools.
• Clear, direct communication style – translate production complexity into plain language for Sales and leadership.

• Experience with Smartsheet, ERP/MRP systems (Net Suite, Epicor, JobBOSS, SAP, or similar), or production scheduling software.
• Familiarity with ASME pressure vessel fabrication stages, NDE scheduling, and QC inspection coordination.
• Experience improving scheduling data discipline in an environment transitioning from informal to systematic production tracking.
• Familiarity with S&OP, master scheduling, or formal production planning methodologies.
• Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Operations Management, Industrial Technology, Manufacturing Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.

• Know every active job across both main facilities – location, next step, and risks.
• Sales has a reliable, data‑based answer to “what can we commit to…