Production Planner

Description

SHAPING THE FUTURE THROUGH INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY!

With a history spanning more than seven decades, Communications & Power Industries’ thousands of products have impacted people’s lives in numerous unseen ways every day. Our highly engineered products serve as the backbone of modern-day commercial and military communications systems, assist in diagnosing medical conditions, empower scientific discoveries and space exploration, and much more.

CPI is headquartered in Plano, Texas and is a global manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems. We have manufacturing locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. With a heritage of technological excellence, our team serves customers in the communications, defense, medical, industrial, and scientific markets.

YOUR DAY TO DAY:

We are looking for a Production Planner who will be responsible for translating demand, forecast, and engineering program milestones into executable production plans across sustaining, New Product Introduction (NPI), and large program builds. This role balances material availability, capacity, and inventory exposure to keep the plant material-clear and on schedule, while also acting as the planning-side owner for assigned engineering and program milestones — ensuring project deliverables actually convert into scheduled, executable work.

The role collaborates closely with Production, Supply Chain, Engineering, Program Management, Quality, and Procurement.

YOU WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR/TO:

Production Planning & Scheduling

• Develop and maintain production schedules across assigned product lines, sequencing work orders to balance customer demand, capacity, and material availability.
• Translate demand and forecast into time-phased production requirements, feeding and maintaining accuracy within the MRP system.
• Release and confirm work orders in the ERP system; manage WIP tracking, order status, and shop-floor confirmation.
• Adjust schedules in response to delays, equipment issues, or material shortages, and communicate changes to stakeholders
• Perform monthly, quarterly and yearly planning cycles to ensure builds are clear to build

Materials & Inventory Management

• Perform material availability and critical-path analysis; identify and escalat shortages and constraints ahead of impact.
• Manage production kit readiness with cross-functional partners with Engineering and Operations.
• Maintain the integrity of shop floor, MRP, and inventory data through key performance metrics.
• Calculate and manage inventory exposure as forecasts and builds change, balancing supply against demand to minimize excess and obsolescence risk.

Program & Project Planning

• Act as the planning-side lead for assigned engineering and program milestones, ensuring project deliverables are translated into scheduled, executable production work.
• Track program and project milestones against the production schedule, flagging risks to timing and coordinating recovery plans with Program Management and Engineering.
• Support Engineering during ECN/ECO processes, assessing material and schedule impact and recommending cutover dates to limit disruption and obsolescence.
• Coordinate materials planning for new products to ensure parts are ordered and delivered in a timely fashion to support program timelines

Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement

• Identify and highlight potential risks and constraints to on-time completion of the schedule.
• Perform root cause and corrective action (RCCA) on planning and schedule-related issues to prevent recurrence.
• Support and participate in scheduling, planning, and workflow improvement initiatives.
• Support and Lead KPI tracking (e.g., OTD, MSA, Stock Outs).

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a key planning point of contact for…