Production Materials Planner

JOB SUMMARY:

The Production Materials Planner is responsible for translating Trace3 sales pipeline, booked customer orders, vendor lead times, and current inventory into an executable material and shipment plan. This role balances two equally important objectives: securing equipment early enough to protect customer delivery dates while avoiding unnecessary inventory, warehouse congestion, carrying cost, and aging exposure.

Working across Sales, Purchasing/Procurement, Operations, Warehouse, Finance, and vendor partners, the Planner proactively identifies supply risks, stages vendor shipments, determines when direct-to-customer shipment is appropriate, and maintains clear visibility to material status from forecast through fulfillment. This is a planning and coordination role within a technology value-added reseller (VAR) environment; it is not a traditional manufacturing production-scheduling position. 

SUMMARY OF ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: 

• Analyze sales pipeline, booked orders, expected close dates, customer requested dates, historical demand, current inventory, and vendor lead times to forecast equipment requirements and create time-phased material plans.
• Determine when equipment should be ordered, released, expedited, delayed, or de-expedited to support on-time customer delivery while minimizing excess inventory and unnecessary warehouse dwell time.
• Monitor inventory by SKU, manufacturer, project, and customer commitment; identify shortages, excess, slow-moving, aging, or potentially obsolete inventory and recommend corrective action.
• Coordinate with vendors and distributors on order acknowledgements, committed ship dates, partial shipments, allocation constraints, lead-time changes, staged releases, and other supply exceptions.
• Evaluate and coordinate vendor-direct / drop-ship opportunities when appropriate to reduce handling, freight, warehouse touches, and cycle time while ensuring customer and project requirements are met.
• Maintain visibility to open purchase orders and customer orders; proactively resolve past-due, at-risk, or mismatched dates and communicate recovery plans to affected stakeholders.
• Partner closely with Sales and delivery teams to validate forecast timing and distinguish likely demand from committed demand so purchasing actions are aligned to business risk and customer need.
• Collaborate with Warehouse and Operations to plan inbound volume, receiving timing, staging requirements, and outbound shipment priorities based on warehouse capacity and customer schedules.
• Partner with Finance and Procurement to monitor inventory exposure, excess and obsolete inventory, returns, cancellations, and restocking impacts while supporting inventory performance objectives.
• Maintain accurate planning data in ERP/MRP and related systems, including lead times, promised dates, reorder or safety-stock parameters where applicable, order quantities, and relevant supplier information.
• Develop and maintain reporting on inventory, material availability, open purchase orders, delivery risks, and supplier performance.
• Perform root-cause analysis on shortages, delivery misses, and planning issues and recommend corrective actions to improve planning effectiveness.
• Maintain professional, proactive communication with vendors and internal stakeholders, escalating material risks early with clear options, business impact, and recommended actions.

Key Measures of Success

• Customer orders supported on time with minimal material-related delays.
• Inventory arrives within the appropriate planning window rather than significantly ahead of customer need.
• Reduced excess, aging, and obsolete inventory; healthy inventory turns and warehouse utilization.
• Accurate and timely visibility to open purchase orders, expected receipts, shortages, and delivery risk.
• Effective use of staged vendor releases and direct-ship options where they improve cost or cycle time.
• Improved supplier delivery reliability and faster resolution of supply exceptions.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 3-5+ years of experience in materials planning, inventory planning, supply planning, procurement, purchasing, supply chain, or a related field.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret demand, inventory, lead-time, and order data to make sound planning decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to forecast material requirements, identify supply risks, and balance customer delivery needs with inventory and operational objectives.
• Experience working in ERP, MRP, order management, or supply chain planning systems, including maintaining accurate planning data and using system outputs to support decision-making.
• Intermediate to advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, formulas, filtering, and analysis of large data sets.