Production Planner

At Custom Foods, we employ Great Dough Heroes to create our SQF-certified, industry-leading frozen dough. We are currently seeking a Production Planner to develop, maintain, and communicate production schedules for our multi-line frozen food manufacturing facility.

This position coordinates customer demand, inventory requirements, production capacity, labor availability, equipment constraints, raw material availability, and new product requirements to create practical production schedules that can be executed safely and efficiently.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage competing priorities while communicating effectively across multiple departments.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop daily and weekly production schedules for three production lines operating across two 10-hour shifts.
• Translate customer orders, forecasts, inventory requirements, production capacity, and established priorities into executable production schedules.
• Balance production requirements across lines, shifts, equipment capabilities, labor, changeovers, and production run times.
• Schedule products in logical sequences while considering changeovers, sanitation, and allergen requirements.
• Identify potential capacity constraints, scheduling conflicts, material shortages, and order risks before they affect production.
• Maintain and communicate a rolling production schedule to Operations, Warehouse, Purchasing, Quality, and other departments.
• Adjust schedules as needed due to equipment failures, labor shortages, ingredient shortages, quality holds, customer changes, or other unexpected events.
• Coordinate with the nearby warehouse to ensure ingredients, packaging, and other materials required for the following day's production are identified and transferred to the manufacturing facility on time.
• Monitor inventory and material requirements and communicate shortages or discrepancies early enough for corrective action.
• Coordinate new product launches, R&D trials, customer samples, first production runs, and line trials while balancing existing customer commitments.
• Work closely with Operations, Warehouse, Purchasing, Quality/Food Safety, Maintenance, R&D, and Customer Service/Sales.
• Maintain accurate production scheduling information in ERP, planning, inventory, or production-management systems.
• Monitor schedule adherence and identify opportunities to improve production sequencing, reduce unnecessary changeovers and downtime, and improve overall scheduling efficiency.
• Ensure production schedules account for applicable food safety, GMP, sanitation, allergen-control, traceability, and quality requirements.
• Participate in audits and provide accurate scheduling and production records when requested.

Qualifications

Required:

• Prior experience in production planning, production scheduling, manufacturing coordination, inventory planning, or a closely related manufacturing role.
• Ability to create and manage production schedules involving multiple products, production lines, and competing priorities.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to make sound decisions when production conditions change.
• Ability to communicate effectively with Operations, Warehouse, Purchasing, Quality/Food Safety, and other departments.
• Ability to accurately manage detailed information, schedules, quantities, dates, and production requirements.
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced manufacturing environment where priorities can change quickly.

Preferred:

• Experience in food, bakery, frozen food, dough, or other perishable food manufacturing.
• Experience scheduling multiple production lines or shifts.
• Experience working with an ERP/MRP or production-planning system.
• Experience coordinating raw materials between separate warehouse and manufacturing locations.
• Experience supporting new product launches, R&D trials, or customer-specific production.
• Familiarity with GMPs, allergen controls, sanitation requirements, and food manufacturing practices.

Education: A high school diploma or equivalent is preferred. A bachelor's degree is not required when the candidate has demonstrated relevant production planning or scheduling experience.

Working Conditions

This is primarily an office-based position within an active food manufacturing environment. The role requires frequent interaction with production, warehouse, quality, maintenance, and operations personnel.

The position includes regular exposure to production areas, manufacturing equipment, food ingredients, temperature changes, noise, and other normal food manufacturing conditions. The employee must be comfortable working around an operating production environment and wearing required PPE.

The schedule may occasionally need to flex outside normal office hours to address production changes, material shortages, or other operational needs.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to regularly walk throughout the manufacturing facility and warehouse areas.
• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods when observing production or resolving scheduling issues.
• Ability to safely navigate production areas while complying with GMP and PPE requirements.
• Ability to occasionally lift or carry light materials, documents, or samples.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made for qualified individuals with disabilities.

Schedule: Primarily Monday–Friday; occasionally on Saturdays as dictated by business needs, as operations run Monday–Saturday.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $28.00 - $31.00 per hour

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Referral program
• Vision insurance

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Shift availability:

• Day Shift (Required)

Ability to Commute:

• De Soto, KS 66018 (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• De Soto, KS 66018: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $28 - $31