Production Planner & Inventory Control

About the Role

Forza is a growing industrial manufacturer of adhesives, sealants, and tapes operating out of Council Bluffs, IA. We’re on an aggressive growth path — and the production engine behind that growth needs a sharp, process-oriented planner to own it.

This is a high-ownership role. You’ll build and manage the master production schedule, own the full work order lifecycle in our ERP (NetSuite), and drive measurable improvement in raw material inventory accuracy and usage variance. If you’re the kind of person who gets frustrated when root causes go uninvestigated or when “that’s just how it is” passes for an answer — you’ll fit in here.

What You’ll Own

• Develop and manage the master production schedule based on sales orders, demand forecasts, inventory, and capacity
• Sequence and prioritize production to optimize on-time delivery, throughput, and labor/equipment utilization
• Own the work order lifecycle in NetSuite — creation, release, maintenance, and close-out
• Create, maintain, and audit Bills of Materials (BOMs) for accuracy, cost capture, and formulation alignment
• Partner with Quality Control to ensure work order instructions align with released specs
• Support raw material inventory control through structured cycle count programs
• Investigate and resolve inventory discrepancies tied to production usage, BOM accuracy, and system transactions
• Own material usage variance tracking — planned vs. actual usage, theoretical vs. actual batch yields
• Prepare and maintain reporting on batch losses, scrap, cycle count adjustments, and inventory write-downs
• Lead root cause investigations and partner with Production, Quality, and Purchasing to implement corrective actions
• Cross-train within Purchasing to provide backup support during absences and peak periods

What We’re Looking For

• Experience in production planning, scheduling, or inventory control in a manufacturing environment
• Hands-on ERP experience — NetSuite strongly preferred; other manufacturing ERP considered
• Solid understanding of BOMs, work orders, and MRP logic
• Analytical mindset — comfortable digging into variance data to find the “why,” not just reporting the “what”
• Strong communicator who can coordinate across Production, Quality, and Purchasing without friction
• High attention to detail with a process-improvement orientation

What Success Looks Like

• Production schedules are reliable, visible, and consistently executed
• Work orders are accurate and require minimal rework
• Raw material inventory accuracy improves quarter over quarter
• Material usage variances and inventory adjustments are measurably reduced
• Root causes of losses are identified and addressed — not just reported

Why Forza

• We’re a manufacturer on a real growth trajectory — decisions here actually matter
• High ownership from day one — this isn’t a support role, it’s a seat at the operations table
• Small enough that your work is visible; big enough to have real process complexity
• Leadership team that’s invested in building the right systems, not just pushing through orders