Production Scheduling Lead

Description

Thread-Craft is looking for an experienced Production Scheduling Lead to take ownership of production scheduling across our manufacturing operation.

This is more than maintaining a schedule. You will be responsible for developing a structured, visible, and effective production scheduling process that helps our team understand priorities, identify constraints, communicate risks, and ultimately improve our ability to deliver products to customers on time.

You will work across Operations, Sales, Engineering, Purchasing, Quality, and Leadership to understand what needs to be produced, what resources are available, what may prevent production from moving forward, and what needs to happen to keep customer commitments on track.

We are looking for someone who is willing to learn, willing to put in the work, adapts well to technology and changing priorities, and has the initiative to identify problems and drive them toward resolution.

Requirements

What you will do

• Own and maintain the production schedule for the manufacturing facility. 
• Develop and maintain a structured, visible scheduling system that clearly communicates production priorities. 
• Establish daily and weekly production priorities while maintaining rough-cut production plans several months into the future. 
• Schedule production based on customer requirements, capacity, material availability, machine availability, labor, tooling, outside processing, and other manufacturing constraints. 
• Monitor production progress against the schedule and adjust priorities when conditions change. 
• Maintain visibility of late orders and orders at risk of becoming late. 
• Identify capacity constraints, bottlenecks, and potential delivery risks before they impact customers. 
• Communicate schedule changes clearly and quickly to the people affected. 
• Work closely with supervisors and shop-floor employees to ensure the production schedule reflects actual operating conditions.
• Coordinate with Sales when customer priorities or delivery requirements change. 
• Work with Engineering, Quality, Purchasing, Operations, and other departments to resolve issues preventing production from moving forward. 
• Manage expedited work and changing priorities while minimizing unnecessary disruption to production. 
• Provide leadership with clear visibility into production status, upcoming workload, constraints, and delivery risks. 
• Help improve the accuracy of production routings, standard times, capacity information, and other scheduling data. 
• Develop and improve production reports, dashboards, production boards, and other visual management tools. 
• Continuously evaluate the production scheduling process and identify opportunities for improvement.

What you will accomplish

Your work will directly impact how effectively the manufacturing operation executes its production plan and meets customer commitments.

You will accomplish this by

• Creating clear daily and weekly production priorities. 
• Making sure supervisors and operators understand what needs to run next. 
• Improving visibility of late and at-risk customer orders. 
• Identifying capacity constraints and bottlenecks before they become delivery problems. 
• Improving communication between Operations and supporting departments. 
• Establishing a scheduling process that is organized, visible, and easy for the organization to understand. 
• Improving the accuracy and reliability of production scheduling information. 
• Helping the organization respond effectively when priorities, materials, capacity, or customer requirements change. 
• Creating better visibility for leadership into production performance and potential delivery risks.

You will achieve this by

Success in this position will be measured by operational results. Two of the primary measures of success will be On-Time Delivery and Days Late.

You will achieve this by taking ownership of the production schedule, understanding the current state of the operation, identifying opportunities for improvement, and working with the team to implement meaningful changes.

Key performance measures include:

• On-Time Delivery 
• Average Days Late 
• Past-Due Backlog 
• Visibility and communication of production priorities 
• Identification and escalation of delivery risks 
• Schedule stability and effectiveness

The expectation is not that you accomplish these results alone. You will work closely with Operations and supporting departments, but you will be responsible for leading the scheduling process and driving accountability around the production plan.

Communication & Leadership

This position works across nearly every function of the company, making strong communication and relationship-building skills essential.

You will work with machine operators, supervisors, engineers, sales, purchasing, quality, and senior leadership. The ability to communicate clearly with different audiences and build credibility throughout the organization will be critical to your success.

You will

• Create clear priorities rather than confusion. 
• Communicate problems early instead of waiting until delivery dates are missed. 
• Build productive working relationships with supervisors and operators. 
• Listen to feedback from the shop floor and incorporate actual operating conditions into the schedule. 
• Professionally challenge unrealistic expectations when capacity does not support them. 
• Bring departments together when cross-functional action is required. 
• Follow problems through resolution rather than simply identifying them. 
• Take ownership of results while working collaboratively with the team.

We are looking for someone who can lead through communication, organization, credibility, initiative, and follow-through.

what we are looking for

• 3+ years of experience in production scheduling, production planning, production control, manufacturing scheduling, or a related manufacturing role. 
• Experience working in a manufacturing environment. 
• Strong understanding of production scheduling, manufacturing routings, work centers, setup times, run times, capacity, and production constraints. 
• Experience using ERP or MRP systems to manage production. 
• Strong Microsoft Excel and analytical skills. 
• Ability to analyze production requirements and convert them into clear production priorities. 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. 
• Ability to manage changing priorities while maintaining control of the overall production plan. 
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of problems and drive them through resolution. 
• Ability to work effectively with both shop-floor employees and company leadership. 
• Willingness to learn new processes, systems, technologies, and manufacturing requirements. 
• Strong initiative and a willingness to put in the work necessary to improve processes and results. 
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and evolving technology.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in a high-mix, low-volume manufacturing or job-shop environment. 
• Experience scheduling CNC machining, grinding, turning, milling, or other precision manufacturing operations. 
• Experience developing or improving a production scheduling system. 
• Experience with capacity planning or finite-capacity scheduling. 
• Experience with NetSuite or a similar manufacturing ERP/MRP system. 
• Experience with outside processing and multi-operation manufacturing routings. 
• Experience developing scheduling dashboards, capacity planning tools, production boards, or visual production management systems. 
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Business, or a related field. 
• Equivalent manufacturing experience will be considered.

What Success looks like 

The goal of this position is straightforward: create a production scheduling process that helps the entire facility execute better and improves delivery performance for our customers.

You will know you are making an impact when:

• Everyone understands the current production priorities. 
• Supervisors and operators know what needs to run next. 
• Late and at-risk orders are clearly visible. 
• Capacity constraints and production bottlenecks are identified early. 
• Schedule changes are communicated effectively. 
• Departments work together to resolve constraints. 
• Leadership has clear visibility into production status and delivery risks. 
• Average Days Late decreases. 
• On-Time Delivery improves. 
• The production schedule becomes a reliable tool for managing the operation.

Why Thread-Craft

This is an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on how a manufacturing operation is managed. We have flexibility to improve our current processes and are looking for someone who can bring experience, ideas, discipline, initiative, and leadership to the role.

You will have the opportunity to build upon what is already in place, introduce better ways of working, and help create a production scheduling process that provides value throughout the organization.

If you are an experienced Production Scheduler, Production Planner, Production Control Specialist, Master Scheduler, Manufacturing Scheduler, or Supply Chain professional who enjoys solving problems, working with manufacturing teams, improving processes, and taking ownership of results, we want to hear from you.