Job Description We are looking for a proactive and meticulous Production Control Planner to join our dynamic team. This role is the critical link between our customers' needs and our production capabilities, ensuring we deliver on our promises of quality and timeliness. As our Production Control Planner, you serve as the central hub for our custom-engineered hydraulic systems, driving each unique project from order confirmation to successful delivery. You will take ownership of the entire production lifecycle, ensuring seamless coordination between Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing, and the customer to deliver high-quality, bespoke solutions on time and on budget. In this role, you will: Be the Master of the Schedule: Develop, manage, and adapt production schedules to meet customer deadlines, balance workloads, and optimise our use of resources. Act as the Central Hub giving Proactive Communication: You anticipate information needs and communicate clearly liaising directly with Sales, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Logistics teams to align on priorities, troubleshoot issues, and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. Planning & Organising: Ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously without losing track of details. Proactively Solve Problems: Identify potential material shortages or production delays before they become critical issues, using data and collaboration to find swift, effective solutions. You don't just identify problems; you develop and drive solutions. Drive On-Time Delivery: Convert sales orders into production orders, release them to the workshop, and monitor their progress, providing timely updates to both internal teams and external customers. Leverage Data for Insight: Use SAP and Business Warehouse to run reports on lead times, forward load, and shortages, transforming raw data into actionable insights that improve our performance. Champion Continuous Improvement: Actively contribute to projects and share ideas that enhance our planning processes, reduce costs, and elevate the service we provide to our customers. Influencing Others: Skill in gaining cooperation from others to meet a shared project goal. Customer Focus: A relentless drive to deliver a superior customer experience. Core Responsibilities & Impact Areas: 1. Project Initiation & Technical Planning: Act as the primary manufacturing stakeholder in project kick-off meetings, collaborating with Sales and Engineering to define project scope, technical requirements, and critical path milestones. Translate complex engineering bills of materials (BOMs) into a dynamic production plan. Proactively run lead-time analyses against new orders to validate timelines or immediately flag potential constraints. Secure and "fix" engineering order dates in our system (e.g., SAP), creating a firm schedule for production commencement. 2. Dynamic Production & Schedule Management: Own and manage the master production schedule, converting planned orders into actionable work orders for the assembly and fabrication teams. Lead weekly forward-load and production status meetings, clearly communicating priorities, bottlenecks, and recovery plans to all stakeholders. Proactively re-sequence and re-schedule production in response to engineering changes, supply chain disruptions, or evolving customer needs, ensuring all parties are updated on timeline and cost impacts. Champion the "shortage report," not just reporting on it, but actively expediting critical components with Procurement and suppliers to protect the production schedule. 3. Customer & Commercial Engagement: Serve as the key point of contact for customers regarding production status. Provide transparent, regular updates on progress, delays, and solutions, managing expectations and building trust. Coordinate directly with customers for shipment and delivery logistics, ensuring a smooth final handover. Partner with the finance department to monitor project payment milestones, ensuring customer credit continuity to prevent avoidable production holds. Investigate and process customer returns, managing the RMA process efficiently to resolve issues and process credits. 4. Data-Driven Process Improvement: Develop and maintain critical performance dashboards (e.g., On-Time Delivery, Production Variance, Overdue Orders, Lead Time Analysis) to drive continuous improvement within the ETO process. Analyse completed projects to identify opportunities for cost reduction, lead time compression, and quality enhancement on future orders. Technically close out all production orders, ensuring 100% cost and material accuracy to provide reliable data for future quoting and analysis. 5. Cross-Functional Leadership & Collaboration: Foster a highly collaborative environment, ensuring a rapid, two-way flow of information between Engineering, Manufacturing, and Logistics. Influence colleagues and stakeholders to align on project priorities and drive a collective sense of urgency and ownership. Actively contribute ideas for refining our ETO workflow, tools, and communication practices.