Production Scheduler in Manteno, Illinois at Urban Farmer LLC

Overview:

As a Production Scheduler at Urban Farmer, you will play a key role in supporting daily production execution by creating, maintaining, and communicating accurate production schedules. This position helps ensure customer orders, sales forecasts, inventory availability, staffing, equipment capacity, and operational needs are aligned so production can run efficiently and on time. The Production Scheduler partners closely with production, planning, procurement, quality, warehouse, logistics, and customer service to support schedule adherence, reduce downtime, minimize changeovers, and help meet customer expectations in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Production Scheduling:

o Create, maintain, and communicate daily and weekly production schedules based on customer orders, forecasts, inventory levels, production capacity, labor availability, and operational priorities.

o Sequence production runs to support efficiency, minimize downtime and changeovers, and ensure materials and resources are available before production begins.

o Monitor schedule progress throughout the day and make timely adjustments due to production delays, material shortages, equipment downtime, staffing changes, or customer demand changes.

2. Schedule Coordination and Execution:

o Partner with production leadership to confirm schedule feasibility and ensure the schedule is clearly communicated to supervisors, leads, warehouse, quality, sanitation, and other supporting departments.

o Support start-up readiness by confirming ingredients, packaging, work orders, labels, inventory, and required documentation are available for scheduled production runs.

o Escalate scheduling risks, shortages, or conflicts quickly to the appropriate leaders to help reduce delays and service disruptions.

3. Inventory and Material Availability:

o Review raw material, packaging, WIP, and finished goods availability to support production schedule execution.

o Coordinate with procurement, warehouse, and inventory teams to identify potential material constraints and support timely replenishment or substitutions when needed.

o Help reduce excess inventory, shortages, rework, and expiration risk through effective schedule alignment and communication.

4. Collaboration and Communication:

o Work closely with cross-functional teams including production, quality assurance, sanitation, procurement, warehouse, logistics, customer service, and sales to support production goals and customer requirements.

o Maintain clear and timely communication regarding schedule updates, priority changes, capacity concerns, and production constraints.

o Participate in daily production, planning, and operational meetings to review schedule status, constraints, and next steps.

5. Data Accuracy, Reporting, and Systems:

o Maintain accurate production scheduling data in ERP systems, planning tools, spreadsheets, and other internal systems.

o Review production performance, schedule attainment, downtime, changeovers, inventory availability, and service-related data to identify trends and improvement opportunities.

o Prepare and share scheduling reports or updates as needed to support leadership decision-making and cross-functional alignment.

6. Continuous Improvement:

o Identify opportunities to improve schedule accuracy, production flow, communication, material readiness, and overall operational efficiency.

o Support process improvements related to scheduling, planning, production reporting, inventory control, and cross-functional handoffs.

o Partner with leadership and Continuous Improvement resources to support lean manufacturing practices and reduce waste where applicable.

7. Compliance and Safety:

o Support compliance with food safety, quality, GMP, SQF, USDA, FDA, and company requirements throughout the scheduling and production process.

o Follow company safety policies and contribute to a safe working environment for all employees.

o Ensure scheduling activities support proper sanitation windows, allergen controls, product changeovers, and other food safety requirements.

Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, Food Science, or a related field preferred. Equivalent experience may be considered.

• Experience: Minimum of 2-3 years of experience in production scheduling, production planning, materials coordination, or a related role within manufacturing; food manufacturing experience strongly preferred.

• Technical Skills: Experience using ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Aptean, Business Central, or similar systems. Strong Excel skills required, including the ability to maintain schedules, analyze data, and create reports.

• Core Competencies: Strong attention to detail, organization, communication, follow-up, problem-solving, sense of urgency, and ability to adjust priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Physical Demands:

• Ability to stand or sit for extended periods while performing work duties.

• Ability to occasionally walk the production floor, warehouse, freezer/cooler areas, and manufacturing spaces as business needs require.

• Ability to lift and carry materials, documents, or equipment, typically up to 25 pounds.

• Dexterity to operate computers, office equipment, radios, tablets, and other job-related tools.

• May require bending, stooping, or kneeling while reviewing materials, labels, inventory, or production-related items.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

This position works in an office and manufacturing environment with variable temperatures, including exposure to production areas, warehouse areas, coolers, freezers, and loud noises from machinery and equipment alarms. The incumbent may be exposed to food manufacturing processes, forklifts, production traffic, and changing priorities throughout the workday. Personal protective equipment may be required when entering production or warehouse areas.