CNC Production Scheduler in Elk Grove Village, Illinois at ACME Careers

About ACME Industries MFG, Inc.

ACME Industries MFG, Inc. is a 75+ year precision CNC contract manufacturer headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. We operate two production facilities — Pratt Boulevard and Chase Avenue — machining large, complex castings and forgings for customers in aerospace, defense, power generation, rail, and industrial markets.

ACME's production environment is low-volume and high-mix: many jobs run 4 to 20+ hours per operation, across turning, milling, boring, and finishing work centers. Parts don't move quickly — they move carefully, with coordination across machinists, setups, outside processing, inspection, and delivery commitments that have zero tolerance for slip.

Why This Role Exists Now

ACME is scaling aggressively. Production is growing year over year, new machine tools are coming online, and a third production facility is on the horizon. The workforce is expanding across both sites, and the Finishing / handwork function is being elevated as a fully integrated work center within the production system.

The VP of Operations directly oversees production at both facilities, supported by production managers across Pratt and Chase. This scheduling role is a dedicated coordination resource for the VP of Operations and all production managers — providing the scheduling backbone that lets each of them focus on execution rather than logistics.

Position Summary

The Production Scheduler is ACME's day-to-day coordination hub for manufacturing execution across both facilities. This role owns the master production schedule — maintaining it, communicating it, and adjusting it in real time as customer priorities, machine availability, and workforce capacity shift.

This is not a desk-only role. The Production Scheduler must understand how machining work flows through the shop — from raw material delivery through CNC machining, outside processing, inspection, and Finishing — so that scheduling decisions are grounded in production reality, not spreadsheet logic. The role requires presence on the floor, strong relationships with production managers across both sites, and the ability to communicate priorities clearly to machinists, supervisors, and customers alike.

Key Responsibilities

Production Schedule Management

• Master Schedule Ownership: Develop, maintain, and publish the master production schedule across Pratt and Chase, aligned to customer delivery requirements and machine capacity.
• M2M / ERP Scheduling: Manage job scheduling and work order sequencing in M2M (Made2Manage) ERP; ensure schedule data is current, accurate, and actionable for all production managers.
• Real-Time Adjustments: Monitor daily production progress; adjust schedules proactively when machine downtime, tooling failures, material delays, or workforce gaps threaten delivery commitments.
• Constraint Asset Prioritization: Identify and track bottleneck work centers across both facilities; flag capacity conflicts to the VP of Operations 48+ hours ahead so adjustments can be made before jobs slip.
• Outside Process Coordination: Coordinate timing of outside processing operations (heat treat, plating, coating, inspection) to keep jobs flowing without delay between internal operations.

Cross-Facility Coordination

• Two-Facility Bridge: Serve as the scheduling link between Pratt and Chase — coordinate job transfers, sequencing decisions, and capacity sharing between facilities.
• Daily Production Huddles: Participate in daily production meetings with production managers at both facilities; provide schedule updates, flag conflicts, and document decisions.
• Customer Order Expediting: Track hot orders and expedited customer requests through the full production cycle; communicate status to Sales / Value Stream and flag risks before they become misses.

Finishing / Handwork Scheduling

• Finishing Work Center Integration: Build Finishing and handwork operations into the production schedule as a coordinated work center; support labor loading and queue management with the Finishing Lead.
• Cohort Scheduling Support: Work with Finishing Lead and Workforce Development to schedule training cohort labor against production demand — balancing skill-building objectives with live production commitments.

Reporting and Communication

• Support Accurate Labor Reporting: Help supervisors identify and correct inaccurate labor punches entered by production employees into M2M.
• On-Time Delivery Metrics: Support supervisors in tracking and reporting on-time delivery performance; identify scheduling-driven root causes of late deliveries and drive corrective actions.
• Capacity Reporting: Provide the VP of Operations with a consolidated view of capacity, loading, and delivery risk across both facilities on a weekly basis.
• Customer-Facing Coordination: Support the Value Stream team with delivery status, lead time estimates, and production sequence information for customer inquiries.
• AS9100 Documentation: Maintain scheduling records and job traceability documentation consistent with AS9100:D quality management system requirements.

Qualifications

Required

• 3–5+ years of experience in production scheduling, production planning, or materials control in a manufacturing environment
• Hands-on ERP/MRP scheduling experience — M2M (Made2Manage) experience a significant plus; equivalent systems (Epicor, JobBOSS, ProShop, Infor, etc.) considered
• Demonstrated ability to manage and adjust production schedules in a high-mix, low-volume environment with varying job priorities
• Strong analytical skills: ability to anticipate capacity conflicts, model schedule scenarios, and communicate trade-offs clearly
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for schedule tracking, capacity modeling, and reporting
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills — must be able to work comfortably with shop floor production managers, machinists, and customer-facing teams
• Ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities, and make clear decisions when customer commitments are at risk

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in a CNC job shop or contract manufacturing environment (aerospace, defense, precision industrial)
• APICS CPIM certification or active pursuit
• Familiarity with AS9100 or ISO quality system documentation requirements in a manufacturing context
• Experience coordinating outside processing suppliers (heat treat, plating, inspection labs) as part of the production scheduling cycle
• Background in or exposure to finishing / secondary operations scheduling
• Knowledge of machining operations — turning, milling, boring — sufficient to understand realistic cycle times and setup dependencies
• Bilingual (English/Polish or English/Ukrainian) — ACME's shop floor workforce communicates across multiple languages; bilingual scheduling coordination enhances execution quality

Character Traits ACME Hires For

• Floor-present — scheduling decisions made from the shop floor, not from a desk
• Persistent — follows jobs through every handoff and doesn't lose track of commitments
• Communicative — proactively surfaces problems before they become customer issues
• Organized — manages dozens of simultaneous jobs without letting details fall
• Collaborative — works with production managers as a partner, not a dispatcher

Success Milestones and Growth Trajectory

ACME’s production capacity and workforce are growing rapidly. This role has a clear path toward expanded scope as both facilities scale and new production leadership seats develop.

Schedule Accuracy

0–90 Days: Inherit current M2M schedule; audit open jobs for accuracy; shadow VP of Operations and production managers on daily walk

3–12 Months: Achieve =95% on-time delivery rate across both facilities; establish daily schedule review cadence with facility production managers

Year 2+: Drive continuous improvement on scheduling precision; lead cross-facility capacity planning for new machine tool additions

Constraint Asset Coverage

0–90 Days: Map the constraint work centers at Pratt and Chase; understand second-shift coverage gaps

3–12 Months: Flag constraint bottlenecks 48+ hrs ahead; partner with VP of Operations to adjust labor and machine loading proactively

Year 2+: Model capacity scenarios for production ramp across key programs

Cross-Facility Coordination

0–90 Days: Learn work distribution logic between Pratt and Chase; attend production manager daily huddles at both sites

3–12 Months: Serve as scheduling bridge between facilities — coordinate job transfers, outside process timing, and delivery conflicts

Year 2+: Own consolidated two-facility scheduling dashboard used by VP of Operations, production managers, and Finishing Lead

Finishing / Handwork Integration

0–90 Days: Understand Finishing operations workflow; learn cycle times for handwork operations tied to machined parts

3–12 Months: Integrate Finishing into the production schedule as a fully coordinated work center; reduce handwork bottlenecks delaying delivery

Year 2+: Coordinate scheduling across the full production-to-finish flow; support Finishing Lead in workforce and queue planning