Planning Analyst

Planning Analyst I

Location: Chesterton, IN – On-site

Compensation: $60,000-$70,000

Our client is an established manufacturer of emergency response equipment, focused on continuous improvement and on building products that first responders depend on.

They're looking for a Planning Analyst I to support manufacturing operations. This person makes sure materials and resources are in place on time so production keeps moving and customer orders ship on schedule.

This role suits someone who likes working with data, coordinating across teams and solving problems, and wants to see their decisions affect production directly. The company values people who are goal-driven, have integrity and follow through.

What You'll Do

- Review, create, firm and release job orders across assembly, machining and finishing departments

- Review the daily shortage report to spot parts needed for upcoming orders, and work with managers to reprioritize schedules as needed

- Work with order entry to set ship dates on rush or non-standard orders by reviewing bills of materials, long lead-time items, on-hand inventory and available capacity

- Support supply chain with material constraint reviews and purchase orders to meet customer demand

- Work with sales, supply chain and production managers on expedites and schedule changes

- Run weekly and monthly Kanban audits, replace missing cards and retrain team members on the Kanban process

- Help set reorder points, safety stock, fulfillment quantities and other planning parameters to optimize inventory of manufactured parts

- Support the implementation of Epicor Fulfillment and Material Flow

- Find ways to improve inventory flow and efficiency

- Other related duties as assigned

What We're Looking For

- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Business or a related field, or an Associate's degree with relevant experience

- 1–2 years of production control, planning or scheduling experience preferred, not required

- Ability to query and analyze large sets of inventory, sales and operational data to forecast material needs

- Intermediate to advanced Excel (VLOOKUP, PivotTables, Power Query, etc.)

- Experience with Power BI, Tableau or similar tools preferred

- Knowledge of Lean concepts such as Kanban and Heijunka is a plus

- Detail-oriented, organized, responsive and flexible

- Self-motivated, with strong time management and a bias for action

- Builds good working relationships and handles conflict constructively

- Clear written and verbal communication with people at all levels