Production Planner/scheduler

**Overview**

Apetito HFS isa global leader in the supply of meal solutions for hospitals, care homes and meals on wheels agencies across Canada, Germany, the UK, France and the Nertherlands. We are also the parent company of Heart to Homes Meals (HTHM), North America’s premier private home delivery service for seniors.

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

The Production Planner/Scheduler plays a pivotal role in supporting the business to produce safe and quality products in an efficient and productive manner through intelligent and proactive production plans and schedules that consider factors such as weekly sales, inventory levels, warehouse and plant capacities, maintenance requirements, etc. Reporting to the Director of Manufacturing & Quality, the Production Planner/Scheduler works alongside Production Supervisors, the CI Team, and the Operations Excellence Technologist, as well as Warehouse, Purchasing, and Quality, managers to drive the business’ performance forward. As a key member of the operations team, the Production Planner/Scheduler ensures that the factory output is optimized, and orders fulfillment levels are achieved. Through an engaging personality, the Production Planner/Scheduler drives operational performance through the maximizing of the planned efficiency of the factory that supports our effort to produce food that we can be proud to serve our customers.

This is a role that demands business and operational acumen to assist and provide support to both on site and remote teams and key stakeholders. It also requires a high degree of emotional intelligence to be able to interact at different levels, creating synergy while encouraging and supporting key stakeholders. The Production Planner/Scheduler also engages with cross-functional team members from across the business such as Quality, Maintenance, and the Continuous Improvement team to find ways to improve the way work gets done and to drive forward important initiatives that support the business' overall strategic goals.

This is a role for someone who enjoys working with data and people, getting the best out of a process and flourishes in a fast-paced environment where they can work with a high degree of autonomy.

**RESPONSIBILITIES**:

- Prepare weekly production plans.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including production, procurement, and warehousing to ensure alignment of production plans with inventory levels and customer requirements.
- Help meet the customer demand by achieving optimum stocking levels.
- Analyze production capacity and resource availability to identify constraints and optimize production output and labour utilization.
- Develop and maintain weekly production schedules from production plans, looking to maximize the plant capacity and minimize costs.
- Coordinate with Product Development and Quality Assurance departments to include in the plans/schedule’s special requirements such as blue sheet runs and rework orders.
- Flag specific products coming on the plans/schedules for key stakeholders to take actions such as quality tests, recipes redevelopment, and production trials for product/process improvements.
- Manage changes in the schedule.
- Coordinate with and inform the different departments to mitigate material loss and operation disruptions due to changes in the schedule.
- Monitor stock levels and take action to mitigate negative impact on the inventory levels when changes in the schedule are required.
- Utilize the ERP, spreadsheets, and Power BI reports to manage production plans/schedules, monitor output and track inventory levels to ensure that targets are being met, as well as for generating reports for management review.
- Coordinate and plan, along with Maintenance, critical equipment maintenance.
- Work on development and improvement of tools for planning/scheduling.
- Work together with other departments (Operations Technology, CI, Quality, PD) for tracking, analyzing, and improving operational KPIs (labour standards, yields, quality, safety, efficiency, etc.).
- Support the Continuous Improvement team to drive operational improvements in quality, safety, and efficiency.
- Coordinate with other departments as necessary to resolve general issues and improve processes.
- Perform other related duties as required by the business.

**QUALIFICATIONS**:
**Essential**:

- Minimum 2 years’ experience in a planning and/or scheduling role in manufacturing or similar environment.
- University degree, preferable in engineering, food science or equivalent.
- Ability to thrive in a multicultural diverse workplace.
- Can multi-task in an effective manner and work in a busy atmosphere to tight deadlines.
- Excellent oral and written language skills in either English or French. Bilingual is considered an asset.
- Proven track record of managing business processes on a day-to-day basis.
- Excellent mathematical, reasoning and computer skills (MS Office), especially in Excel.
- Flexibility to work occasional overt