Production Coordinator

Position Summary

Key Responsibilities

Production Coordination

• Forecast, plan, schedule, and coordinate daily production activities to meet customer demand, production targets, and delivery timelines.
• Develop and maintain short-, medium-, and long-term rolling production forecasts based on customer demand, order trends, inventory levels, capacity, and material lead times.
• Create and proactively adjust production schedules to accommodate changes in customer priorities, demand forecasts, material availability, production capacity, and unexpected delays.
• Monitor production progress and schedule adherence, identify potential issues, and take corrective action to minimize disruptions.
• Collaborate with Supervisors, Team Leaders, and Engineers to optimize production resources, capacity, workflow, and resource allocation.
• Maintain accurate production records, job orders, work instructions, schedules, and related documentation.
• Coordinate daily production priorities with Supervisors and Team Leaders to ensure the highest-priority orders are clearly communicated and completed according to schedule.
• Review upcoming production requirements and identify capacity constraints, bottlenecks, staffing limitations, or equipment availability issues before they affect scheduled production.
• Coordinate production requirements between shifts to support effective handoffs, continuity of work, and clear communication of outstanding priorities.
• Coordinate schedule changes and production priorities resulting from machine downtime, quality issues, material shortages, staffing changes, or other unforeseen production interruptions.

Customer and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Communicate closely with Customer Care to understand customer requirements, order priorities, delivery commitments, and changes in demand.
• Coordinate with Inventory Control to monitor inventory levels, material availability, shortages, and established inventory thresholds.
• Work collaboratively with Purchasing, Procurement, Logistics, Quality Assurance, Maintenance, Engineering, and Production teams to support the timely execution of production plans.
• Provide timely updates regarding production status, material constraints, schedule changes, and potential impacts on customer deliveries.
• Act as the central point of coordination between Customer Care and Production to ensure customer priorities and delivery requirements are understood and reflected in the production schedule.
• Communicate changes to production priorities promptly and ensure affected departments understand the impact on existing schedules and commitments.
• Coordinate recovery plans for delayed or at-risk orders and provide regular updates until the issue is resolved.

Inventory and Material Planning

• Coordinate with Purchasing and Inventory Control to ensure raw materials and components are available to support production requirements.
• Monitor inventory levels and coordinate material reordering based on production forecasts, demand requirements, lead times, and established inventory thresholds.
• Support MRP and ERP planning by maintaining accurate production requirements and ensuring material availability aligns with production schedules.
• Identify and escalate material shortages, inventory risks, and supply constraints that may affect production or customer deliveries.
• Review upcoming production schedules against available raw materials, consumables, components, and finished goods inventory to identify potential shortages before production is scheduled.
• Assist in establishing and maintaining appropriate inventory levels and planning parameters based on historical usage, demand, lead times, and production requirements.

Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Prepare and present daily and weekly production reports covering production progress, schedule adherence, inventory concerns, material availability, and forecast changes.
• Analyze production and inventory information to identify potential constraints, improve planning accuracy, and support informed decision-making.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives focused on production efficiency, inventory optimization, schedule adherence, and customer service.
• Track and report key production planning metrics, including schedule adherence, on-time completion, backorder levels, production capacity, downtime impacts, and order recovery performance.
• Identify recurring scheduling, material, capacity, or communication issues and work with the appropriate departments to develop corrective actions.
• Assist Production Management in identifying opportunities to improve production flow, reduce downtime, minimize changeover impacts, and improve overall resource utilization.

Compliance, Quality and Safety

• Ensure production activities comply with company policies, quality standards, work instructions, and applicable safety requirements.
• Identify and promptly communicate production, inventory, material, forecasting, and delivery-related issues to the appropriate teams.
• Support a safe, organized, and efficient production environment through effective planning, coordination, and communication.
• Coordinate with Quality Assurance when quality issues, holds, rework, or non-conforming material affect production schedules or customer commitments.
• Ensure schedule changes resulting from quality, safety, maintenance, or engineering issues are properly communicated and reflected in the production plan.
• Escalate recurring or significant production risks to Production Management with sufficient information to support timely decision-making.

Qualifications and Experience

• Post-secondary diploma or degree in Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field is preferred.
• Minimum of two years of experience in production coordination, production planning, scheduling, inventory control, or a similar role, preferably in a manufacturing environment.
• Strong understanding of production workflows, capacity planning, inventory management, forecasting, and material requirements planning.
• Experience using ERP or MRP systems. Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 is considered an asset.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Word, and Outlook.
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and prioritization skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to coordinate effectively across departments and shifts.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, respond to changing production requirements, and maintain accuracy in a fast-paced environment.
• High attention to detail and the ability to maintain accurate records, reports, schedules, and planning data.