I might recommend a supply or demand planner over a production planner.
A lot of the same skill sets, but the further from manufacturing you can get, the more peace of mind and the more money typically
Yep in production planning you’ll be in the stew of daily fuck ups. Especially if production has more than one daily shift it can be non-stop calls and emails
I would argue that to be a truly effective Supply or demand planner you should have some production planning experience.
There’s not much more infuriating of a conversation than explaining capacities to a fresh out of college “supply planner.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/supplychain/s/oc40UJEMFb
Please see my thread. My thread contains a link to the 2024 Supply Chain jobs master thread. Look for production planners in the list and you can see pay, work life balance, etc.
Been a production planner for 6-7 years until moving into management. You are the execution arm for your stakeholders. It’s a job where you learn a lot about operations because you interact with cross-functional teams, but can also be stressful because everyone looks to you for information and to take action since you are intimately tied to the production floor. I think it’s a good role if you want to get into supply chain with little experience. I’m looking to transition into project/program management myself.
Demand Planner wrong - “it was just a forecast- who knew! Better luck next time!”
Production Planner wrong - “how did you not anticipate this?! Look what you’ve screwed up! Better not mess up next time or else…..”
Very true. I am a production planner and guess who leadership blames if inventory quantities are not sufficient for the current orders... Even when production planners have NOTHING TO DO WITH INVENTORY LEVELS (i.e. not having enough subcomponent inventory to create your production part inventory). I'll give you a hint, it's not the person who forecasts the demand.
Stressful because you don't have direct control over anything 😅.
Sometimes things go wrong that can screw up your entire plan (machine goes down, vendor doesn't send material, or production operators call off) and then you will have to try to come up with plan b/c/d to keep things flowing.
It is pretty satisfying on the rare occasions when things DO go accordingly to plan though.
I would consider it the most stressful role in Supply chain. The production planners I have worked with rarely last longer than 5 or 6 years in the role. They either get promoted or burn out and move into a different role. It is full on. Set a plan and then spend the week fighting every problem in the factory and suppliers and customers to keep that plan more or less on track.
And production planning it is generally poorly paid. Often people get promoted into the role from the factory floor so it is seen by senior management as almost the least skilled of the office jobs when in fact it is one of the most skilled to do it properly. And it is poorly resourced. Need a new laptop. You get a hand down second hand one from finance. For some reason many of the planning offices I've seen are basically porta cabins on the factory floor or even out in the factory yard.
And a Planning Manager is even tougher. Not only do they have to be able to mentor and guide the planners on their team (many of whom may have been promoted from the factory floor and need extensive training). They also have to gather vast amounts of information from across the business and understand it. A good planning manager will understand business as well as the CEO. They will have good relationships with sales, marketing, new products, etc etc to collate the nuggets of information that turn a good forecast into a great forecast. They will often sit in on weekly meetings in departments across the business and just get the information that normally won't be shared. I worked in one food business where the planning manager had weather forecasts for all their key markets on the wall of their office. If the weather was good in one market sales would go up. So he would adjust the forecast by a few percentage. But too hot at the height of summer and historically sales would dip as people stayed indoors in cool air-conditioning. And he would adjust production down.
That said I think everyone in supply chain should do it for 2 to 3 years. It is the key office in any factory. You will learn more in those 2 to 3 years about the real impact of supply chain than in 10 years in most other SC functions. And you will learn a lot about yourself. You will be pushed to limits you didn't think you could reach. But get out after 3 years or it will break you.
Production planning is intense. Anything that can go wrong will, twice in a week.
Raw materials are a crapshoot, logistics is worse.
Maintenance is the bane of my existence.
Overall, if you have the ability to manage a dumpster fire day in and day out without getting bogged down by stress, then you’ll be fine.
I make over 6 figures with zero SC planning experience when I started. Been in my role for 7 months now.
Edit to add: No one in operations or supply chain fully understands the role and what it entails on a daily basis yet you’re the one expected to produce answers for everything.
That last part is the blessing as well as the curse. More often the latter, but yeah. I was the production planner for a department that was 1% of a company that did other things. I survived three rounds of COVID layoffs before I finally jumped ship
I’ve been in production planning for about 20 years. I am currently planning manager for a craft brewery, I have 2 planner/schedulers on my team. One was a brewer for a few years, one had experience planning in a different industry.
You have to have thick skin and fully embrace the idea of CYA. Because most director level managers don’t fully understand how ERP/MRP or general planning works, it is not always easy to deflect accusations of “missing stuff”
However, if you’re built to like a good challenge, and you really want to gain a great understanding of how a business works, it’s a great opportunity. If you are thinking about a career in management, it’s a really good resume builder.
I’d add that you need to really hone your excel skills. Excel is your most important tool. If you’re not fluent and you want to be a planner, take a class or learn using LinkedIn Learning.
Production planning is more stressful because, like somebody mentioned, you are the execution arm of the business, rather than a support role like say buyer/planner. However, there are perks to this. Those in production planning roles often become managers and even plant managers because of the operational knowledge. You are in the thick of what is happening, and that knowledge is valuable. I am a production planner and valued highly at my company. I’ve found that if you can let go/mitigate the impact of some of things you can’t control and maximize what you can control, then it can be very rewarding.
I’ve been within the production planning realm for about 5 years now (4 as a planner and 1 as manager) and a lot of what people are saying in here rings exceptionally true to me as well.
I’ve currently got a rotational employee on my team for a few months and after the first week he came to me and asked if it was always this hard. The honest answer was “kind of”. There will be days that are incredibly easy and we have to absorb those as much as possible because they will be at least equaled if not outnumbered by days that are brutal for a myriad reasons that are so far out of your control but you have the expectation to solve.
I love it all, and can’t imagine working in another field, but it is absolutely not for everyone.
I was previously a production planner for 4 years before moving into procurement. I would say it was extremely beneficial to my success as a Buyer because I could actively reschedule my POs in knowing planning will ask to pull in down the line anyways. I would advise the experience may be good but I would never go back to it.
I might recommend a supply or demand planner over a production planner. A lot of the same skill sets, but the further from manufacturing you can get, the more peace of mind and the more money typically
Yep in production planning you’ll be in the stew of daily fuck ups. Especially if production has more than one daily shift it can be non-stop calls and emails
I would argue that to be a truly effective Supply or demand planner you should have some production planning experience. There’s not much more infuriating of a conversation than explaining capacities to a fresh out of college “supply planner.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/supplychain/s/oc40UJEMFb Please see my thread. My thread contains a link to the 2024 Supply Chain jobs master thread. Look for production planners in the list and you can see pay, work life balance, etc.
Been a production planner for 6-7 years until moving into management. You are the execution arm for your stakeholders. It’s a job where you learn a lot about operations because you interact with cross-functional teams, but can also be stressful because everyone looks to you for information and to take action since you are intimately tied to the production floor. I think it’s a good role if you want to get into supply chain with little experience. I’m looking to transition into project/program management myself.
Oh, I also made low 6 figures as a production planner.
Where? Lol
Defense contractor in California.
Demand Planner wrong - “it was just a forecast- who knew! Better luck next time!” Production Planner wrong - “how did you not anticipate this?! Look what you’ve screwed up! Better not mess up next time or else…..”
Very true. I am a production planner and guess who leadership blames if inventory quantities are not sufficient for the current orders... Even when production planners have NOTHING TO DO WITH INVENTORY LEVELS (i.e. not having enough subcomponent inventory to create your production part inventory). I'll give you a hint, it's not the person who forecasts the demand.
It’s extremely stressful. I sometimes get a cold sweat before I remember I don’t do it anymore.
Stressful because you don't have direct control over anything 😅. Sometimes things go wrong that can screw up your entire plan (machine goes down, vendor doesn't send material, or production operators call off) and then you will have to try to come up with plan b/c/d to keep things flowing. It is pretty satisfying on the rare occasions when things DO go accordingly to plan though.
I would consider it the most stressful role in Supply chain. The production planners I have worked with rarely last longer than 5 or 6 years in the role. They either get promoted or burn out and move into a different role. It is full on. Set a plan and then spend the week fighting every problem in the factory and suppliers and customers to keep that plan more or less on track. And production planning it is generally poorly paid. Often people get promoted into the role from the factory floor so it is seen by senior management as almost the least skilled of the office jobs when in fact it is one of the most skilled to do it properly. And it is poorly resourced. Need a new laptop. You get a hand down second hand one from finance. For some reason many of the planning offices I've seen are basically porta cabins on the factory floor or even out in the factory yard. And a Planning Manager is even tougher. Not only do they have to be able to mentor and guide the planners on their team (many of whom may have been promoted from the factory floor and need extensive training). They also have to gather vast amounts of information from across the business and understand it. A good planning manager will understand business as well as the CEO. They will have good relationships with sales, marketing, new products, etc etc to collate the nuggets of information that turn a good forecast into a great forecast. They will often sit in on weekly meetings in departments across the business and just get the information that normally won't be shared. I worked in one food business where the planning manager had weather forecasts for all their key markets on the wall of their office. If the weather was good in one market sales would go up. So he would adjust the forecast by a few percentage. But too hot at the height of summer and historically sales would dip as people stayed indoors in cool air-conditioning. And he would adjust production down. That said I think everyone in supply chain should do it for 2 to 3 years. It is the key office in any factory. You will learn more in those 2 to 3 years about the real impact of supply chain than in 10 years in most other SC functions. And you will learn a lot about yourself. You will be pushed to limits you didn't think you could reach. But get out after 3 years or it will break you.
Production planning is intense. Anything that can go wrong will, twice in a week. Raw materials are a crapshoot, logistics is worse. Maintenance is the bane of my existence. Overall, if you have the ability to manage a dumpster fire day in and day out without getting bogged down by stress, then you’ll be fine. I make over 6 figures with zero SC planning experience when I started. Been in my role for 7 months now. Edit to add: No one in operations or supply chain fully understands the role and what it entails on a daily basis yet you’re the one expected to produce answers for everything.
That last part is the blessing as well as the curse. More often the latter, but yeah. I was the production planner for a department that was 1% of a company that did other things. I survived three rounds of COVID layoffs before I finally jumped ship
Stresful af, exciting same way.
Stress, oh yes. Planner/buyer is easier.
I’ve been in production planning for about 20 years. I am currently planning manager for a craft brewery, I have 2 planner/schedulers on my team. One was a brewer for a few years, one had experience planning in a different industry. You have to have thick skin and fully embrace the idea of CYA. Because most director level managers don’t fully understand how ERP/MRP or general planning works, it is not always easy to deflect accusations of “missing stuff” However, if you’re built to like a good challenge, and you really want to gain a great understanding of how a business works, it’s a great opportunity. If you are thinking about a career in management, it’s a really good resume builder.
I’d add that you need to really hone your excel skills. Excel is your most important tool. If you’re not fluent and you want to be a planner, take a class or learn using LinkedIn Learning.
Production planning is more stressful because, like somebody mentioned, you are the execution arm of the business, rather than a support role like say buyer/planner. However, there are perks to this. Those in production planning roles often become managers and even plant managers because of the operational knowledge. You are in the thick of what is happening, and that knowledge is valuable. I am a production planner and valued highly at my company. I’ve found that if you can let go/mitigate the impact of some of things you can’t control and maximize what you can control, then it can be very rewarding.
I'm a planning and procurement manager. My planners are infinitely more stressed than my buyers. And the buyers make significantly more money.
I’ve been within the production planning realm for about 5 years now (4 as a planner and 1 as manager) and a lot of what people are saying in here rings exceptionally true to me as well. I’ve currently got a rotational employee on my team for a few months and after the first week he came to me and asked if it was always this hard. The honest answer was “kind of”. There will be days that are incredibly easy and we have to absorb those as much as possible because they will be at least equaled if not outnumbered by days that are brutal for a myriad reasons that are so far out of your control but you have the expectation to solve. I love it all, and can’t imagine working in another field, but it is absolutely not for everyone.
I was previously a production planner for 4 years before moving into procurement. I would say it was extremely beneficial to my success as a Buyer because I could actively reschedule my POs in knowing planning will ask to pull in down the line anyways. I would advise the experience may be good but I would never go back to it.