Career profile Production Planner

Table of Contents

• What does a Production Planner do?
• What is a typical salary for a Production Planner?
• What personality traits are common among Production Planners?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Production Planners need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Production Planner do?

Production Planners analyze and coordinate the ongoing logistical functions of a firm or organization.

In addition, Production Planners responsible for the entire life cycle of a product, including acquisition, distribution, internal allocation, delivery, and final disposal of resources.

What kind of tasks does a Production Planner perform regularly?

Production Planners are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Maintain and develop positive business relationships with a customer's key personnel involved in, or directly relevant to, a logistics activity.
• Develop an understanding of customers' needs and take actions to ensure that such needs are met.
• Manage subcontractor activities, reviewing proposals, developing performance specifications, and serving as liaisons between subcontractors and organizations.
• Develop proposals that include documentation for estimates.
• Review logistics performance with customers against targets, benchmarks, and service agreements.
• Direct availability and allocation of materials, supplies, and finished products.
• Redesign the movement of goods to maximize value and minimize costs.
• Explain proposed solutions to customers, management, or other interested parties through written proposals and oral presentations.
• Direct team activities, establishing task priorities, scheduling and tracking work assignments, providing guidance, and ensuring the availability of resources.
• Perform managerial duties such as hiring and training employees and overseeing facility needs or requirements.
• Collaborate with other departments as necessary to meet customer requirements, to take advantage of sales opportunities or, in the case of shortages, to minimize negative impacts on a business.
• Report project plans, progress, and results.
• Protect and control proprietary materials.
• Stay informed of logistics technology advances and apply appropriate technology to improve logistics processes.
• Develop and implement technical project management tools, such as plans, schedules, and responsibility and compliance matrices.
• Provide project management services, including the provision and analysis of technical data.
• Manage the logistical aspects of product life cycles, including coordination or provisioning of samples, and the minimization of obsolescence.
• Perform system lifecycle cost analysis and develop component studies.
• Plan, organize, and execute logistics support activities, such as maintenance planning, repair analysis, and test equipment recommendations.
• Participate in the assessment and review of design alternatives and design change proposal impacts.
• Direct and support the compilation and analysis of technical source data necessary for product development.
• Support the development of training materials and technical manuals.

The above responsibilities are specific to Production Planners. More generally, Production Planners are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Production Planner salary?

What personality traits are common among Production Planners?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Production Planner are usually higher in their Enterprising and Conventional interests.

Production Planners typically have very strong Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Also, Production Planners typically have strong Conventional interests. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Production Planner tend to value Independence, Achievement, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Production Planners strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Second, Production Planners strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Production Planners strongly value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Production Planners must consistently demonstrate qualities such as integrity, dependability, and attention to detail.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Production Planners, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Production Planners need?

Many Production Planners will have a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Production Planners usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Educational degrees among Production Planners

• 2.3% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 17.0% completed high school or secondary school
• 23.9% completed some college coursework
• 13.3% earned a Associate's degree
• 32.1% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 10.4% earned a Master's degree
• 1.0% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Production Planners

Important Abilities needed by Production Planners

Production Planners must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Production Planners need abilities such as oral comprehension, written comprehension, and oral expression in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Production Planners, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Production Planners

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Production Planners frequently use skills like critical thinking, reading comprehension, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Production Planners, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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