Material Planner/Coordinator

At Eagle Foods we are builders.  We are builders of brands, categories, and people.  Eagle Foods enjoys a rich heritage with brands that have proven category leadership for more than 150 years.  Eagle is a diversified food company producing and marketing sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, snacks and convenient meal solutions products.  As a company, Eagle Foods is passionate about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that boldly builds better people and better brands while focusing on the positive impact our company, our products and our people have on the world.  Eagle Foods has a bold family of brands that consumers have come to rely on for decades, including Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia® Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET® Milk, Popcorn Indiana, Cretors Popcorn, Helper and Suddenly Salad.  Eagle Foods products are marketed and distributed across all U.S. retail channels, including grocery stores, club stores and mass-merchandisers, as well as foodservice and export, U.S. military, and private label business.

Job Description Summary

The Material Planner is responsible for ensuring that adequate quantities of the correct materials are on hand to support the production schedule and facility. This person will be accountable for developing supporting material plans and works closely with the Production Scheduler to identify supply problems related to schedule changes and monitors bill of materials as needed on new or existing items. Additionally, this individual monitors and controls inventory levels to optimize inventory and minimize obsolescence.

Essential Functions

• Work with corporate purchasing and the Campus Logistics Manager to set safety stocks for materials considerate of supplier lead times, contract stipulations with suppliers, forecast and production needs over the material lead time horizon and historical variability of demand for the items.
• Order/release materials from assigned suppliers to maintain material safety stocks/inventory levels considerate of the weekly production schedule and mid -range production plan at the plant.
• Monitor Inventory for FEFO Execution in material consumption.
• Proactively communicate with management, the plant scheduler/s, plant leadership and corporate purchasing when material inventories or scheduled deliveries are not sufficient to support scheduled or planned production. Work with these partners to develop solutions to support the business need.
• Maintenance (updates and creation) of Bill of Materials within ERP System.
• Interact with suppliers to communicate material needs and develop solutions to material supply issues
• Own material rejects and returns to suppliers, including claim process if necessary.
• Own waste materials recycling program (Cans, Lids, Corrugates, etc.)
• Participate and support SQF Audit Requirements and Audit activities related to materials.  
• Work with vendors to provide needed quantities of materials to adequately support production demands in the circumstances such as changed production schedules or rejected deliveries and manage the return of any defective or rejected ingredients back to the vendor and ensure proper credits are issued
• Meet with vendors to discuss issues, and to ensure continuous improvement in areas of products and processes
• Own the supply of materials until they arrive at the plant. This includes working with suppliers and storage vendors to monitor deliveries and shuttles of materials and expediting/escalating as need to meet the production needs and avoid plant downtime.
• Own materials cycle counting and inventory level verification in support of the plant team when requested or where the material inventory situation is best owned by planning.
• Own resolution with suppliers when physical deliveries or delivery paperwork (CoA, BOL, etc.) do not meet receiving expectations. This includes being available to field calls or engage on the vendor’s dock to confirm issues exist, partnering with leadership to align on what to do immediately with the receipt (reject, receive and hold, etc.), working the issue to resolution with the supplier, and working with the supplier and purchasing to have the supplier address repeat failures to prevent recurrence.
• In coordination with purchasing and marketing, plan, communicate and manage material transitions so that they are done with no plant production interruption and minimal to no obsolescence.
• Consider impact of scheduling decisions on shared resources throughout the plant (i.e. labor, equipment, etc) and work with other personnel to resolve conflicts and improve productivity
• Attend daily and weekly plant scheduling meetings to:
  • Review the production plans and understand plan changes
  • Communicate material inventory or delivery timing concerns and develop a plan to mitigate the risk
  • Review any planned material transitions so the operation understands what is changing and how to manage
  • Identify follows ups to be owned by you related to the above
  • Learn about M3 planning and scheduling parameters and processes and use them to build and optimize the plan on your assigned materials.

Desired Traits

• Strong communication skills, verbal and written including ‘seeking to understand, then to be understood’
• Collaboration skills and an ability to work with others to create mutually beneficial outcomes
• Experience doing production planning in an ERP system
• Knowledge of plant operations, GMPs, HAACP, and production scheduling
• MS Office skills inclusive of an ability to use Outlook, Word and Excel
• Demonstrated Adaptability - ability to learn new skills and new ways of working, and apply them in a professional environment
• Initiative and follow through, self-starter. Ability to work independently and meet goals/objectives
• Ability to identify, effectively resolve and escalate issues that will negatively impact the business
• Continuous improvement mindset including being willing to challenge the status quo when business needs are not being met

Minimum Requirements:

• 3-5 years of experience in planning and scheduling desired       
• BS or BA degree from an accredited university desired.  Experience in lieu of degree considered

Additional Information

Work Environment:

This role may require domestic travel once per quarter.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing tasks and responsibilities of the job.

Additional equipment may be required to follow all safety rules and procedures by working safely and ensuring the safety of others.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to use hands to finger, handle, or touch objects or controls.  The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit, reach above shoulders, taste and/or smell, or talk and/or hear.

The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.  Specific vision requirements of this job include close vision, peripheral vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Working Conditions:  The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

The employee occasionally works in proximity to fumes or air-borne particles, toxic or caustic chemicals, and in non-weather related extreme cold. 

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.