Production Planner

We currently have an opportunity for a Production Planner

About KNDS UK:

With over a century of engineering expertise and innovation, KNDS UK is a renowned world leader in rapidly deployable military bridging systems and a key partner in the UK MoD’s Boxer armoured vehicle programme.

We are proud of our heritage and our reputation of providing the highest quality engineering solutions for over 100 years. As a trusted partner to military customers around the world, our employees are the very heart of our company. We have a skilled and experienced workforce dedicated to achieving excellence in all areas of the business such as Manufacturing, Engineering, Project Management and Business Support functions.

As our business evolves, we are looking to strengthen our workforce with talented and motivated individuals across a range of disciplines and currently have this opportunity available.

About the role:

The primary purpose of this role is to bridge the gap between current shopfloor capabilities and strategic expansion goals, challenging existing processes to scale output efficiently. You will manage the daily production rhythm, translating the master schedule into realistic tactical plans while acting as an agile problem-solver to minimise milestone risks. You will be responsible for the oversight of production KPIs and the strategic management of sub-assembly inventory, ensuring optimal min/max thresholds are maintained to guarantee uninterrupted material flow.

Key duties include, but are not limited to:

· Daily Plan Management: Orchestrate daily production schedules, ensuring labour and machine capacity are optimised to match dynamic impacts.

· Proactive Escalation: Monitor the critical path of every build. You are responsible for identifying and escalating any deviation that indicates a potential miss of tactical milestones and providing recovery options.

· Shopfloor Discipline: Act as a support network on the shopfloor to enforce booking discipline. You will ensure that all production activities are recorded accurately and in real-time to maintain data integrity.

· Order Lifecycle Management: Oversee the end-to-end conversion of production orders, ensuring that release dates are strictly aligned with material availability and customer delivery dates.

· Managing Rework Orders and Activities through individual productions order to manage reworks and sign offs effectively.

· Maintain a high-frequency feedback loop with the Material Controller. You will assess current supply chain capabilities and constraints to manage expectations for the build plan.

· Manage and refine Min/Max levels for sub-assembly kits. You will implement data-driven triggers to ensure that high-velocity parts are always available while preventing capital tie-up in slow-moving stock.

· Oversee the management of picking requirements. You will ensure that the warehouse and logistics teams are perfectly synchronised with the build sequence, delivering "Just-in-Time" kits to the production line.

· Take full ownership of Schedule Adherence KPIs. You will not just report the numbers but provide the narrative behind them, identifying issues and proposing long-term solutions.

· Serve as the planning lead for external stakeholders. You will feed back production health reports to ensure the wider business is aligned with manufacturing reality.

What we’re looking for:

Candidates must have the following essential qualifications and experience:

· GSCE in Maths and English at Level 4 and above or equivalent.

· 2-3 Years planning experience within a manufacturing environment

· SAP ERP proficiency including BoM and Routing advanced knowledge

· Microsoft Office Proficiency

The following are desirable:

· APICS certified

· Six Sigma/Lean Manufacturing Experience

· Planning experience within the automotive industry

· Previous experience leading a team

· Inventory Management

Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate the following skills and aptitudes:

· Customer focus: Understanding of our customers - Reliability & quality - Work transparently & constructively.

· Togetherness: Trust – Proactively share – Teamwork & diversity – Across borders.

· Safety: No compromise – Stop unsafe actions – Mutual support – Safe environment.

· Accountability: Integrity & ethics – Ownership – Truthful communication.

Why you should join us:

When you become part of the KNDS UK team, you will enjoy employee benefits such as:

· Competitive salary

· Attractive pension (4% employee contribution, 7% employer contribution)

· Half-day Friday

· Life assurance scheme

· Company sick pay scheme which increases with service

· Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

· Additional Holidays & Long Service rewards

· Wellbeing initiatives, such as Free Fruit on Tuesday’s

· Cycle-to-work Scheme

· Free on-site car parking

· On-site electric vehicle charging points

We’re also very proud to be part of the Armed Forces Covenant since 2018, achieving their Silver Award in 2020 and Gold Award in 2024. We actively support and encourage service leavers, reservists and cadets to join our team, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process.

If you are passionate about Production Planning and eager to contribute to a thriving workplace environment, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Recruiters please note that we have a list of approved recruitment agency partners in place and we will contact agencies directly should we require support. Any unsolicited CV’s received via an agency will be accepted with thanks but without fee.