Master Scheduler

Description

Position Summary

The Master Scheduler is responsible for developing, maintaining, and controlling A1J Technologies' master production schedule to ensure manufacturing activities are aligned with customer delivery commitments, available machine and labor capacity, material availability, and operational priorities.

As A1J transitions from a traditional precision machining job shop toward a scalable Tier 1 supplier for commercial aerospace and defense customers, this position is critical to establishing disciplined production planning, realistic delivery schedules, and improved manufacturing execution.

The Master Scheduler is accountable for translating customer demand and backlog into a realistic, capacity-constrained production schedule that considers machining resources, employee availability, engineering readiness, material availability, outside processing, inspection requirements, and manufacturing lead times.

The position works closely with Manufacturing, Engineering, CNC Programming, Supply Chain, Quality, Sales, and Program Management to identify capacity constraints, prioritize production requirements, manage schedule risks, and support customer on-time delivery.

The successful candidate must demonstrate strong analytical capability, manufacturing knowledge, ERP proficiency, and the ability to establish structured scheduling processes in a high-mix, low-volume precision manufacturing environment.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Master Production Scheduling & Schedule Control

• •Develop, maintain, and communicate an integrated master production schedule based on customer demand, contractual delivery commitments, manufacturing capacity, and production readiness.
• •Translate customer orders, backlog, and approved delivery priorities into executable manufacturing schedules.
• •Establish and maintain production schedules by job, operation, work center, and required completion date.
• •Define scheduling priorities and planned job release dates in coordination with Operations and Manufacturing leadership.
• •Establish a controlled scheduling process to manage customer expedites, priority changes, schedule revisions, and production interruptions.
• •Maintain visibility of scheduled versus actual manufacturing progress and identify deviations requiring corrective action.
• •Establish scheduling horizons, including near-term execution schedules and longer-term capacity and backlog projections.
• •Coordinate approved schedule changes across affected departments to maintain alignment and minimize unnecessary production disruptions.
• •Ensure manufacturing priorities are communicated clearly and consistently to Planning, Production, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality.

2. Finite Capacity Planning & Resource Management

• •Develop and maintain capacity planning models that evaluate available machine hours, labor hours, shift schedules, and manufacturing work-center capabilities.
• •Evaluate production demand against available capacity to identify overloaded departments, constrained resources, and manufacturing bottlenecks.
• •Incorporate equipment availability, planned downtime, labor availability, employee qualifications, and applicable operating efficiencies into capacity assessments.
• •Coordinate with Manufacturing leadership to evaluate capacity limitations and available recovery options.
• •Identify opportunities to balance manufacturing workloads across appropriate equipment, departments, and shifts.
• •Evaluate the impact of overtime, additional shifts, alternate work centers, subcontracting, and other approved capacity adjustments.
• •Develop short-term and longer-term capacity forecasts to support staffing, equipment utilization, and operational planning.
• •Provide Operations leadership with timely visibility into capacity utilization, constrained resources, and anticipated production shortfalls.
• •Support development and validation of manufacturing standards necessary for more accurate capacity planning.

3. Customer Backlog, Delivery Commitments & Recovery Planning

• •Analyze customer backlog, past-due orders, and upcoming delivery commitments against demonstrated manufacturing capacity.
• •Identify periods where customer demand exceeds available production capability and quantify the resulting capacity shortfall.
• •Develop realistic production and delivery recovery scenarios in coordination with Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Sales.
• •Prioritize work based on approved business priorities, contractual requirements, customer commitments, manufacturing readiness, and available capacity.
• •Identify jobs at risk of missing committed delivery dates and communicate risks before they become past due.
• •Support Sales and Program Management with capacity-based delivery projections and proposed recovery schedules.
• •Evaluate the effects of customer expedites, schedule changes, and new orders on existing production commitments.
• •Recommend realistic completion dates supported by documented manufacturing assumptions and capacity constraints.
• •Maintain accurate visibility of past-due backlog, current-month demand, and future production loading.
• •Ensure proposed customer promise-date changes follow established commercial approval and communication processes.

4. Manufacturing Readiness & Job Release Planning

• •Coordinate with Engineering, CNC Programming, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Quality to verify jobs are ready before their planned production start dates.
• •Establish and maintain manufacturing readiness criteria covering material availability, approved routings, CNC programs, tooling, fixtures, required documentation, and inspection requirements.
• •Identify jobs with incomplete engineering packages, missing materials, unavailable tooling, or unresolved technical requirements.
• •Prevent unready jobs from displacing executable production work without an approved recovery or exception plan.
• •Coordinate planned release dates with Engineering and Programming completion schedules.
• •Account for outside processing, inspection requirements, and other manufacturing dependencies when establishing production schedules.
• •Identify potential material or technical constraints early enough for corrective action.
• •Support new product introduction, first-article requirements, and engineering changes through appropriate scheduling allowances.

5. ERP Scheduling, Data Integrity & Manufacturing Visibility

• •Maintain accurate production scheduling information within ERP and applicable approved planning systems.
• •Monitor job status, operation progress, routing information, promised dates, and manufacturing priorities.
• •Work with Manufacturing leadership to improve the accuracy and timeliness of shop-floor job-on/job-off transactions.
• •Establish procedures to reconcile ERP information with actual manufacturing status when system data is incomplete or inaccurate.
• •Identify and escalate missing or unreliable routing hours, work-center assignments, job status, and scheduling parameters.
• •Collaborate with Engineering and Manufacturing to validate setup hours, cycle times, and actual manufacturing performance.
• •Develop practical interim planning methods when reliable manufacturing standards or ERP data are not yet available.
• •Support improvements to scheduling dashboards, capacity reports, production control tools, and automated data reporting.
• •Maintain one controlled source of scheduling information and minimize conflicting schedules or undocumented priority changes.

6. Production Execution & Daily Schedule Management

• •Lead or support structured production scheduling and priority review meetings.
• •Provide Manufacturing leadership with clear near-term production priorities, job sequencing requirements, and schedule risks.
• •Monitor progress against the approved production schedule and identify operations that are falling behind.
• •Coordinate recovery actions for machine downtime, labor shortages, material delays, inspection bottl