Production Planning and Control Manager

Description

Do you love turning chaos into a system that just works — where every schedule has a plan, every shortage has an owner, and nothing falls through the cracks between demand and the shop floor? Do you get a thrill out of untangling a supply chain that spans two continents and making it run like clockwork? If you'd rather build the system than inherit someone else's, we may have the job for you.

Balanced Body is a global leader in Pilates and movement equipment — trusted by studios and movement professionals around the world to help people move well and feel better. As we scale manufacturing operations, we're creating a new layer of ownership that doesn't exist today: one role responsible end-to-end for connecting customer demand, materials availability, and the production floor.

This role exists because that ownership doesn't have a single home today — it's split across planning, purchasing, and operations leadership. We're building it into one seat: someone who runs a disciplined SIOP cycle, owns materials availability end-to-end, and gives the business a scheduling system it can trust — all while coordinating production with an overseas manufacturing partner and supporting a growing European logistics and e-commerce footprint.

This is a build role for someone who wants to own outcomes, not just a function — someone equally comfortable running a master scheduling cycle and chasing down a materials shortage before it stops a line.

What You'll Do

• Own the SIOP cycle: Establish and run a monthly Sales & Operations Planning process that translates customer demand and forecasts into a production schedule the business can rely on.
• Lead master scheduling and production planning: Direct the Master Scheduler and Production Planners in building and maintaining schedules that reflect true capacity and material constraints, not inherited habit.
• Own materials and shortage recovery: Take direct ownership of at-risk orders and material shortages — build a recovery process where every at-risk order gets a documented plan and a named owner within 24 hours, before it reaches the floor.
• Burn down past-due purchase orders: Establish clear ownership and a weekly published number for past-due POs, replacing today's ad hoc, task-force-driven response.
• Coordinate contract manufacturing: Serve as the primary point of contact for output, quality, and schedule adherence with our overseas contract manufacturing partner.
• Support international logistics growth: Partner with European 3PL and e-commerce launch stakeholders to ensure planning and materials processes scale with the business outside the US.
• Coach and develop the planning team: Lead, mentor, and raise the standard of the planning team — turning individual effort into a repeatable, professional discipline.
• Document and systematize scheduling logic: Move planning knowledge out of individual heads and into a documented, system-supported process.
• Own the planning and materials KPIs: Define and report on-time delivery, schedule adherence, and stockout/past-due trends; use the numbers to drive continuous improvement.

Requirements

What You'll Bring

• Combined planning and materials experience: 7+ years in production planning/master scheduling and materials/purchasing control in discrete or mixed-mode manufacturing, including time in a lead or manager role.
• Proven SIOP ownership: Has personally run or built a Sales & Operations Planning cycle at a manufacturer, and can point to the result.
• Materials shortage management: Demonstrated experience owning material shortage recovery and supplier/purchase-order escalation, not just production scheduling.
• ERP proficiency: Runs day-to-day planning natively in the ERP/MRP system's own scheduling and materials functionality, not primarily through spreadsheets built around it. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central experience is a plus, not a requirement — the role must be productive quickly, but can ramp on our specific system.
• Cross-border coordination: Experience working across time zones and cultures with an overseas manufacturing partner, supplier, or plant.
• People leadership: Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop a small planning team.
• Composure under pressure: A track record of staying calm and decisive when a line is at risk — this role is judged on outcomes when things go wrong, not just when they go right.
• On-time delivery / schedule-adherence ownership: Has personally been measured against an OTD or schedule-adherence number, not just reported on one — can speak to a specific target and what moved it.

PREFERRED

• Automotive or other high-consequence manufacturing background, where a line stop carries a real, immediate cost.
• Experience with contract or co-manufacturing oversight, ideally including an Asia-based partner.
• European logistics or 3PL exposure.
• APICS/CPIM certification, or working knowledge of Lean/Kaizen and Theory of Constraints.
• Multilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, or Mandarin) a plus given the international coordination scope.

The Company

https://www.pilates.com/BBAPP/V/company/craftsmanship.html

Balanced Body is the world's largest designer and manufacturer of Pilates equipment, as well as a provider of high-quality Pilates and other mind-body instructor training and continuing education. We currently do business in over 100 countries, with world-renowned customer service and a serious commitment to environmentally friendly business practices. If you want to work with a company with a passion for changing lives in ways small and large, let us hear from you.

We offer competitive compensation and excellent benefits including:

• Medical, Dental and Vision
• 401(k) +Match
• Life and Long-Term Disability Insurance - Employer Paid!
• Paid time off and holidays

Balanced Body is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to workforce diversity.

NO AGENCY CALLS!