Production Analyst

Production Analyst Job Description

History

Lift Bridge Brewery is a leading production brewery located in Stillwater, the birthplace of Minnesota. We are expanding and looking for the right team members to grow with us!

Description

The Production Analyst owns the flow of operational data through Lift Bridge Brewery. The role converts distributor demand into production and packaging schedules, moves orders through fulfillment to invoice and payment, maintains inventory and item accuracy in our ERP system, prepares and files all federal and state alcohol excise returns, and produces the daily, weekly and monthly reporting leadership uses to run the business.

This is a hands-on operations role. The Production Analyst connects four groups that do not otherwise talk to each other directly like brewing and packaging, the warehouse, sales, and accounting. This role is the single point of accuracy for the numbers the brewery runs on. It is also the person everyone calls when an order, a shipment, or a filing does not look right.

Key Responsibilities

Order Management and Fulfillment

• Receive and process distributor sales orders arriving through the distributor orders inbox, DSD Link, and the Encompass portals for Capitol Beverage and College City Beverage; enter and maintain them in the ERP.
• Monitor the open sales order book daily including aged orders, short ships, allocation conflicts and unshipped lines, and resolve exceptions with sales and the warehouse.
• Invoice shipped orders accurately, applying correct pricing, deals and distributor terms.
• Publish sales orders and inter-facility transfers to the shared warehouse calendar so the team has forward visibility of the shipping schedule.
• Build and schedule outbound loads for distributor pickups.
• Set up and manage outsourced production and contract-brewing orders.
• Process distributor EFT draws and reconcile them against accounts receivable.

Production and Packaging Planning

• Own and maintain the make-to-order production sheet: translate demand, on-hand inventory and in process volume into an executable brewing schedule.
• Build and publish the bi-weekly packaging schedule, coordinating with materials availability and packaging crew capacity.
• Plan co-packed production with contract partners, submit orders through their systems, and manage the run calendar.
• Receive completed co-packed production into inventory and reconcile actual yield against plan.

Inventory and Materials Control

• Maintain the materials sheet covering raw goods, packaging materials, cans, labels and brite goods; track reorder points and supplier lead times.
• Enter goods receipts against purchase orders and resolve receiving discrepancies.
• Run periodic physical inventory counts, investigate variances, and post adjustments - including the finished-goods records that support excise reporting.
• Place and track purchase orders through supplier portals.

Product and Item Data Management

• Create and maintain item codes across the ERP, VIP and the Encompass distributor portals, keeping all three in sync.
• Manage new product and package setup end to end, so a new SKU is orderable, produceable, reportable and taxable from day one.
• Audit item data regularly to catch drift between systems before it reaches depletion reporting or chargebacks.

Regulatory and Excise Compliance

• Prepare and file federal TTB excise returns for beer and for spirits, including removals, transfers in bond, exports and losses.
• Prepare and file state excise returns for multiple states on their respective schedules.
• Maintain the production, removal and inventory records that substantiate every filing and would be produced in an audit.
• Track the filing calendar across all jurisdictions and ensure no return is late.

Reporting and Forecasting

• Produce the daily production and open-order report for leadership.
• Maintain the weekly trend report covering production, shipments and depletions.
• Update forecast actuals and support the demand planning cycle with variance analysis.
• Answer ad hoc operational questions with data; this role is the brewery's first stop for "what actually happened?"

Taproom and Internal Consumption

• Process taproom sales and employee sample records from the point-of-sale system and record them as depletions in the ERP.
• Ensure internal consumption is captured accurately, since it flows directly into excise reporting.

Qualifications

Required

• Two or more years in production planning, supply chain, operations analysis, inventory control or a closely related role.
• Advanced Excel with pivot tables, lookups, and the ability to build and maintain multi-tab operational workbooks.
• Demonstrated ERP experience, and the ability to learn a mid-market ERP quickly, including when to question what it reports.
• Strong numerical accuracy and the discipline to self-check work nobody else will catch.
• Ability to carry a dozen concurrent workstreams and deadlines without dropping one.
• Clear written and verbal communication with brewers, warehouse staff, distributors and leadership alike.

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Finance, Accounting, Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Supply Chain or a related field.
• Experience in beverage alcohol, food and beverage manufacturing, or another regulated CPG environment.
• Working knowledge of TTB and state alcohol excise reporting.
• Experience with Orchestrated / OBeer, VIP, Encompass, DSD Link, or comparable beverage-industry systems.
• SQL, Power BI, Power Query or comparable data tooling.
• A track record of improving or automating a manual process, not just executing one.

Core Values

We are looking for someone who brings themselves to work and possesses our core values:

1. Quality
2. Brand
3. Team
4. Own it
5. Growth
6. Innovation
7. Passion

Our Employees

Lift Bridge is all about our people and workplace culture. As a member of the Lift Bridge team you can expect the following:

• To be compensated well based on experience and ability
• Learning opportunities related to your position and growth desires
• Empowered to make decisions in line with strategic company goals
• To be valued for your work and contribution to the team.
• 2 weeks PTO, 6 paid holidays, and a positive work environment
• 401K with a 10% Company Match
• Employer Sponsored Healthcare including 50% of individual premiums paid by Lift Bridge
• Free Beer and Gear, including $400 in merchandise annually

This positions requires a background check.