Capacity planner vs production planner

The differences between capacity planners and production planners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a capacity planner and a production planner. Additionally, a capacity planner has an average salary of $103,430, which is higher than the $60,390 average annual salary of a production planner.

The top three skills for a capacity planner include infrastructure, project management and SQL. The most important skills for a production planner are customer service, MRP, and ERP.

Capacity planner vs production planner overview

	Capacity Planner	Production Planner
Yearly salary	$103,430	$60,390
Hourly rate	$49.73	$29.03
Growth rate	-3%	-3%
Number of jobs	19,024	68,717
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	2	2

What does a capacity planner do?

In the manufacturing industry, a capacity planner is primarily in charge of overseeing production facilities, developing detailed strategies to optimize their daily operations. They gather and review data from different departments, conduct research and analyses to determine the consumer and market demands, and assess production procedures to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing systems. A capacity planner utilizes their research findings to develop detailed plans and product roadmaps, including recommendations and solutions against problem areas.

What does a production planner do?

Production planners or schedulers are employees who take charge of the timeliness and accuracy of the production process. The planners develop production schedules which detail the tasks that need to be done to meet the set completion date. They emphasize the goods and materials necessary in the production phase. It is their job to make sure that the working space is well-maintained for optimal performance. They also manage the flow of information during production.

Capacity planner vs production planner salary

Capacity planners and production planners have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Capacity Planner	Production Planner
Average salary	$103,430	$60,390
Salary range	Between $74,000 And $144,000	Between $44,000 And $81,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Newark, CA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	Netflix	Intuitive Surgical
Best paying industry	-	Energy

Differences between capacity planner and production planner education

There are a few differences between a capacity planner and a production planner in terms of educational background:

	Capacity Planner	Production Planner
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 71%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Capacity planner vs production planner demographics

Here are the differences between capacity planners' and production planners' demographics:

	Capacity Planner	Production Planner
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 68.1% Female, 31.9%	Male, 60.0% Female, 40.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 7.8% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 7.1% White, 60.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between capacity planner and production planner duties and responsibilities

Capacity planner example responsibilities.

Manage bandwidth usage on copper-base colocation devices, central office switches and routers.
Manage various projects to implement MRP system correctly and cut supply cost and turn round time from supplier.
Supervise NPI chip fulfillment process - manage wafer starts to meet internal qualification and board level build plan.
Develop capacity planning and performance system for all mainframe and Unix systems
Maintain WAN/LAN IP capacity for S.E.
Provide ERP training to new personnel.

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Production planner example responsibilities.

Manage large supply base consolidations for both production parts and MRO items.
Manage customer accounts from small first time customers to large OEM's.
Manage and update inventory plan base on ABC and MTO statistic data.
Provide leadership and manage production JCL analyst team supporting and recovering of production job streams.
Track managed backlog dollars, OEM, finish product, and make to order specialty products.
Supervise NPI chip fulfillment process - manage wafer starts to meet internal qualification and board level build plan.

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Capacity planner vs production planner skills

Common capacity planner skills

Infrastructure, 15%
Project Management, 10%
SQL, 7%
Tableau, 6%
Historical Data, 5%
Data Centers, 4%

Common production planner skills

Customer Service, 11%
MRP, 9%
ERP, 5%
Logistics, 4%
Continuous Improvement, 4%
On-Time Delivery, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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