How To Become A Manufacturing Planner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a manufacturing planner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Manufacturing planners are responsible for coordinating production workflow for projects and scheduling shifts according to production needs. They develop and review production plans with other departments' managers for approval and monitor production plan execution. They also resolve any potential issues quickly, investigate production problems, analyze root causes and provide solutions. Manufacturing planners earn a median sum of $62,000 annually or $30 per hour.

They are in charge of ensuring the production process' accuracy while adhering to company standards and ensuring that the production policies meet their objectives. They also plan inventory management processes to avoid shortages and excesses while performing load leveling on the build plan to allow resource restrictions.

Manufacturing planners typically hold a high school diploma or its equivalent. Although having a higher degree may prove advantageous in the long run. Some employers also prefer candidates with proven experience as a production planner and gain excellent production planning and quality control principles.

ScoreManufacturing PlannerUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $65,109

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.53%

Asian 7.22%

Black or African American 8.42%

Hispanic or Latino 17.68%

Unknown 4.99%

White 61.17%

Gender

female 30.63%

male 69.37%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a manufacturing planner

Explore manufacturing planner education requirements

Most common manufacturing planner degrees

Bachelor's

62.3 %

Associate

22.7 %

Master's

7.2 %

Start to develop specific manufacturing planner skills

Skills	Percentages
BOM	10.25%
Shop Floor	8.49%
Engineering Drawings	7.18%
Lean Manufacturing	7.14%
Production Schedules	5.62%

Complete relevant manufacturing planner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New manufacturing planners learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a manufacturing planner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real manufacturing planner resumes.

Research manufacturing planner duties and responsibilities

Manage the kanban system for the entire plant, consisting of rubber, nylon, and metal compounds.
Manage inventory levels for commodities of raw materials.
Monitor WIP ensuring products are complete in order to meet require customer due dates.
Reduce WIP costs and negative inventory by eliminating errors in BOMs and material transactions.

Get manufacturing planner experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a manufacturing planner. The most common roles before becoming a manufacturing planner include manufacturing engineer, production planner team lead and planner.

Prepare your manufacturing planner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your manufacturing planner resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a manufacturing planner resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable manufacturing planner resume templates

Build a professional manufacturing planner resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your manufacturing planner resume.