The Production Scheduler is responsible for creating, maintaining, and continuously improving the short-term production schedule to enable reliable execution in a GMP manufacturing environment. The role ensures that schedules are feasible against capacity (labor/equipment/suites) and material availability, and drives timely resolution of scheduling conflicts with cross-functional stakeholders to protect customer delivery and site performance.
Key responsibilities
* Own the short-term production schedule (e.g., 0–2/0–4 weeks depending on area), ensuring accuracy, feasibility, and clear communication to all relevant departments.
* Consolidate inputs from Manufacturing, Procurement, Supply Planning, Warehouse/Logistics, and (as applicable) QA/QC/Engineering/MSAT to ensure schedules reflect the latest constraints and priorities.
* Optimize sequencing and resource utilization by balancing demand priorities against efficient production flows (campaigning, changeover minimization, equipment and suite utilization, staffing plans).
* Proactively identify capacity and material constraints (e.g., raw materials, intermediates, consumables, single-use components) and lead cross-functional actions to prevent shortages and downtime.
* Drive timely resolution of scheduling conflicts, facilitating alignment on trade-offs (priority orders, deviations, changeovers, maintenance windows) and escalating as needed.
* Ensure that schedule changes are captured promptly, version-controlled where required, and communicated consistently to stakeholders to protect execution and plan stability.
* Maintain scheduling parameters and master data in the planning system (e.g., routings, BOMs, lead times, calendars, capacity models) to enable optimal system performance and planning accuracy.
* Provide accurate schedule inputs to support MRP/ERP processes and material planning to meet production demands.
* Review and analyze production documents and data (work orders, staffing plans, batch execution data, material consumption, yield, deviations impact) to improve schedule accuracy and efficiency reporting.
* Generate and monitor KPIs and operational measures; perform trend analysis and root-cause investigations to improve schedule adherence and planning performance.
Key stakeholders / interfaces
* Procurement
* Manufacturing / Production Teams
* Supply Planning / Supply Planner
* Warehouse / Materials Management (recommended add for Visp)
* QA/QC / MSAT / Engineering (as applicable to the area)
Autonomy / supervision
Works with limited day-to-day guidance; receives general direction for new assignments and objectives.
Skills & qualifications (Lonza-appropriate)
Essential skills
* Strong ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and drive alignment under time pressure.
* Excellent communication and presentation skills; able to present constraints, options, and trade-offs clearly to different seniority levels.
* Strong analytical capability: defining KPIs, performing root-cause analysis, and translating insights into actions.
* Experience using production planning/scheduling systems (ERP/MRP and/or scheduling tools).
* Advanced MS Office skills, especially Excel (data handling, pivots, analysis) and PowerPoint.
Nice-to-have / recommended
* Experience in a GMP/regulatory manufacturing environment (biopharma, pharma, medtech, chemical).
* Familiarity with BI/reporting tools (e.g., Power BI or similar).
* Understanding of master data governance (BOMs/routings/calendars) and change control impact.
* APICS CPIM/CSCP or Lean/CI training.
Language
* Fluent English required; German is a strong advantage.