Material Planner

What goes up must come down. And in the case of manufacturing, what goes in must come out. Whether it’s a television, computer, automobile, or frying pan, it comes out as a finished product, but goes in as raw materials — including, for example, wood, oil, paper, plastic, glass, steel, and stone.

As a Material Planner, or Materials Planner, you’re in charge of coordinating those raw materials, as well as other parts and resources that are needed to manufacture products.

Working most often in a factory setting, as the Material Planner you first collaborate with your company’s engineering department to determine — based on blueprints and specifications — what parts and materials are needed, and in what quantities. Then you team up with your company’s purchasing department in order to actually acquire the requisite materials from vendors. As such, you’re a bridge between design and production, paid to connect the manufacturing dots.

By practicing what’s known as materials requirement planning (MRP) — which is the process that manufacturers use to control inventory and manage production — Material Planners oversee the lifecycle of materials from the moment they’re ordered to the moment they leave the factory as finished products. Among your daily duties, therefore, are finding vendors, scheduling deliveries, negotiating materials costs, managing inventory levels, reducing waste, and balancing output with sales.

Ultimately, it’s your job to minimize costs and maximize productivity by maintaining a delicate balance between too much inventory and too little, making sure that the assembly line has exactly what it needs — no more and no less — exactly when it needs it.