Maintenance Planner

Company Description

PB Leiner is one of the world’s leading producers of high quality gelatins and collagen peptides. We supply a growing market in food, pharma, health nutrition and technical applications. In all our efforts, we strive to be The Clear Solution for our customers. We spot and exploit opportunities, and try to anticipate future trends for them. We pursue outstanding quality and choice, as well as smooth delivery. We have a global presence in terms of both our plants and sales support, and count approximately 1,100 collaborators worldwide. PB Leiner is part of Tessenderlo Group.

Job Description

The Maintenance Planner is responsible for developing, coordinating, and continuously improving maintenance planning activities for Davenport plant. This role ensures that preventive maintenance (PM), planned corrective maintenance, and selected longer-term OPEX projects are properly scoped, planned, scheduled, and resourced to support safe, reliable, and cost-effective plant operations.

The Maintenance Planner serves as the bridge between Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, and Procurement by ensuring work orders are complete and accurate, bills of materials (BOMs) are maintained, critical spare parts are identified and available, and maintenance history is used to improve future planning and execution.

Key Responsibilities

Maintenance Planning & Scheduling

• Review / update job plans for preventive, predictive, and planned corrective maintenance activities.
• Ensure planned work orders are fully scoped with clear task steps, labor requirements, estimated durations, required tools, materials, and safety considerations.
• Lead factory shutdown planning, ensuring it is fully scoped with clear task steps, labor requirements, estimated durations, required tools, materials, and safety considerations.
• Review completed work orders to verify accuracy and identify required follow-up work.
• Update work orders when scope changes are identified during execution or post-job review.
• Analyze actual repair times versus planned estimates and continuously improve standard job times and planning accuracy.
• Coordinate with Maintenance Supervisors to prioritize and sequence work based on equipment criticality, operational needs, and available resources.

Preventive & Reliability Maintenance

• Maintain and optimize preventive maintenance programs to support asset reliability and regulatory compliance.
• Identify repeat failures or chronic issues and recommend corrective actions or maintenance strategy changes.
• Support root cause analysis (RCA) efforts by providing maintenance history and planning insights.

OPEX Project Planning

• Support planning and coordination of longer-term maintenance-related OPEX projects, including scope development, material planning, and scheduling.
• Assist in estimating labor, material, and downtime requirements for approved projects.
• Track project-related work orders and ensure documentation and closeout are completed.

Spare Parts & Materials Management

• Maintain and update equipment Bills of Materials (BOMs) within SAP.
• Identify critical spare parts for plant equipment and communicate requirements to Procurement.
• Coordinate with Procurement to ensure timely availability of parts for planned work.
• Monitor spare parts usage and recommend stocking level adjustments based on failure history and lead times.

CMMS & Data Management

• Ensure work orders, job plans, asset records, and BOMs are accurate and current in the CMMS.
• Track maintenance KPIs such as schedule compliance, wrench time, backlog health, and mean time to repair (MTTR).
• Provide reports and insights to maintenance leadership to support continuous improvement efforts.

Communication & Coordination

• Act as a central point of coordination between Maintenance, Operations, Engineering, and Procurement.
• Communicate maintenance plans, part requirements, and schedule changes clearly and proactively.
• Participate in weekly maintenance planning and scheduling meetings.

Safety & Compliance

• Ensure maintenance plans incorporate safety requirements, lockout/tagout needs, and permit considerations.
• Support compliance with OSHA, EPA, and site-specific safety and environmental requirements.

Qualifications

Qualifications/Experience

Required

• Associate’s degree or equivalent experience in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial Maintenance, or related field.
• 3–7 years of experience in maintenance planning, maintenance supervision, or industrial maintenance within a chemical, manufacturing, or processing environment.
• Strong working knowledge of CMMS systems (e.g., SAP or similar).
• Solid understanding of mechanical and/or electrical equipment used in chemical processing plants.
• Ability to read and interpret P&IDs, equipment drawings, and technical manuals.

Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, or related field.
• Experience in reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) or asset management best practices.
• Familiarity with MOC (Management of Change) processes in a regulated environment.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Strong planning and organizational skills with attention to detail.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to analyze maintenance history and performance metrics.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and influence without direct authority.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other standard office tools.
• Continuous improvement mindset with a focus on safety, reliability, and cost control.

Success Metrics

• Improved maintenance schedule compliance and planning accuracy.
• Reduction in unplanned downtime and emergency maintenance.
• Improved accuracy of BOMs and spare parts availability.
• Reduction in MTTR through better planning and follow-up.
• Clear, accurate, and timely maintenance documentation.

Additional Information

• Exposure to a manufacturing environment with noise, machinery, and varying temperatures
• All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
• PB Leiner is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. 
• External applicants must currently be eligible to work in the US