Planner Jobs in Illinois

Why Work for KeHE?

• Full-time
• Pay Range: $65,120.00/Yr. - $95,348.00/Yr.
• Shift Days: , Shift Time:
• Benefits on Day 1
• Health/Rx
• Dental
• Vision
• Flexible and health spending accounts (FSA/HSA)
• Supplemental life insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Paid sick time
• Short term & long term disability coverage (STD/LTD)
• Employee stock ownership (ESOP)
• Holiday pay for company designated holidays

Overview:

At KeHE, we’re obsessed with creating solutions, unboxing potential, and serving others – and it all starts with you. As an employee-owned distributor of natural and organic, specialty, and fresh products, we’re committed to making a positive impact and scaling our success together. With a culture that fosters development and opportunity, you’ll be embarking on a career that’s moving forward. When you join KeHE, you’re becoming part of a team that is a force for good.

DUTIES, TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Performs inbound load planning activities by applying logistics skills through consolidation of purchase orders, routing and selecting the best possible carrier, mode, and transportation strategy to meet service and freight income expectations (cost, highest service).
• Manages day-to-day activities, track, and trace loads, communicate load changes and or issues, maintain load visibility (end to end) from origin to destination and assist with issue resolution and communication.
• Maintains inventory levels and tracking for consolidation cross dock facilities and provides highly analytical weekly and monthly reporting.
• Assists carriers or KeHE fleet partners in resolving issues regarding loading, pickup appointments and communicates to appropriate parties as necessary.
• Take part in account and customer related programs and special projects to drive efficiency and continues improvement efforts.
• Awareness of and ability to identify optimal freight solutions to achieve and surpass desired results, in driving transportation metrics such as payload utilization, late PO impact, cost per pound, on-time performance and saving initiatives.
• Responsible for achievement of period, quarterly and annual transportation goals by planning the transportation of products from suppliers to the end distribution center using the most cost-effective methods.
• Required to be highly analytical to generate daily/weekly/period reports as required from the TMS, ERP, Power BI and any other KeHE systems to facilitate revenue, cost, savings based continuous improvement.
• Consults with project team members and customer stakeholders to identify, define, and document business needs and objectives, current reporting capabilities, and challenges related to the business functions.
• Manages and reports on relevant KPIs.
• Finds timely, efficient, and cost-effective ways to transport products.
• Analyzes cost efficiency of existing lanes/routing guides and load configurations on an ongoing basis, implementing efficiencies where appropriate.
• Research procurement and shipping options, analyzing financial data, creating estimates, identifying problem areas and budget deviations, and overseeing projects.
• Creates and maintains documentation of procedures and processes (SOPs).
• Maintains the necessary data to drive optimization utilizing the capabilities of the transportation solution system.
• Collaborates with carrier management, supply chain, sales, and other necessary departments to improve load profitability, reduce negative freight income, create optimal cost and service offering to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Identifies and implements process improvement opportunities working across internal and external customers.
• Builds relationships with and work directly with carriers to understand their service capabilities, improve tender acceptance rate, on-time pick up and on time delivery, and continuously monitor their performance, this includes direct interact by phone, email, and/or in person.
• Partners closely with 3rd party carriers as well as KeHE fleets to drive out waste and achieve appropriate service levels.
• Assesses service issues and provides root cause analysis to resolve chronic problems (either internal or external) with the ability to find creative solutions to service issues.
• Be able to resolve situations quickly, communicate status of problem, and work with the appropriate subject matter expert until it is fixed, and escalate issues to management as they arise.
• Assures that established KeHE policies and procedures are followed in carrying out accountabilities.
• Other duties and projects as assigned.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES:

• Excellent interpersonal, organizational skills, and customer focused.
• Ability to interpret data into meaningful solutions.
• Demonstrate a keen attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate effectively both verbal and written across cross-functional teams.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel & Outlook), Access & TMS system.
• Ability to use excel pivot tables, zoom meetings, and have knowledge of BOLs/PODs and utilizing them to confirm delivery.
• Must be results-oriented, self-directed, be able to problem solve, have excellent time management skills, possess strong analytical and project management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks or projects simultaneously.
• Strong process improvement skills.
• Knowledge of transportation and market trends.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• High school diploma or GED is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Logistics or Supply Chain preferred.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in supply chain, logistics, purchasing, or work in the transportation industry required.
• Prior experience working in a fast-paced foodservice purchasing and/or logistics environment is highly preferred.

Physical Requirements:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Requisition ID: 2026-33936

Equal Employer Opportunity Statement: KeHE Distributors provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits all forms of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, religion or faith, sex, gender, age, ancestry, national origin, mental or physical disability or medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other category protected under federal, state, or local law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training as well as the administration of all Human Resources and Talent Acquisition processes.