Behind The Power:
Steve Mercure, Production Planning Analyst
Dynapower’s production planning wizard
Steve Mercure brings consistency and innovation to manufacturing operations. From creating custom Excel Gantt charts that revolutionized capacity planning to troubleshooting production challenges, Steve’s analytical skills help bridge the gap between engineering designs and manufacturing execution, ensuring that schedules run smoothly.
Q: What do you like best about your job?
A: I provide scheduling and capacity planning for the manufacturing group. So, engineering designs the product and my department releases documentation to the floor and packages it in a way that’s digestible by the manufacturing team. My favorite part is finding solutions to problems. Often, there’s a solution that already exists, and I can help direct them to that. Sometimes there’s not a solution, and I use my knowledge and skills to come to a solution that helps them be successful.
Q: How would you describe the company culture?
A: We have a lot of potential for growth. And we’re very responsive to the customer—we definitely jump through hoops to help them out.
Q: In what ways do you influence the quality of the products here at Dynapower?
A: First: Consistency. I’ve been here so long (35 years) that once something works, I continue doing it and remind people about it. When we provide a good, consistent package or deliverable downstream to manufacturing or upstream to management, it helps them with capacity planning which helps with quality. The second one is delivering an error-free package to the manufacturing group. We anticipate their needs and make sure our package contains them.
Q: What is something you do in your job that is innovative?
A: I use Excel to schedule, which is not the innovative part. Everybody uses it, right?
I found a way to program the cells in Excel so they automatically create a Gantt chart for me. I can bring in a start time, a finish time, and a certain number of hours, and it will automatically put them in the right weekly bucket and distribute the hours properly. That allows me to create capacity graphs by week for every department. I can give management a heads-up months in advance that we’re understaffed or overstaffed, or needing to move people around. It is the centerpiece of our scheduling—all from a Gantt chart.
Q: What are some ways that you continue learning in your field?
A: With YouTube content being so good, I use it a lot to learn about Excel. I also like Mr. Excel, who is a contributor on many forums, and I look for his answers to questions. Also, Sensata has a good training program library, especially for brushing up on soft skills.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: I’ve been playing computer games forever, and I always keep my computer ready for the latest games. One favorite is a strategy game. I do strategy stuff here at work, and then I go home and do more strategy stuff. I’m a glutton for punishment!
