Responsibilities
Lead SAP Planning & Governance
- Own and govern production planning activities within SAP PP/MM, driving standardized processes and best-practice system utilization.
- Maintain and optimize critical SAP planning parameters to support accurate and stable planning outputs.
- Ensure disciplined execution of MPS/MRP runs, exception management, and planning processes.
- Identify and resolve system, process, parameter, and master-data issues that impact planning performance.
- Partner with IT and SAP functional teams on system enhancements, upgrades, testing, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Establish standard work, process documentation, and training for SAP-based planning activities.
Lead & Develop the Planning Team
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of production planners.
- Build strong SAP capabilities across the team, including transaction proficiency, planning logic, exception management, and analytical skills.
- Establish clear expectations, performance measures, and accountability.
- Promote a culture of data accuracy, operational excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Develop team capability to proactively identify constraints, risks, and opportunities.
Drive Integrated Production Planning & S&OP
- Lead execution of Master Production Scheduling (MPS) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) within SAP.
- Translate demand signals and forecasts into executable production, material, and procurement plans.
- Balance customer service, inventory, production capacity, and cost objectives.
- Ensure SAP planning outputs are aligned with broader S&OP/IBP processes.
- Partner with demand planning to improve forecast consumption, planning accuracy, and responsiveness.
- Support the implementation or enhancement of SAP IBP or APO, where applicable.
- Develop scenarios and provide data-driven recommendations to support leadership decision-making.
Partner Across the Business
- Collaborate with Procurement to ensure timely availability of raw materials and components.
- Partner with Manufacturing to optimize production schedules, resource utilization, and capacity while minimizing downtime.
- Work closely with Customer Service and Sales to support order fulfillment, customer commitments, and lead-time management.
- Serve as a key planning liaison across Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, Sales, Customer Service, IT, and Finance.
- Provide clear visibility into capacity constraints, material shortages, SAP exceptions, and supply risks.
- Use SAP-driven insights to influence cross-functional and enterprise-level decisions.
Strengthen Systems, Data & Reporting
- Maintain a high level of planning and master-data integrity within SAP.
- Monitor production planning metrics and KPIs to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
- Ensure planning-related master data and system parameters remain accurate and aligned with business requirements.
- Leverage SAP reporting capabilities, including SAP Analytics and embedded reporting, to turn planning data into actionable insights.
- Develop and maintain meaningful dashboards and performance measures that improve planning visibility and decision-making.
Drive Continuous Improvement
- Identify and implement process improvements that increase planning accuracy, stability, and efficiency.
- Reduce manual workarounds through improved SAP functionality, process discipline, and automation.
- Identify and eliminate root causes of MRP instability, including master-data issues and ineffective planning parameters.
- Support or lead Lean and Six Sigma initiatives using SAP data to identify opportunities and measure results.
- Standardize planning processes and best practices across value streams where appropriate.
How Success Will Be Measured
Key performance indicators may include:
- MRP stability and effectiveness of exception management
- On-Time In-Full (OTIF) delivery
- Forecast accuracy and consumption performance
- Inventory turns and days of supply
- Master-data accuracy
- Production schedule adherence
- Capacity utilization
- Planning process efficiency and reduction of manual interventions
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
- 7+ years of supply chain, materials, or production planning experience within an SAP-enabled manufacturing environment.
- 3–5 years of people leadership or supervisory experience.
- Strong hands-on experience with:
- SAP PP (Production Planning)
- SAP MM (Materials Management)
- MPS and MRP execution and exception management
- Production planning parameters and master data
- Deep understanding of MRP logic, planning strategies, capacity planning, inventory management, and SAP master-data structures.
- Experience with SAP APO and/or SAP IBP strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams and drive system-enabled process improvements.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Ability to translate complex planning and SAP data into clear business recommendations.
- APICS CPIM or CSCP certification preferred.
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