Description
Analyze and balance supply and demand for a product portfolio, coordinating forecasting, inventory, procurement, production, and distribution plans across the product life cycle to meet service, cost, and cash targets.
- • Maintain strong relationships with Sales, Customer Service, suppliers, and key customers to align demand and service expectations.
- • Develop a deep understanding of customer demand patterns and translate them into executable supply plans.
- • Plan and allocate materials, capacity, and finished goods to meet forecast and order demand.
- • Coordinate S&OP/IBP processes to align demand, supply, and inventory targets with business goals.
- • Govern master data and protect confidential forecasts, BOMs, and pricing-sensitive information.
- • Review supply chain KPIs (OTIF, fill rate, inventory turns, forecast accuracy) against targets and SLAs.
- • Build and maintain planning calendars, MPS/MRP parameters, and responsibility matrices.
- • Prioritize SKU and site planning activities, track execution, and ensure resource availability.
- • Publish supply, inventory, and capacity plans, highlighting risks, gaps, and recovery actions.
- • Support new product introductions by interpreting BOMs and routings and securing materials and capacity.
- • Present scenarios and trade-offs on service, cost, and cash to stakeholders and leadership.
- • Develop supply scenarios and proposals with lead-time, capacity, and cost estimates.
- • Plan aftermarket and service-parts supply, safety stocks, and replenishment strategies.
- • Lead cross-functional planning projects and analytics to improve forecast, inventory, and fulfillment.
- • Assess the supply, capacity, and inventory impacts of engineering changes and design alternatives.
- • Create and maintain SOPs, work instructions, and training for planning systems and processes.
- • Evaluate and apply planning technologies (ERP, MRP, APS) and parameter optimization to improve performance.
- • Optimize inventory policies, network stocking points, and replenishment settings to balance service and cost.
- • Coordinate build plans and commitments with contract manufacturers and key suppliers.
- • Manage product lifecycle transitions, including samples, phase-in/phase-out, and obsolescence mitigation.
- • Perform cost-to-serve, inventory, and component risk analyses to support decision-making.
- • Mentor junior planners and support hiring or onboarding as needed.
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Supply Chain & Transportation
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
