Description
Plan and balance demand, supply, inventory, and capacity across the network to meet service, cost, and cash targets. Analyze forecasts and supply chain data to create production, procurement, and replenishment plans and drive continuous improvement.
- • Identify opportunities for inventory and working-capital reduction while protecting service.
- • Monitor demand patterns, seasonality, and market events to adjust plans.
- • Enter and maintain planning master data in ERP/APS systems.
- • Maintain supplier schedules and releases generated by MRP/DRP.
- • Determine optimal lot sizes, pack sizes, and order policies.
- • Contact suppliers to confirm capacity, lead times, and material availability.
- • Communicate with suppliers, manufacturing, sales, and 3PLs to align supply plans.
- • Write or revise standard operating procedures for demand and supply planning.
- • Review replenishment and inventory procedures to improve efficiency and cost.
- • Recommend improvements to planning processes, parameters, and data quality.
- • Provide analyses on forecast accuracy, bias, capacity utilization, backorders, and service.
- • Prepare and present S&OP/IBP decks and planning KPI reports.
- • Manage planning systems so parameters reflect lead times, yields, and constraints.
- • Monitor inventory transactions and reconcile discrepancies across sites and warehouses.
- • Maintain planning and inventory databases and ensure data integrity.
- • Develop or maintain models for demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and scenario planning.
- • Confer with cross-functional teams to optimize service levels, cost, and inventory.
- • Compute and publish metrics such as fill rate, OTIF, inventory turns, and days of supply.
- • Interpret data on demand, supply, capacity, supplier performance, and production reliability.
- • Analyze planning data using statistical analysis, data modeling, and cost-benefit techniques.
- • Monitor inventory and replenishment status across the network in real time.
- • Reschedule production, purchase orders, and transfers to balance supply with changing demand.
- • Reallocate constrained supply across customers or locations based on priorities.
- • Identify and execute excess and obsolete inventory mitigation and disposition plans.
- • Set safety stocks and reorder points by SKU and location, reviewing regularly.
- • Run MRP/DRP, convert planned orders to purchase orders and work orders, and track execution.
- • Plan new product introductions and end-of-life transitions to minimize risk and waste.
- • Assess rough-cut and detailed capacity and propose shifts, overtime, or outsourcing as needed.
- • Support budgets and long-range plans with volume, mix, and capacity assumptions.
- • Conduct root-cause analyses for service failures, stockouts, and forecast errors.
- • Coordinate VMI/CPFR replenishment with key customers and suppliers.
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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
