Job Description

JOB CONTEXT

Production planning, Material Planning and Demand Plannig is a key role in the IBP process, as the forecast it delivers will enable operations to meet the production targets timely, efficient, and cost effective. The Production Planner combines variety of information from sales, supply chain / procurement, operations (timely, as accurate as possible, useable in qualitative and quantitative terms) in order to properly plan the products that need to be produced. The Production Planner delivers an important piece of information for the IBP cycle.

The Production Planner role has typically a planning horizon of 1 to 15 months on monthly buckets and 3 months in weekly buckets The level of the role depends on the scope and complexity, based on number of customers and size & complexity of the product portfolio.
The Production Planner works closely with the Supply Planning manager (if present), Demand Planner and Material Planner. Depending on the size of the organization, these 3 planning roles maybe combined into one or two roles, merging the responsibilities of Supply and Production planning, and/or material planning.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Production Planning
  • Creates the Production plans based on approved demand plan (forecast) which is enriched by inputs from the commercial teams; for the operational (0-13 weeks) and tactical horizon (1-15 months)
  • Understand and anticipate on business developments and translate these into the Production plan: e.g. new product introductions, phase-in/out, events, seasonality, tenders, contracts.
  • As approved by IBP cycle as well as follow the business priorities set, secure Production plan constraining in case of supply restrictions and share the results with internal stakeholders (e.g. Operations, Commercial, Demand Planning and customer service)
  • Co-prepares, with e.g. Supply Planning manager and SC Manager the Supply review meeting MT IBP meeting
  • Follow-up of the decisions/constraints from the IBP cycle of the organisation and/or supply points
  • First point of contact for the Demand Planning team as well as Customer Service teams for the operational and/or tactical planning horizon

• Production scheduling (plan)
  • Translates the Production plan / customer orders into an optimal production schedule for the various production processes (receival & dispatch, mixing and filling departments) in a planning tool for the operational horizon (week X - X+1), considering the technical production & quality requirements and constraints
  • Communicates detailed planning through M3 with supply & material planning, production, warehousing, maintenance & logistics to ensure an optimal service level & efficient usage of resources
  • Continuously monitors production output to ensure that actual production meets scheduled production output and raise foreseen issues, advises corrective and preventive actions
  • Adjusts production schedule and plan based on changes in the supply plan or real production output
  • Consult with maintenance, engineering and product development with respect to time for (interim) maintenance, repair scheduling and trial productions
  • Aligns with Material Planner or team lead in case of availability issues
  • Creates robust production schedule that anticipates ad-hoc production or distribution issues
  • Solves problems and provides timely solution to ensure minimal impact to customer. Identifies most appropriate action plan and effectively communicates plans to internal and external stakeholders

• Distribution planning of products (if applicable)

• Placing distribution orders between raw material warehouses

• Monitoring planning (PDCA-cycle) & Analysis
  • Maintain Production planning master data, parameters and systems/software. Maintains relevant data, monitors and analyses to enable the PDCA cycle
  • Drive continuous improvement of the Plant(s) and production lines conformance to plan in alignment with Operations teams
  • Coordinate any activities related to the constraining and allocation process for the organisation and/or supply points and ensure the match of Production & supply
  • Prepares and monitors the planning related KPIs to help identify improvement areas and monitor performance
  • Keeps up to date with the latest planning theory and concepts in order to become as effective as possible
  • Coordinate with Operations and Demand Planning to determine priorities, corrective and preventive actions to prevent OOS and Waste in accordance with the internal procedures
  • Continuously look for opportunities & improvements within daily work context and take ownership in implementing solutions

• Continuous improvement & Projects
  • Proposes improvements to the (production) planning process and putting it into practice.
  • Leads and/or participates in various projects with the aim of improving our End-2-End planning reliability and planning processes

Material Planning

• Planning of raw and auxiliary materials
  • Determines the number of auxiliary materials, packaging materials and ingredients needed given the internal stock policies to assure the availability of materials based on production planning
  • Creates the Material plans based on MRP from the approved production plan for the operational (0-13 weeks) horizon
  • Adjusts planning based on changes in the production schedule or real production output
  • Aligns with schedule, supply planner or lead in case of availability issues
  • Anticipates plans based on ad hoc production or distribution issues
  • As approved by IBP cycle as well as follow the business priorities set, secure Production/Material plan constraining in case of supply restrictions and share the results with internal stakeholders (e.g. Operations)
  • Co-prepares, with e.g. Production Planner, Supply Network Planner and SC Manager the Supply review meeting.
  • Follow-up on the decisions/constraints from the IBP cycle of the organisation and/or supply points

• Ordering of raw and auxiliary materials
  • Placing purchase orders with suppliers, calls of raw materials and auxiliary materials at suppliers considering contract agreements and lead times to ensure timely delivery
  • Placing distribution orders from external warehouses
  • Switches in time to contingency supplier in case of shortage to prevent delivery issues
  • Discusses complaints with suppliers about delivery issues such as lead times, quality, packaging
  • Sends out purchase orders of raw materials and auxiliary materials to suppliers considering the lead time
  • Develop and maintain positive relationships with suppliers, resolving concerns and evaluating performance
  • Support Procurement with supplier meetings and negotiations

• Distribution planning of materials (if applicable)

• Optimize use of external warehouses
• Placing distribution orders between raw material warehouses

• Manage stocks of raw and auxiliary materials to ensure the availability of minimum stock
  • Monitors stock accuracy by checking physical stock vs administrative stock
  • Processes stock mutations and checks weights by comparing inbound and outbound weights
  • Monitors execution of FIFO principles
  • Monitors and coordinate the phase in / phase out of new materials to avoid OOS or obsoletes.
  • Coordinates and/or executes weekly and monthly stock counts and checks differences

• Monitoring planning, material & demand (PDCA-cycle) & Analysis
  • Maintain Production, Material & Demand planning master data, parameters and systems/software. Maintains relevant data, monitors and analyses to enable the PDCA cycle.
  • Drive continuous improvement of the Plant(s) and production line’s conformance to plan in alignment with Operations teams.
  • Coordinate any activities related to the constraining and allocation process for the organisation and/or supply points and ensure the match of Demand & Supply
  • Prepares and monitors the planning related KPIs to help identify improvement areas and monitor performance.
  • Keeps up to date with the latest planning theory and concepts in order to become as effective as possible
  • Coordinate with Operations and Planning Teams to determine priorities, corrective and preventive actions to prevent OOS and Waste in accordance with the internal procedures
  • Continuously look for opportunities & improvements within a daily work context and take ownership in implementing solutions

• Continuous improvement & Projects
  • Proposes improvements to the (production & material) planning process and put it into practice
  • Leads and/or participates in various projects with the aim of improving our End-2-End planning reliability and planning processes

• Demand Planning
  • Creates the demand plans based on baseline (statistical) forecast which is enriched by inputs from the commercial teams; for the operational (0-13 weeks) and tactical horizon (4-15 months)
  • Understands how to use statistical forecasting to create a solid baseline forecast and maintains, reviews and cleans historical data and determines if this can be applied to the portfolio.
  • Understand the impact of business dynamics and translate them into the demand plan: NPD, phase-in/out, promotions, events, seasonality, tenders, contracts, and activations.
  • If requested, provide different demand scenarios to the supply chain.
  • Secure demand plan constraining in case of supply restrictions and share the results with internal stakeholders (e.g., supply, sales and customer service)
  • Prepares the account & demand review meeting and provides input for the MT IBP meeting with the commercial teams.
  • Follow-up on the decisions/constraints from the IBP cycle of the organisation and/or supply points
  • First point of contact for the commercial organisation for the operational and/or tactical planning horizon

• Monitoring planning (PDCA-cycle) & Analysis
  • Maintain demand planning master data and systems and software, maintains relevant data and monitors / analyses trends to further enhance the forecast.
  • Drive continuous improvement of the forecast accuracy and bias in alignment with the commercial teams.
  • Monitor, analyse, understand, and challenge the quality of the enrichments provided by the commercial teams (assumptions, deltas, consumption, trends, issues, gaps, risks, opportunities)
  • Identify sales opportunities and risks and propose push sales on available capacities and RM.
  • Coordinate any activities related to the constraining and allocation process for the organisation and/or supply points and ensure the match of demand & supply.
  • Prepares and monitors the KPIs forecast accuracy, bias, and error to help identify improvement areas and monitor performance.
  • Keeps up to date with the latest forecasting theory and concepts to become as effective as possible, including the use of aggregated forecasting techniques and statistical methods.
  • Coordinate with Supply and Commercial teams (bridging commercial and Supply Chain) to determine priorities, corrective, and preventive actions to prevent OOS and Waste in accordance with the internal procedures.
  • Continuously look for opportunities & improvements within daily work context and take ownership in implementing solutions.

• Collaborative planning
  • Prepares relevant material to facilitate discussion and facilitates / manages the monthly demand meeting, in which the input from Sales & Marketing is discussed beforehand.
  • Achieves consensus for operational demand forecasts by facilitating a collaborative planning process with Sales & Marketing.
  • Collaborate with key customers planning teams to tend to collaborative and integrated plans.

• Continuous improvement
  • Proposes improvements to the forecasting process and put it into practice
     
• Projects

Participates in various projects with the aim of improving the forecast reliability and/or the forecasting process

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Production

• Delivery On Time In Full (OTIF)
• Forecast Accuracy RMR/RMN
• Finished Goods stock-outs
• Waste costs (e.g. Raw Material losses, Obsoletes)
• Plan and schedule conformance & performance
• Planned Stops
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Inventory levels (days / value) / Working capital (Inventory volume targets)

Material

• Forecast Accuracy RMR/RMN
• Plan and schedule conformance & performance
• Planned Stops
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Inventory Budget / Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO)
• Customer On Time In Full (OTIF)
• Slow Moving and Obsolete Stock inc. Write-Off
• Goods Inwards Flow / Traffic Planning
• Supplier Performance
• Invoice Queries
• Product portfolio, # articles and formulations
• Raw Material stock-outs

Demand

• Delivery On Time In Full (OTIF)
• Forecast Accuracy (FA)
• Forecast Bias (FB)
• Forecast Accuracy RMR/RMN

Finished Goods stock-outs

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in the field of supply chain, operations, economics, technical engineering or similar, with at least 3-5 years of work experience in a comparable position
• Experience with forecasting and sales & operations planning in the animal feed industry or any other industry such as FMCG
• Experience working cross-functionally with other departments in order to achieve best results
• Excellent knowledge and expertise in ERP tools in both in term of functionality and usage. Microsoft Office (in particular of MS Excel) is a requirement and knowledge of Infor M3 and DMP are desirable
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, know how to convince and persuade, and always maintain a constructive, trusted relation with your stakeholders
• Fair understanding of Manufacturing challenges and manufacturing performance leverage
• Able to demonstrate strong numerical capability with a passion for detailed analysis
• An inquisitive approach, able to identify risks and opportunities for appropriate follow up
• English + additional language eventually

COMPETENCIES

• Interpersonal; Building and Maintaining Relationships, Cross Cultural Awareness
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, know how to convince and persuade people at all levels
• Can adapt communication according to local contexts
• Strong hands-on mentality
• Result driven
• Strong with numbers / analytical mind-set