Manager of Planning

Central States•Tontitown, AR

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager of Planning manages the planning function, including forecasting, demand planning, inventory planning, offsite inventory, and warehouse material planning. This leader executes planning priorities, facilitates the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process, and helps ensure inventory investments align with customer demand, production requirements, warehouse capacity, service objectives, and working capital goals. The Manager oversees planning processes, systems, analytics, and team performance while coordinating cross-functional actions across Purchasing, Operations, Sales, and Finance.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Business, Finance, Engineering, or a related field required; equivalent related experience may be considered.
5+ years of progressive experience in demand planning, inventory management, supply chain planning, or a related discipline, including 3+ years leading a team or planning function.
Demonstrated experience managing or facilitating an IBP or S&OP process and presenting recommendations to senior leadership.
Demonstrated success supporting inventory optimization, working capital improvement, and planning-process improvement, preferably across multiple locations.
Proficiency with ERP and planning systems required.
Strong financial understanding, including working capital, inventory carrying cost, landed cost, and scenario analysis.
Strong communication skills with the ability to frame complex planning issues as clear recommendations and business decisions.
Collaborates effectively within a team environment while taking ownership of individual deliverables and departmental objectives.
Consistently exhibits and displays the company’s values of “Own It. Can Do. Act in Love.”

Nice To Haves

APICS CPIM, CSCP, or other supply chain certification preferred.
Manufacturing, distribution, building products, or other complex multi-location inventory experience preferred.
Proficiency with Power BI or comparable business intelligence tools; SQL experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Manage the monthly forecasting and IBP process across assigned product categories, locations, and planning groups.
Facilitate a disciplined consensus-demand process and decision calendar with Sales, Operations, Finance, and Purchasing.
Maintain and improve the methods, assumptions, hierarchy, and data standards used to translate historical usage, sales trends, seasonality, customer demand, and market changes into an actionable forecast.
Prepare and facilitate forecast reviews, clearly communicating risks, opportunities, constraints, scenarios, and inventory implications to senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
Develop and manage the annual purchasing and supply plan, balancing landed cost, capacity, supplier commitments, service requirements, and working capital targets.
Monitor forecast accuracy, bias, and value-add metrics; coordinate corrective actions and continuous improvement across the planning process.
Implement inventory strategies and manage targets that balance customer service, production continuity, warehouse constraints, risk, and working capital objectives.
Coordinate actions addressing excess, obsolete, slow-moving, aged, and high-risk inventory and track accountability for disposition.
Manage replenishment and segmentation approaches based on demand patterns, supplier lead times, service targets, operating constraints, and business criticality.
Oversee analysis of inventory turns, days on hand, stockouts, carrying cost, and cash-to-cash performance; translate findings into practical recommendations for senior leadership.
Develop inventory projections and scenario analyses to support budgeting, capacity decisions, and working capital targets.
Manage operating standards and performance for offsite inventory programs, external storage locations, supplier stocking programs, customer inventory arrangements, and consigned inventory within approved strategy and budgets.
Administer and recommend improvements to safety-stock, service-level, and inventory-policy standards based on demand variability, lead-time performance, business risk, and customer requirements.
Manage the maintenance and optimization of min/max parameters for raw materials, accessories, and purchased components.
Coordinate parameter changes in response to demand shifts, supplier performance, forecast variation, usage patterns, and approved business decisions.
Manage planning data, reporting standards, dashboards, and analytical tools that support forecasting, inventory, warehouse, and leadership decision-making.
Maintain KPI definitions and reporting for forecast accuracy, bias, inventory turns, days on hand, fill rate, stockouts, excess and obsolete inventory, capacity, and offsite utilization.
Drive effective planning-system utilization, master-data discipline, and process controls; provide input on technology priorities.
Translate complex data into clear recommendations, tradeoffs, and actions for senior leaders and cross-functional teams.
Perform other duties and activities related to the department as necessary to support overall operations and responsibilities, even if not specifically listed above.
Provide leadership, direction, and guidance to assigned staff to ensure departmental goals and objectives are achieved.
Responsibilities include hiring, training, coaching, evaluating performance, approving time off, and administering disciplinary action in alignment with company policies and procedures.
Foster a positive, collaborative work environment that supports employee development and upholds company values.