Planning Manager IV

AFL•Duncan, SC

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

AFL manufactures industry-leading fiber optic cable, connectivity and accessories and provides engineering and installation services for some of the largest telecom customers in the world. Our company was founded in 1984 with a single fiber optic cable and today, we manufacture thousands of products, generate an excess of $4B in revenue, and employ approximately 12,000 associates worldwide. At AFL, we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset. We hire and train each individual, investing in them to ensure success in their careers. With a commitment to professional development and growth, let us connect you to your next career opportunity.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Mathematics, Engineering or a related field.
7+ years in supply chain, operations, or analytics, with manufacturing planning and systems improvement experience.
Demonstrated team leadership, coaching, cross-functional project management, and S&OP experience.
Practical knowledge of demand/supply planning, forecasting, logistics, and advanced planning systems or comparable constraint-based planning.
Working knowledge of ERP systems, manufacturing data, inventory controls, MRP, replenishment, scheduling, traceability, and statistics.
Excel skills, including pivot tables, and Power BI reporting/modeling skills.

Nice To Haves

Preferred experience with IBP/ITP processes

Responsibilities

Leads production planning system strategy and execution, IBP integration with production, and fiber utilization across the Cable manufacturing network.
Turns demand into plans that account for capacity, materials and inventory.
Improves service, planning accuracy, fiber yield and working capital.
Supervises a team of planning system analysts.
Sets priorities, coaches the team, and oversees planning integration.
Directs work on production planning system reliability, scheduling accuracy, troubleshooting, and issue resolution.
Ensures production planning models and data reflect manufacturing constraints and accurate items, bills of material, routes, orders, work in process, and inventory.
Prioritizes system enhancements and deployments.
Coordinates IT/vendor support, alerts, and backups.
Oversees requirements, model/data integrity, SQL/Oracle interfaces, testing, user acceptance and release readiness.
Improves planning tools, reporting, controls and workflows using Lean/Six Sigma principles.
Ensures training, documentation, and reports support reliable use.
Develops and maintains fiber consumption strategies that maximize conversion efficiency from raw material to finished goods.
Analyzes fiber yield performance, identifying loss drivers and implementing corrective action plans to improve conversion rates.
Optimizes the systematic utilization of short fiber lengths to minimize scrap and increase usable output.
Defines and tracks key performance metrics related to fiber utilization, scrap, and yield.
Partners with Commercial teams to understand product mix impacts on fiber utilization and recommend alignment opportunities.
Partners with Supply Chain to align purchasing and stocking strategies with optimized consumption plans.
Collaborates with the Fiber Department to execute the fiber utilization strategy.
Sets objectives, manages workloads, assesses performance and coaches planning system analysts.
Builds cross-training, documentation and support coverage.
Balances daily support and improvement projects.
Manages planning assumptions, data ownership, and escalation paths with Manufacturing, Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, and IT.
Serves as the primary operations interface between IBP Supply Planning, ITP, and Cable production planning.
Works with the production planning team to resolve scheduling conflicts within delegated authority.
Escalates major service, capacity, inventory, or system risks with recommendations.
Keeps forecasts, schedules, and fiber plans aligned with business priorities.