Senior Supply Planning Manager

Bel, makers of iconic brands including Babybel, The Laughing Cow, Boursin, and GoGo Squeez, and more, is a growing global company that values your contributions, strives to create a sense of belonging for everyone and offers career growth and development opportunities, as well as competitive total compensation and meaningful well-being benefits from day one. For All, For Good, our company signature, reflects Bel’s commitment to sustainability and healthier and responsible food for all. Bel Brands USA has been named Chicago's "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" for 10 years in a row. The company has headquarters in Chicago for our Bel Cheese business and in New York City for GoGo Squeez. Bel operates five manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI, Leitchfield, KY, and Brookings, SD, Nampa, ID, and Traverse City, MI.

Job Description Summary

The Sr. Supply Planning Manager is responsible for leading and developing a team to improve the product availability and inventory management for the U.S. operations by developing constrained short term and long-term production plans for the manufacturing facilities and co-manufacturers.  This role will contribute to the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process by providing the leadership required for achieving continuous improvement of the Supply Planning, Rough Cut Capacity Planning and Master Planning processes. This is a #hybrid role, based in Chicago office (2-3 days/week in office).

 

Essential duties and responsibilities

• Lead the Supply Planning and Rough-Cut Capacity Planning processes for U.S. business unit.
• Facilitate the monthly Supply Review Meetings for U.S. business unit.
• Lead, animate and empower a team of Master Planners.
• Deliver and drive improvements on KPIs of Service Level & Inventory.
• Interface with the functional leaders in Demand Planning, Customer Service, Plant Operations and Co-Manufacturing to obtain the necessary information for the production planning process.
• Lead the team that manages the relevant manufacturing macro-constraints and data (shelf life duration, new products, etc.) to develop and maintain an enriched mid- and long-term rolling production plan.
• Develop processes and controls to minimize short-coded or distressed products, as well as product shortages.
• Lead the team that creates and optimizes weekly and monthly production plans for finished goods to meet sales forecasts, customer orders and inventory needs.  Interface with plant schedulers to convert the firm weekly plans to finite schedules considering equipment and people resource constraints (Capacity Planning).
• Manage the overall inventory for finished goods.  Develop improved inventory management processes and targets using JDA/Manugistics. 
• Manage supply plans and inventories for US contract manufacturers and for imports of finished products manufactured outside of the US.
• Monitor performance and recommend action plans that ensure that production stability, inventory targets and customer service are achieved.
• Conduct production plan simulations and prepare scenario analysis using JDA/Manugistics. Communicate opportunities, issues, and recommendations for resolution.
• Participate in the annual budgeting process, particularly relating to annual production and import plans. 
• Provide oversight for distribution improvements and customer sourcing studies.

Qualifications and Competencies

Minimum degree and experience required:

• Bachelor Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business or related field required, Master Degree in Supply Chain or related field preferred
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in a leadership role in capacity planning, scheduling and inventory management, preferably in a CPG environment.
• Must have advanced MS Excel and PowerPoint skills
• Must have experience working with advanced planning systems (Kinaxis/JDA).
• Experience implementing advance planning systems preferred.
• SAP BW experience preferred.
• Expert working knowledge of S&OP processes.
• Proven management and leadership skills.
• Ability to clearly communicate supply planning scenarios and business implications to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to embrace and drive change. Act as the change agent for the entire supply chain team.
• Demonstrated superior oral and written communication skills.
• Excellent time management and capable of effectively manage multi-tasking.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and ability to develop effective action plans.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and fostering teamwork.
• APICS - CPIM highly desired.
• English required, Spanish and/or French a plus
• 10% Travel required