Planning Manager

ZipRecruiter; Leeming Bar; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A recruitment agency seeks a Planning Manager in Leeming Bar to oversee production planning and manage a team. The ideal candidate will have experience in production planning within manufacturing or FMCG, strong leadership skills, and proficiency in SAP. This office-based role requires collaboration with multiple teams to ensure aligned capacity and demand plans.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in production planning or supply chain management within manufacturing or FMCG sectors.
• Strong knowledge of ERP/MRP systems, preferably SAP.
• Experience managing and developing planning teams.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Understanding of procurement, inventory management, and capacity planning principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the planning function, overseeing strategic and operational planning.
• Own the end-to-end planning process, including demand and capacity planning.
• Collaborate with teams to develop and communicate planning horizons.
• Manage and develop the Planning Team providing guidance and support.
• Foster a collaborative and continuous improvement culture.

Skills

Strong organisation

Leadership

Communication skills

Analytical skills

Problem-solving skills

Team player

Tools

SAP

Excel

Data analysis tools

Job description

Job Description

Planning Manager

Location: Leeming Bar

Salary: £40,000 - £45,000

Hours: Monday – Friday

Type: Permanent

Purpose:

To lead and manage the planning function, overseeing both strategic and operational planning activities. Responsible for coordinating production forecasts, capacity planning, demand alignment, and finished goods optimisation. Provides leadership to the Planning Team to ensure effective delivery of plans that meet customer demand and production capabilities

Duties:

Own the end-to-end planning process: demand planning, capacity planning, material planning, and short-term production scheduling.

Lead the team in turning customer forecasts into actionable, optimised production and procurement plans.

Ensure all planning parameters are accurate and maintained in SAP (inc. Production Versions, Recipe Groups).

Identify and address capacity bottlenecks, this should be across the short, medium and long-term.

Collaborate with sales, commercial, and production to develop and communicate 12–24-month planning horizons.

Lead the team to ensure optimisation of internal and external storage capacity for Finished Goods.

Act as the main interface between customer demand, production capacity, and supply continuity.

Work closely with Sales, Production, Technical, Commercial, and Warehouse teams to align capacity, Finished Goods inventory, and demand plans.

Ensure strategic meetings take place to communicate long-term planning both internally and externally.

Develop processes and operational structure to ensure the optimisation and future evolution of the department.

Together with the Commercial Operations Manager, manage the commercial consequence associated with production, production planning accuracy and line availability.

Manage and develop the Planning Team providing guidance, support, and performance management.

Foster a collaborative and continuous improvement culture within the Planning Team.

Attend daily operations/planning meetings, weekly production meetings and monthly management meetings.

This role will be office based, however the need to occasionally take a call out of hours or on a weekend to make decisions may be required.

Requirements:

The Planning Manager must have proven experience in production planning or supply chain management within manufacturing or FMCG sectors. The following are elementary requirement for the role:

Strong organisation, leadership and communication skills.

Strong knowledge of ERP/MRP systems, preferably SAP.

Experience managing and developing planning teams.

Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, proficient in Excel and data analysis tools.

Strong communication and stakeholder engagement capabilities.

Understanding of procurement, inventory management, and capacity planning principles.

Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Willingness to work flexibly

Must be a team player and demonstrate successful experience working in a cross functional international team environment

For more information please contact Imperial Recruitment Group