Material Requirements Planning and Logistics Manager

Aspen Pharma Group; Gqeberha; On-site; ZAR 450 000 - 650 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading pharmaceutical company in Gqeberha, South Africa, is looking for a Materials Requirements Planning and Logistics Manager. This role involves overseeing the planning, procurement, and logistics to ensure efficient operations. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field and 5-10 years of experience in supply chain management. Responsibilities include developing sourcing strategies, managing the planning and ordering of materials, and optimizing inventory levels. If you have strong leadership skills and logistics experience, this position offers growth opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5 - 10 years’ relevant experience in a supply chain or planning or procurement role.
• 3 - 5 years proven people and process management experience.

Responsibilities

• Oversee planning, procurement, shipping, and inbound logistics.
• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for freight transportation.
• Lead and manage the planning and ordering of time-critical materials.

Skills

Knowledge of Pharmaceutical processes

Logistics Management

Material Requirements Planning

Customer Awareness

Planning and Organising

Education

Bachelor’s degree in finance or Supply Chain Management

Job description

Overview

• The Materials Requirements Planning and Logistics Manager will oversee the planning, procurement, shipping, control, and inbound logistics of materials and products according to company needs and customer requirements.
• Schedules and forecasts the right volumes of materials, goods and products inbound to the business from its supply chain companies.
• To ensure that strategic material planning processes are in place to enable operational and production continuity. Takes a co‑ordinating lead, working closely with internal and external parties to ensure supply of materials is in place to satisfy production requirements.
• Able to deliver efficient, effective and flexible solutions to meet production requirements.
• Responsible for ensuring the right products are delivered to the right location on time and in full, to the quality required and in the most cost‑effective way.
• Monitors and oversees the transportation of goods from the supplier to Aspen Factories and/or our Contract manufacturers.

Responsibilities

Logistics Management

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for freight transportation and logistics services to meet the organization's requirements.
• Stay updated with industry trends, regulatory changes, and emerging technologies in freight and logistics to drive innovation and efficiency.
• Lead the logistics strategy and operations across Sea/Air Freight, Transportation Inbound and Reverse Logistics.
• Manage 3PL provider and corresponding supply chain logistics to ensure seamless end‑to‑end supply chain integration.
• Create and implement best practice logistics principles, policies and processes across the organisation to improve operational and financial performance.
• Deliver solutions to logistics problems while maintaining high levels of quality and service within budgetary requirements.
• Monitor quality, quantity, delivery times, and transport costs.
• Negotiate rates and contracts with transportation and logistics providers.
• Recommend optimal transport modes, routes or frequency. Select carriers/suppliers and monitor service against performance criteria. Ensure carrier compliance with company policies or procedures for product transit or delivery.
• Resolve problems concerning transportation, logistics systems. Review impact of logistics changes, such as routing, shipping modes, product volumes or carriers and report results to others.

Material Requirements Planning

• Lead and manage the planning and ordering of time‑critical materials to support manufacturing and support functions within the organization, while minimizing freight costs and maintaining optimal inventory levels (avoid both shortages and overages).
• Act as escalation point for all material requirements and/or shortages.
• Identify and communicate potential supply risks and collaborate with Production, Procurement and Supply Planning teams to investigate and resolve issues.
• Enforce the use of MRP and maintenance of MRP master data parameters to ensure accurate demand signals (i.e. lead times, MOQ’s, lot sizing, safety stock); identify and resolve system and/or BOM inaccuracies to preserve data integrity.
• Lead daily, weekly and monthly material planning meetings to ensure supply continuity.
• Report on KPIs (inventory management, production interruptions, expediting material, manage freight costs through planning etc.) and enforce best practices.
• Foster and develop a strong team of material planner/buyers through training and coaching. Tasks include proactively using available planning resources, communicating job expectations, providing performance feedback and managing the team in line with Aspen policies and values.
• Collaborate with service providers, suppliers and departments across all Aspen SA Operations from logistics, sourcing, engineering, manufacturing, service, and supply planning to support ongoing operational and long‑term objectives.
• Identify and lead process improvement initiatives related to execution and planned growth, including but not limited to procedural updates and communication pathways, improved hand‑offs from Sourcing to material planning and from material planning to internal customers, inventory optimisation scenarios, analytics and deliverables on KPI’s, and employee training programmes.
• Work with suppliers, sourcing team and warehousing to establish delivery quantities and frequency for on‑time deliveries, ensuring effective inventory management and service to all stakeholders in achieving company objectives on product supply.
• Collaborate with procurement, engineering, production and warehousing to coordinate changes in line with inventory management, order timing for part revisions and new product launches, targeting minimal obsolescence.
• Participate in and champion MRP development/implementation activities, including specification writing, development, testing, and training.
• Custodian to all activities related to inventory management and inventory policy across Aspen SA Operations.

Requirements

Formal Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Supply Chain Management, Engineering or a similar field.

Overall experience

• 5 - 10 years’ relevant experience in a supply chain or planning or procurement role.
• 3 - 5 proven people and process management experience.

Work‑specific skills & exposure

• Knowledge of Pharmaceutical, Food and or FMCG manufacturing processes and operations environment.
• Experienced in leading and developing teams.
• Material Requirements Planning.
• Logistics Management.

Skills and attributes

• Customer Awareness.
• Meeting Deadlines.
• Making Decisions.
• Planning and Organising.
• Interrogating Information.
• Offering Insights.