Production Capability Director

Global Production Planning Excellence Lead

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced professional to drive world-class planning capabilities across a global manufacturing network. This role emphasizes the standardization, optimization, and continuous improvement of production scheduling, material planning, and capacity planning processes. You will act as a strategic bridge between global supply chain strategy and local execution, ensuring consistent utilization of best-in-class processes, tools, technology, and data across all sites and supplier interfaces.

Key Responsibilities

• Define, maintain, and deploy global standards, policies, and best-in-class processes for production planning, MRP, RCCP, detailed scheduling, purchasing, and end-to-end planning KPIs.
• Ensure harmonized adoption of global processes to create consistency and scalability across manufacturing sites.
• Identify planning bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and maturity gaps through data analysis and cross-site review.
• Lead the design and execution of improvement initiatives leveraging digital tools, automation, and analytics to enhance service, productivity, and inventory performance.
• Own the global production planning and scheduling tools, ensuring strong master data accuracy, system governance, and continuous enhancement.
• Drive digital transformation initiatives related to planning technologies.
• Assess maturity across sites and design targeted training programs to upskill planners and drive functional excellence.
• Lead and expand a global Community of Practice, fostering knowledge sharing, coaching, and cross-regional expertise development.
• Conduct planning audits, maturity assessments, and performance reviews to ensure compliance with global standards.
• Monitor and report end-to-end planning performance, identifying gaps and supporting corrective actions.
• Partner with Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Sales, Procurement, and IT to ensure alignment of production plans with demand signals, capacity, and inventory goals.
• Support integrated decision-making across functions to improve planning agility and stability.

Qualifications

• Proven leader with over 10 years of experience in production planning or supply chain planning.
• Strong understanding of MRP, RCCP, and inventory optimization.
• Demonstrated end-to-end planning ownership, preferably within a regional or global operating model.
• Experience in implementing global standards and leading planning transformation programs.
• Hands-on knowledge of advanced planning systems (e.g., Kinaxis, PP-DS) and ERP platforms.
• Strong analytical and data-driven mindset with a continuous improvement orientation.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills in a complex, global environment.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, or a related field.