Regional Leader - Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning

POSITION PURPOSE

This role is responsible for developing and executing medium and long term demand and capacity planning processes across the Americas region which includes covers four manufacturing plants.   This role reports directly to the Regional Vice President, Operations and serves as a key liaison between Sales, Supply Chain, Manufacturing Engineering, Plant Operations, and HR.

Key responsibilities include:


* Leading the regional Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) process and capacity planning activities.


* Translating demand forecasts into medium and long term production plans to ensure operational alignment.

Each plant has a production planner that plans the weekly, daily, and shift loads by work center in that specific plant. 


* Providing analysis and recommendations that inform the annual budget and long-term strategy.


* Supporting decision-making in a low-volume, high-mix manufacturing environment.

This position requires strong analytical skills, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to manage complex planning challenges in a global capital goods manufacturing business across four manufacturing sites.

 

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

Capacity & Factory Loading


* Analyze actual orders and forecasted demand to determine optimal factory allocation across 4 plants (considering lead-time, capability, cost, and capacity).


* Create and maintain a rolling 12–24 month capacity outlook by product family, value stream, and work center.

 

Requirements Forecasting


* Develop forward-looking requirements for:



* Equipment & tooling: specific machine types, takt-time assumptions, changeover/time loss, utilization targets.


* Manufacturing floor space: bays/cells, material flow, buffer/kanban sizing.


* Labor & shifts: headcount by skill, shift structure per work area, overtime and temp strategies.


* Supplier spend & capacity: align external capacity with internal plans; highlight risk, ramp, and long-lead items.

 

SIOP Leadership & Governance


* Lead weekly SIOP cadence: demand review, supply/capacity review, executive alignment; publish gap-to-plan and mitigation actions.


* Facilitate monthly capacity reviews with the Regional Vice President Operations and plant leaders; drive decisions on load leveling, outsourcing, and investment.


* Provide inputs to the annual operating budget (CapEx, OpEx, staffing) and annual strategic plan (capacity expansions, footprint, automation).

 

Cross-Functional Engagement


* Sales: validate demand signals, program launches, customer priorities.


* SCM: confirm supplier capacity, lead times, risk, and cost impacts.


* Manufacturing Engineering: define equipment/process requirements and routings.


* Plant & HR Managers: plan staffing, shifts, training/skill ramp, and hiring timelines.

 

Analytics & Tools


* Build and maintain Power BI dashboards and Excel models (scenario planning, sensi...