Production Planning & Forecasting Manager

Can you see production problems before everyone else does?

Do you enjoy looking weeks ahead rather than worrying about today's firefighting? Are you confident enough to challenge assumptions, influence senior stakeholders and ensure manufacturing stays ahead of customer demand?

We're looking for an experienced Planning professional to take ownership of medium-term production planning and forecasting for a growing UK manufacturer.

This isn't a scheduling role.

It's about building robust production plans, improving forecasting capability and ensuring the business has clear visibility of demand, capacity and potential risks well before they impact customers.

You'll become the link between Sales, Production, Procurement, Warehousing and Logistics, developing plans that enable the business to deliver outstanding customer service whilst maximising operational efficiency.

Your primary objective will be to:

Develop medium-term production plans and demand forecasts that balance customer requirements, manufacturing capacity and material availability, ensuring the business remains ahead of future operational challenges.

You'll identify risks before they become problems, recommend practical solutions and ensure the business understands the operational impact of planning decisions.

You'll have the confidence to challenge where plans aren't achievable, raise concerns early and influence the decisions needed to keep production on track.

• Develop and manage rolling 4-8 week production plans
• Improve forecasting accuracy by working closely with Sales and Finance
• Balance customer demand with manufacturing capacity and material availability
• Identify risks to production, supply chain and customer delivery well in advance
• Develop mitigation plans and communicate risks clearly across the business
• Monitor planning performance, schedule adherence and OTIF

You'll already have experience within Production Planning, Operations Planning, Supply Chain Planning or Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) in a manufacturing environment.

You'll bring:

• Experience developing medium-term production plans and forecasts
• Strong understanding of demand planning, capacity planning and material planning
• The confidence to influence, challenge and communicate with stakeholders across the business
• The ability to remain calm, objective and commercially focused when priorities change

Experience of S&OP, Integrated Business Planning (IBP), Lean Manufacturing or Continuous Improvement would be advantageous.

This is an opportunity to build and shape how planning is done.

You'll play a key role in moving the business from reactive scheduling towards proactive planning, giving Operations greater visibility, improving forecasting capability and helping deliver industry-leading customer service.

If you're someone who enjoys thinking ahead, solving complex planning challenges and making a genuine impact on business performance, we'd love to hear from you.