Production Planner needed at Diageo

About the Role 

• As a Production Planner within our Materials Planning Africa team, you will play a critical role in managing the end-to-end supply chain network across production sites and third-party partners. Your primary focus will be to develop a reliable, insight-driven production plan that meets consumer and customer service objectives while ensuring optimal production and distribution efficiencies. 
• You will balance market demand with operational capabilities, perform medium- to long-term capacity planning, and recommend solutions to resolve potential imbalances.  
• You will be measured across key KPIs at both country and Africa levels, including Days Forward Cover, Inventory as a Percentage of NSV, Inventory Turns, SLOBS, write-offs, capacity utilisation, and overall production plan stability. 

Key Responsibilities: 

Production Planning 

• Drive the production planning process, ensuring the creation of feasible and robust plans that meet market requirements. 
• Manage the supply network plan (frozen period to planning horizon) for the assigned business area to deliver target OTIFNE service and inventory levels. 
• Translate demand signals into an achievable production plan that meets customer expectations. 
• Produce weekly and monthly reporting, including KPIs, health trackers, risk assessments, and SKU exceptions. 
• Collaborate with Production Site Management and schedulers to ensure seamless execution of plans. 
• Address supply disruptions through consensus-driven solutions or escalation where required. 
• Support innovation by aligning production planning to new product launches and improving speed to market. 
• Identify risks and opportunities across the supply plan and communicate these effectively to stakeholders. 
• Conduct root cause analysis across multiple information streams to support codification and continuous improvement. 

Data Management 

• Maintain and update planning parameters within SAP APO to ensure accurate and reliable planning outputs. 
• Ensure operational capacities, constraints, and resources are accurately reflected in the system. 
• Continuously review demand signals within the planning horizon and adjust planning assumptions accordingly. 
• Evaluate batch sizes, cycle frequencies, MOQs and stock levels to drive optimal market availability. 

S&OP Leadership 

• Represent Supply Planning within the S&OP process, ensuring supply and demand are effectively balanced. 
• Lead the Market Supply Review for your assigned market, providing clear insights and recommendations to support decision-making. 

Capacity Planning 

• Regularly reassess production site capacity and highlight constraints or potential issues to the Supply Planning Manager and local market stakeholders. 
• Recommend solutions to mitigate capacity imbalances and protect service levels. 

Innovation & Inventory Management 

• Monitor innovation inventory levels on an ongoing basis. 
• Partner with Supply and Commercial teams to manage stock-outs, stock breaches, and exceptional scenarios. 
• Identify potential SLOBs, assess risks of write-offs, and input findings into the S&OP cycle. 

About You 

• You are a motivated and analytical professional who thrives in a dynamic supply chain environment and enjoys turning complex demand and supply challenges into achievable plans. You bring both experience, curiosity and are eager to contribute to delivering excellence across our Materials Planning Africa team. 
• Supply Network Planning (Production and Distribution) experience in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry preferred 
• Experience with advanced planning software within Supply Planning (SAP APO preferred) 
• Experience working in a centralised planning function preferred 
• Understanding of end-to-end Supply Chain Planning processes, including Supply Planning, Distribution Requirements Planning, Inventory Planning, Conversion, Logistics, Procurement, and Customer Service 
• Demonstrated proficiency in statistics and/or forecasting methodologies, with an understanding of their financial and operational impacts 
• Strong analytical, organisational, and decision-making skills with a growth mindset 
• Good communication skills – verbal, written and presentation 
• Proficient in MS applications, e.g., Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook