Supply Planning Manager

The Supply Planning Center of Excellence Subject Matter Expert (COE SME) is responsible for driving best-in‑class supply planning capabilities across Lincoln Electric’s global organization. This role will establish standardized processes, tools, and performance management frameworks to improve supply reliability, inventory health, capacity alignment, and service performance in support of business strategy.

Reporting to the Senior Manager, S&OP, the COE leader will serve as the central authority for supply planning methodologies, inventory and replenishment policies, planning master data, and supply analytics, ensuring consistent execution and continuous improvement across regions and business units.

• Define and deploy standardized supply planning processes, policies, and governance across the enterprise.
• Establish and lead governance within the S&OP framework for supply planning, inventory, and constrained supply balancing activities.
• Act as the subject matter expert for supply planning, including MRP, supply and replenishment planning, inventory policy, rough‑cut capacity planning, and exception management.
• Drive the evolution toward advanced, data‑driven supply planning capabilities that improve service, productivity, and working capital performance.
• Develop and maintain global standards for planning parameters, master data, supply segmentation, safety stock and reorder policies, and supply review processes.
• Improve plan stability, schedule attainment, inventory health, and material availability through structured methodologies, parameter governance, and continuous feedback loops.
• Own supply planning system capabilities and partner with IT and Digital teams to enhance planning automation, analytics, scenario modeling, and data integration.
• Lead system implementations, enhancements, and upgrades related to supply planning and ensure high-quality planning master data and model configuration.
• Define and manage KPIs such as service level, inventory turns, schedule attainment, plan adherence, capacity utilization, and supply plan stability, and develop dashboards and reporting across regions and product lines.
• Conduct root‑cause analysis for shortages, past dues, expediting, excess and obsolete inventory, and capacity constraints; drive corrective actions and provide actionable insights to operations, procurement, and business leaders.
• Lead supply review processes within the S&OP cycle and facilitate cross‑functional supply balancing with Operations, Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics, Finance, and Demand Planning.
• Translate demand signals, capacity constraints, supplier limitations, and network considerations into executable supply plans while ensuring alignment between supply, inventory, and financial objectives.
• Train and coach supply planners on planning techniques, systems, analytics, and governance; build a global supply planning community of practice; and lead management initiatives to improve adoption of standardized processes and digital tools.
• Partner closely with Demand Planning, Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics, Finance, Operations, and IT / Data & Analytics teams to ensure supply plans are feasible, responsive, and aligned to enterprise priorities.

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, engineering, operations, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in supply planning, production planning, materials planning, or S&OP.
• Strong expertise in supply planning processes, inventory and replenishment management, and planning parameter governance.
• Experience with ERP/APS platforms such as SAP, Palantir, or similar tools.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into business insights and operational actions.
• Knowledge of MRP, capacity planning, inventory optimization, and scenario modeling.

• Experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment preferred.
• Knowledge of MRP, capacity planning, inventory optimization, and scenario modeling preferred. Experience working in global, matrixed organizations preferred.