Production Planning Manager

Sukhi's Gourmet Indian Foods, established in 1992 in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a family-operated, woman-owned company created by Chef Sukhi Singh. Known for using premium, natural ingredients, the company offers USDA-certified Indian culinary creations available nationwide in specialty food stores, Whole Foods, and local farmer's markets, among others. Sukhi's caters to both home cooks and commercial food service, delivering high-quality Indian cuisine to diverse customers.

Committed to its community, Sukhi's actively supports non-profit organizations such as C.H.E.F.S. and Narika, contributing to social causes like employment opportunities and the fight against domestic violence.

The Production Planning Manager is responsible for managing production across Sukhi’s and its contract manufacturers to ensure all customer orders are filled in full and on time across all sales channels: retail, food service, and club. The successful candidate must be able to work closely with the sales team to capture the demand requirements, and then production teams internally and externally to ensure the supply requirements are met.

This position has one direct report (the production scheduler).

• Responsible for overseeing Sukhi’s plant production schedule to ensure an efficient schedule that optimizes the current staffing level.
• Lead the weekly co-man meetings to address any production challenges, new product launches, quality issues, inventory levels, etc.
• Develop and maintain capacity models for the Sukhi’s plant and co-mans to provide visibility for actions necessary to support the business and for long term planning.
• Responsible to, along with customer service, optimize the supply chain network of where product is made/stored/shipped to fulfill customer orders.
• Develop a strong understanding of production constraints internally and externally in able optimize the scheduling process, visiting co-mans as needed.
• Track key KPIs like inventory turns, distressed inventory, schedule adherence, and production attainment.
• Lead the weekly Sales & Operations Meeting to align our demand and supply requirements.
• Meet weekly with key sales team members across different channels to review forecast changes.
• Maintain the production planning and forecasting spreadsheets as needed to support any changes.
• Responsible for maintaining and adjusting FG inventory levels based on sales’ needs and forecasts.
• Play an active role in the New Products Development meeting to support item launches.
• Participate in monthly expiry meeting to review WIP obsolescence.
• Maintain the cost models for the copackers with quarterly updates and ensure pricing is aligned with Finance.
• Achieve 98% customer order fill rate while maintaining inventory level targets and abiding by all food safety parameters.
• Work closely with Customer Service on distressed inventory and shortages.
• Participate in the AOP and LRP planning process.

• 4yr degree in a related field
• Ten plus years of operations experience, preferably in the CPG industry
• Prior involvement working with contract manufacturers strongly encouraged

• SAP or similar ERP experience with ability to model data in Excel offline
• Excellent oral and written communication skills to clearly define next steps and then drive results.
• Strong organizational, planning, and project management skills
• Curious, resourceful, and have great initiative with ability to bring projects to completion independently and on time
• Able to juggle multiple tasks at once, both tactical and strategic
• Desire to embrace change and lead the team to success in a fast-paced environment

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.