Operational Planning Manager

Operational Planning Manager

Edlon is the expert in engineered polymer and fluoropolymer material, with over 50 years of experience in creating specialized, cost-efficient solutions. As a global provider of innovative process solutions integrated within the GMM Pfaudler Group, Edlon is a pioneer in developing new technologies with a broad array of premium products.

Full-time employees are eligible for Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and Disability coverage on the first day of employment. We also offer a 401(k) Plan with employer match and safe harbor contribution, as well as Vacation, Holidays, Tuition Reimbursement and professional development opportunities.

Position Summary

The Operational Planning Manager is responsible for leading EDLON's Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) process and ensuring alignment between customer demand, engineering resources, material availability, production capacity, and business objectives.

This position serves as the primary coordinator of the company’s operations-based planning process, translating sales opportunities and customer orders into executable engineering, procurement, and manufacturing plans. The role provides visibility across the entire order fulfillment lifecycle and ensures that resources, materials, and capacity are available to support profitable growth while maintaining customer commitments.

The Operational Planning Manager works closely with Sales, Engineering, Operations, Procurement, Finance, and Leadership to proactively identify capacity constraints, material risks, scheduling conflicts, and supply chain challenges before they impact business performance. The position owns the SIOP process, facilitates planning reviews, develops capacity forecasts, and drives execution of actions needed to support the company's strategic and operational objectives.

This role does not replace functional management responsibilities. Instead, it provides overall planning leadership, cross-functional coordination, risk identification, and process discipline across all functions involved in customer order fulfillment and resource planning.

Primary Responsibilities

1. SIOP Leadership and Ownership

• Own and continuously improve the company's Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning process.
• Facilitate and lead weekly, monthly, and long-range planning activities.
• Ensure alignment between sales forecasts, project opportunities, engineering workload, material requirements, and manufacturing capacity.
• Maintain a rolling capacity and demand planning horizon ranging from 3 to 18 months.
• Develop planning processes, dashboards, reporting systems, and operating cadences that support leadership decision making.
• Drive accountability for actions identified during planning reviews.
• Escalate planning risks and resource conflicts that may impact customer commitments or financial results.

2. Demand and Opportunity Planning

Partner with Sales and Engineering to:

• Maintain visibility of the sales pipeline and expected customer awards.
• Convert opportunities into expected workload requirements.
• Evaluate revenue forecasts against operational capacity.
• Assess engineering, production, and material impacts of major opportunities.
• Identify projects that may exceed available resources.
• Support forecasting accuracy and demand planning improvements.
• Prepare demand review materials and recommendations for management review.

3. Capacity Planning

Work with Engineering and Operations to:

• Create a capacity model for the company in conjunction with engineering, procurement and manufacturing.
• Develop capacity plans for engineering, procurement, operations, quality, and other critical business resources.
• Evaluate capacity against forecasted demand.
• Identify bottlenecks and resource constraints.
• Recommend actions including overtime, outsourcing, staffing adjustments, workflow changes, or capital investments.
• Monitor resource utilization and loading by department.
• Support long-term workforce and capacity planning initiatives.

4. Production Planning and Scheduling Coordination

Partner with Operations and Leadership to:

• Maintain alignment between project schedules and available manufacturing capacity.
• Support creation and maintenance of executable production schedules.
• Monitor schedule adherence and production performance.
• Facilitate prioritization decisions when competing demands exist.
• Identify and resolve scheduling conflicts impacting customer commitments.
• Coordinate responses to unplanned events, delays, or operational disruptions.

5. Material Planning and Supply Chain Management

Work with Procurement to:

• Ensure material availability supports planned customer demand.
• Monitor inventory levels, shortages, and supplier constraints.
• Manage long-lead-time material planning activities.
• Support inventory strategies for common, program, and project-specific materials.
• Review material readiness status across active projects.
• Develop contingency plans for supply disruptions.
• Monitor supplier performance and supply chain risks.
• Identify opportunities for inventory reduction for slow moving raw materials.

6. Business Analytics and Performance Management

• Develop and maintain SIOP dashboards and planning metrics.
• Analyze trends impacting customer demand, inventory, capacity, and delivery performance.
• Prepare executive-level planning reports and recommendations.
• Monitor forecast accuracy, backlog, inventory health, and capacity utilization.
• Support annual budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning activities.
• Use data-driven analysis to identify improvement opportunities and support decision making.

7. Leadership Communication and Governance

• Facilitate weekly operational reviews and monthly executive SIOP reviews.
• Communicate planning assumptions, risks, and recommendations to leadership.
• Ensure alignment between functional plans and business objectives.
• Maintain planning documentation, action logs, and meeting outputs.
• Drive a culture of proactive planning and cross-functional collaboration.
• Support strategic initiatives related to growth, operational excellence, and capacity expansion.

Key Performance Indicators

The KPI's for this role will be outcome-based:

Business Performance

• Forecast accuracy
• Revenue forecast attainment
• Backlog accuracy
• Capacity utilization by work center and business
• Inventory reduction and turns

Operational Performance

• On-time delivery performance
• Schedule adherence
• Engineering release cycle time
• Material availability percentage
• Critical material shortage frequency

Supply Chain Performance

• Supplier on-time delivery
• Lead time performance
• Inventory investment versus target
• Material readiness status

Process Performance

• SIOP action completion rate
• Planning cycle effectiveness
• Capacity constraint resolution
• Cross-functional planning participation and compliance

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Engineering, Business, Industrial Engineering, or related discipline required.
• MBA or advanced business degree preferred.
• APICS/ASCM certifications (CPIM, CSCP, or related certifications) preferred.

Experience

• 7-15 years of experience in supply chain, operations, planning, scheduling, procurement, manufacturing, or related leadership roles.
• Experience in engineered-to-order, project-based, custom manufacturing environments strongly preferred.
• Experience leading SIOP, Sales & Operations Planning, Integrated Business Planning, Master Scheduling, or Capacity Planning processes.
• Experience working across Engineering, Procurement, Operations, and Sales organizations.
• Strong analytical and business planning experience.
• ERP and business intelligence tool experience required.

Critical Competencies

• Systems thinking
• Cross-functional leadership
• Influence without authority
• Strategic planning
• Capacity and resource planning
• Supply chain management
• Business and financial acumen
• Data analysis and forecasting
• Process improvement
• Executive communication
• Conflict resolution
• Decision making under uncertainty
• Project management
• Organizational agility
• Structured problem-solving
• Continuous improvement mindset

All requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. This job posting in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed for this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by their supervisor. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise.

GMM Pfaudler US Inc provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.