Production Planner

About the role

The Production Planner will develop and manage weekly and monthly production plans for our Thika factory, ensuring alignment with demand forecasts, inventory levels and capacity constraints. This individual contributor will work closely with supply chain, procurement, sales and quality teams to optimise production efficiency.

Key responsibilities

• Develop detailed production schedules by product category and line, balancing capacity against customer demand.
• Run MRP in SAP Business One, convert plans into raw material and packaging requirements, and ensure material availability.
• Maintain optimal inventory levels for raw materials, WIP, finished goods and packaging, minimising excess, obsolescence and stock‑outs.
• Analyse machine capacity, labour availability and maintenance schedules to create capacity plans and identify bottlenecks.
• Participate in monthly S&OP meetings, translate forecast changes into production requirements and support new product launches.
• Track daily production performance, investigate deviations, and recommend corrective actions to achieve ≥95% plan adherence.
• Prepare and publish daily, weekly and monthly production and inventory reports, and develop dashboards in Excel, Power BI or SAP.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering, Operations Management or Business Administration.
• 3‑5 years of production planning experience in FMCG manufacturing, preferably food or packaging.
• Professional certifications such as APICS CPIM, CSCP, CIPS, Six Sigma Green Belt or Lean Manufacturing are preferred.

Required skills

• SAP Business One (production planning and MRP modules).
• Advanced Excel for data analysis and reporting.
• Power BI or similar BI tools for dashboard creation.
• Production planning, capacity planning, inventory management and supply planning techniques.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving abilities.