Assistant Manager - Supply Chain Planning

About the Opportunity

Actylis, a global solutions provider with over 75 years of expertise in sourcing, manufacturing, and supply chain solutions, is looking for an experienced Demand & Supply Planning Manager to drive end-to-end planning across its pharmaceutical and chemical product portfolios.

This role is responsible for translating demand forecasts into executable production, procurement, and supply plans while ensuring optimum inventory, uninterrupted customer service, and cross-functional alignment across manufacturing, procurement, quality, regulatory, warehouse, and logistics operations.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Planning & Forecasting

• Develop and maintain rolling demand forecasts using historical trends, sales inputs, and market intelligence.
• Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service teams to validate forecasts and prioritize demand.
• Monitor forecast accuracy, identify demand variations, and proactively manage planning risks.

Supply Planning & Production Scheduling

• Convert demand plans into feasible supply plans considering manufacturing capacity, lead times, and production constraints.
• Prepare and execute Master Production Schedules (MPS).
• Raise purchase requisitions for raw materials, intermediates, and packaging materials.
• Coordinate with Production, Procurement, QA/QC, Packaging, Warehouse, and Logistics teams to ensure timely material availability.

Third-Party Manufacturing

• Coordinate planning activities with third-party manufacturers and tolling partners.
• Support contract renewals and ensure regulatory documentation remains current.
• Review and validate third-party manufacturing service invoices.

Inventory & Service Level Management

• Monitor Raw Material (RM), Work-in-Progress (WIP), and Finished Goods (FG) inventory.
• Identify slow-moving, excess, obsolete, and expiry-risk inventory.
• Monitor OTD/OTIF performance and conduct root cause analysis for service deviations.
• Balance customer service levels with working capital and inventory optimization objectives.

Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP / IBP)

• Support and execute monthly S&OP and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) cycles.
• Prepare planning scenarios, trade-off analyses, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Align commercial demand with manufacturing capabilities and financial objectives.

New Product Introduction (NPI)

• Coordinate planning activities for new product launches, validation, and scale-up.
• Support material readiness, capacity planning, regulatory compliance, and documentation.
• Maintain Bills of Materials (BOMs) and routing data within SAP.

Quality, Regulatory & Compliance

• Ensure planning activities comply with GMP requirements, regulatory approvals, and shelf-life constraints.
• Coordinate with QA and Regulatory teams to prevent supply disruptions.
• Support ISO, BIS, customer, and regulatory audits through planning documentation and traceability.

Systems, Reporting & Analytics

• Maintain planning master data including BOMs, lead times, MOQ, batch sizes, and inventory parameters.
• Utilize SAP ERP for planning and execution.
• Prepare weekly and monthly planning reports covering inventory, production schedules, service levels, and third-party operations.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and reporting standardization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Supply Chain, Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy, Operations, Business, or a related discipline.
• 5–8 years of experience in Supply Chain Planning or Supply Chain Operations.
• Experience within Pharmaceutical or Chemical manufacturing environments is preferred.
• Exposure to plant-based supply chain planning is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of GMP, quality systems, shelf-life management, batch manufacturing, and regulatory planning constraints.

Technical Skills

• Demand Planning & Forecasting
• Supply Planning & Capacity Planning
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
• Inventory Optimization & Working Capital Management
• SAP ERP (Preferred)
• Advanced Microsoft Excel (Pivot Tables, Macros, Scenario Analysis)
• Power BI or Tableau (Preferred)
• Knowledge of QA/QC release processes
• Understanding of pharmaceutical packaging and labeling workflows

Key Competencies

• Strategic and execution-focused mindset
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication abilities
• Decision-making under pressure and ambiguity
• Ability to work effectively in fast-paced matrix organizations
• High integrity with a compliance-first approach