Planning Lead

ZEISS in India

ZEISS in India is headquartered in Bengaluru and present in the fields of Industrial Quality Solutions, Research Microscopy Solutions, Medical Technology, Vision Care and Sports & Cine Optics.

ZEISS India has 3 production facilities, R&D center, Global IT services and about 40 Sales & Service offices in almost all Tier I and Tier II cities in India. With 2200+ employees and continued investments over 25 years in India, ZEISS’ success story in India is continuing at a rapid pace.

Further information at ZEISS India.

Role purpose

The Planning Manager leads end-to-end demand, supply, production and inventory planning for the Vision Care business. The role ensures reliable product availability, optimized inventory and efficient use of manufacturing and distribution capacity while balancing customer service, cost and working-capital objectives.

Key responsibilities

1. Sales and operations planning

• Lead the monthly S&OP/IBP cycle across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, Procurement and Logistics.
• Consolidate demand, capacity, supply, inventory and financial plans.
• Identify gaps and scenarios and facilitate management decisions.
• Maintain one agreed operational plan and track actions from planning reviews.
• Translate annual business plans into monthly and weekly operational plans. 2. Demand planning
• Lead statistical forecasting and market-input collection for lenses, coatings, consumables and related products.
• Review historical sales, seasonality, promotions, launches, tenders and customer trends.
• Challenge assumptions and resolve differences between commercial forecasts and statistical demand.
• Manage forecast accuracy and bias by product family, channel and region.
• Establish planning approaches for new products, phase-outs and intermittent demand. 3. Supply and production/Import planning
• Develop feasible supply and production plans across Import/Local plants, laboratories, distribution centers and external suppliers.
• Balance demand against material, machine, labor and supplier capacity.
• Set production priorities and manage bottlenecks, shortages and backlog.
• Coordinate make-to-stock, make-to-order and prescription-lens requirements.
• Ensure timely escalation of supply risks with clear recovery plans.
• Work with Procurement on supplier constraints, lead times and material availability. 4. Inventory management
• Define inventory targets, safety stocks, reorder parameters and segmentation policies.
• Optimize inventory across raw materials, semi-finished lenses, finished goods and consumables.
• Monitor ageing, slow-moving and obsolete inventory.
• Coordinate mitigation actions for excess stock and expiry or obsolescence risks.
• Improve working capital without compromising agreed service levels. 5. Product lifecycle and launch planning
• Lead supply-chain readiness for new products, coatings, technologies and portfolio changes.
• Coordinate demand ramp-up, material availability, production validation and initial stock.
• Manage end-of-life transitions and depletion of discontinued materials.
• Minimize write-offs and customer-service disruption during portfolio transitions. 6. Customer-service and exception management
• Monitor fill rate, order fulfilment, backorders and delivery performance.
• Lead cross-functional response to major shortages and demand changes.
• Prioritize constrained supply using agreed commercial and customer-service rules.
• Communicate recovery dates, risks and alternatives to relevant stakeholders. 7. Systems, data and process improvement
• Ensure accurate planning parameters and master data in SAP and associated planning tools.
• Drive planning automation, analytics and process standardization.
• Improve forecast models, planning horizons, frozen periods and exception-management rules.
• Support ERP, APS, IBP and digital supply-chain initiatives.
• Maintain planning documentation, controls and audit readiness. 8. Team leadership
• Build analytical, commercial and supply-chain capabilities within the team.
• Promote fact-based decisions, accountability and cross-functional collaboration.
• Establish succession and competency-development plans. Key performance indicators
• Forecast accuracy and forecast bias
• Customer service level, OTIF and fill rate
• Production-plan adherence
• Inventory value, days of inventory and inventory turns
• Slow-moving and obsolete inventory
• Backorder value and ageing
• Capacity utilization
• Planning master-data accuracy
• S&OP action closure and decision quality
• Working capital and logistics-expedite/Diversion costs

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Operations, Engineering (STEM background mandatory).
• Master’s degree or MBA is advantageous.
• APICS CPIM/CSCP, IBF or equivalent certification is advantageous.
• Typically, 6-8 years of supply-chain experience, including at least 4 years in a planning role in handling complex SKU portfolio handling and assortment planning
• Experience in medical technology, optical products, healthcare, precision manufacturing or consumer goods is desirable. Technical competencies
• Strong knowledge of demand, supply, production and inventory planning.
• Practical experience with S&OP or IBP processes.
• Advanced SAP experience, ideally including SD, MM, PP and APO/IBP.
• Strong Excel and data-analysis capabilities; Power BI or similar tools are advantageous.
• Understanding of MRP, capacity planning, safety stock and product lifecycle management.
• Ability to analyze complex product portfolios with short lead-time and customized-order requirements.
• Familiarity with Lean, continuous improvement and root-cause analysis.
• Leadership and behavioral competencies
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Clear communication and effective meeting facilitation.
• Customer-focused and commercially aware decision-making.
• Confidence in managing ambiguity, constraints and competing priorities.
• Strong people leadership and coaching capability.
• High ownership, integrity and attention to detail.

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