Planning Manager

About this role

• Job Description
• Role purpose
• Lead an integrated, risk-aware planning capability that translates Thailand’s commercial ambition into an executable and compliant supply plan. The role owns the country planning rhythm across demand, supply, inventory, new-product introduction and product life-cycle management, balancing customer service, working capital, cost and business continuity.
• The Planning Manager ensures a single, trusted plan across local and regional systems and forums, with particular attention to Thailand’s crop-season volatility, promotional demand, imported and locally sourced supply, registration and permit readiness, and the constraints of agricultural product shelf life and packaging.
• Key accountabilities
• Integrated business planning (IBP / S&OP)
• Own the Thailand monthly IBP / S&OP cycle including demand review, supply review, inventory and financial reconciliation, executive decision meeting, and follow-through on agreed actions.
• Maintain one aligned country plan across commercial, finance, P&S and regional partners; ensure assumptions, decisions, risks and escalations are visible and traceable.
• Challenge demand assumptions constructively, especially around crop-season peaks, campaigns, tender or key-account opportunities, channel stock and market disruptions.
• Develop scenario plans for material upside/downside, supply disruption, regulatory delay, weather-driven volatility and capacity constraints.
• Demand, supply and deployment planning
• Lead the demand-planning and supply-network-planning process using approved planning systems and data sources; maintain a rolling plan at strategic, tactical and operational horizons.
• Convert the unconstrained demand signal into feasible supply, import, production, packaging and deployment plans, protecting customer promise dates wherever possible.
• Identify capacity, material, packaging, lead-time and logistics constraints early; prepare options and facilitate timely decisions with local and regional stakeholders.
• Coordinate with local manufacturing / tolling partners, regional supply sites, procurement, quality and logistics to sustain stable execution and service during peak season.
• Inventory, obsolescence and working-capital management
• Set and maintain inventory policies and targets by product, season, supply route, shelf life and service requirement, aligned with country and regional guidelines.
• Drive actions to prevent stock-outs, excess stock, ageing, slow-moving and obsolete inventory across finished goods, raw materials and packaging.
• Ensure inventory projections, write-off exposure and recovery actions are transparent in the IBP process and reflected in financial outlooks.
• New product introduction, range and master data
• Plan end-to-end supply readiness for new product introductions, label or pack changes and portfolio expansion, coordinating commercial, regulatory, quality, procurement, manufacturing and regional data-management teams.
• Confirm registration, license, import / manufacturing permits, artwork, packaging, master data and initial inventory readiness before launch milestones are committed.
• Lead supply-side product life-cycle actions: controlled run-down, rework or redeployment options, system-data retirement and prevention of residual inventory.
• Compliance, continuity and operational excellence
• Embed planning controls that support Thailand regulatory, product stewardship, quality, trade and record-keeping requirements; maintain proactive alerts for critical document and license validity.
• Maintain country planning risk registers, business-continuity contingencies and escalation paths for supply interruption, import delay, quality hold, data error and seasonal demand shocks.
• Lead continuous improvement through tiered performance reviews, visual management, standard work, root-cause problem solving and automation / data-quality improvements.
• Qualifications
• Essential knowledge
• End-to-end supply-chain planning in an agricultural, crop-protection, seeds, FMCG, chemical, pharmaceutical or similarly regulated environment.
• IBP / S&OP principles; demand and supply planning; inventory optimization; product life-cycle management; and planning master-data governance.
• Thailand operating context, including seasonal demand patterns, local manufacturing / tolling and import supply models, and the importance of regulatory and quality readiness.
• Working knowledge of financial drivers: inventory, cost-to-serve, working capital, write-off risk and forecast-to-financial reconciliation.
• Essential skills
• Strong analytical judgement: interprets imperfect data, exposes assumptions and turns trade-offs into clear options and decisions.
• Confident facilitation and stakeholder management across Thai and regional, cross-functional teams; able to challenge respectfully and build alignment.
• Hands-on proficiency with enterprise planning and ERP tools (for example SAP / planning platforms), Excel and dashboarding / data-visualization tools.
• Clear written and verbal communication in Thai and English; able to present operational risks and recommendations concisely to senior leaders.
• Structured problem solving, project management, negotiation and calm execution under seasonal time pressure.
• Experience and qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, engineering, business, operations or a related discipline; advanced qualification is an advantage.
• Typically 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in supply planning, demand planning, S&OP / IBP, manufacturing planning or supply-chain operations.
• Demonstrated experience managing cross-functional planning forums and resolving supply, inventory or service trade-offs.
• Experience in Thailand and collaboration with ASEAN / Asia regional teams is strongly preferred.
• Competencies and behaviors
• Customer-focused — makes service commitments explicit and balances them responsibly against supply, quality, compliance and cost.
• Decisive and accountable — escalates early, brings evidence-based options, and closes actions with clear ownership.
• Collaborative — builds trust across commercial, operational and regional boundaries; listens actively and handles disagreement constructively.
• Improvement-minded — simplifies processes, raises data discipline and uses digital tools to improve visibility and speed.
• Trusted and compliant — acts with integrity, protects product quality and stewardship, and follows required controls without compromise.
• Resilient and adaptable — stays composed through peak-season volatility and shifts priorities without losing execution discipline.
• Critical success factors and challenges
• Create a credible single plan despite fragmented signals, highly seasonal agricultural demand and frequent changes in market opportunity.
• Balance availability with healthy inventory, shelf-life exposure and cash discipline across imported, locally manufactured and third-party supplied products.
• Anticipate regulatory, documentation, quality, capacity and logistics risks early enough to preserve market access and customer service.
• Build a planning culture in which decisions are fact-based, timely and jointly owned across the Thailand business and regional network.