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 Lead owns end-to-end demand, supply, distribution, and inventory planning for FSV lenses, frames, and accessories in India.

The role is responsible for creating one feasible and aligned operational plan that supports product availability, customer service, inventory health, working capital, and cost objectives. It leads the monthly S&OP/IBP process and the weekly execution and exception-management cycle across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics, Customer Service, and Product Management.

The role requires experience managing a large, variant-rich SKU portfolio with long-tail and intermittent demand, imported and/or locally sourced products, short customer lead times, and frequent product introductions and phase-outs.

Role scope

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Product categories: FSV lenses, frames, accessories, and associated consumables

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Portfolio: Approximately 20K+ active SKUs / 840K SKU-location combinations

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Supply network: >3 Supplying Plants (Import)

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Distribution network: 42 distribution centers serving 4 regions

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Supply model: Imported products, local production, and/or externally sourced finished goods

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Key systems: [SAP ECC/S/4HANA, APO, SAP IBP, Power BI, or other tools]

Key responsibilities

1. S&OP/IBP leadership

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Lead the monthly S&OP/IBP cycle across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Product Management, Manufacturing, Procurement, Logistics, and Customer Service.

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Integrate demand, supply, capacity, inventory, distribution, and financial plans into one agreed operational plan.

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Highlight service, capacity, inventory, cost, and working-capital gaps and present fact-based scenarios for management decisions.

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Ensure clear decision ownership, action tracking, and timely escalation of unresolved issues.

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Translate annual business and financial plans into monthly and weekly operational plans.

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Lead regular execution reviews to manage short-term deviations from the agreed plan.

2. Demand and assortment planning

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Own the unconstrained and consensus demand plan for FSV lenses, frames, accessories, and associated products.

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Develop statistical baselines and incorporate market intelligence, customer input, promotions, tenders, launches, seasonality, and channel trends.

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Plan demand at the appropriate product, region, channel, and SKU-location level.

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Manage complex product hierarchies and variant combinations across lens specifications, coatings, frame models, sizes, colors, and accessories, as applicable.

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Challenge commercial assumptions and reconcile differences between statistical forecasts, sales expectations, and financial plans.

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Measure and improve forecast accuracy and bias using clearly defined product and planning hierarchies.

Apply differentiated forecasting methods for fast movers, long-tail products, intermittent demand, new products, and products approaching end of life.

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Support assortment reviews and SKU rationalization by providing demand, service, inventory, and obsolescence analysis.

3. Supply, production, and import planning

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Develop feasible supply and production plans across local plants, global supplying locations, contract manufacturers, and external suppliers.

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Balance demand against material, machine, labor, supplier, import, and logistics constraints.

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Convert the consensus demand plan into purchasing, production, and supply requirements.

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Incorporate supplier lead times, manufacturing lead times, import lead times, minimum order quantities, batch sizes, and shipment calendars into supply plans.

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Set production and supply priorities and manage bottlenecks, shortages, backlog, and delayed inbound supply.

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Work with Procurement and suppliers to resolve material constraints and improve supply reliability.

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Maintain clear supply-risk visibility, quantified business impact, and time-bound recovery plans.

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Ensure appropriate planning discipline for make-to-stock, make-to-order, and other relevant supply models.

4. Distribution and replenishment planning

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Own distribution requirements planning and replenishment across warehouses, regions, channels, and customer segments.

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Define appropriate stocking locations and replenishment policies based on demand patterns, service requirements, lead times, and portfolio segmentation.

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Translate supply availability and inbound plans into SKU-location deployment plans.

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Manage stock balancing and inter-location transfers to reduce shortages, excess stock, and unnecessary logistics costs.

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Define fair-share allocation and customer/channel prioritization rules during constrained-supply situations.

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Coordinate the deployment of imported and locally sourced inventory following production or shipment arrival.

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Monitor replenishment exceptions and resolve risks affecting service, inventory, or working capital.

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Partner with Logistics to optimize shipment frequency, mode, consolidation, and expedite decisions.

5. Inventory planning and optimization

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Define inventory targets, safety-stock policies, reorder parameters, lot sizes, and service levels by portfolio segment.

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Apply appropriate portfolio segmentation, such as ABC-XYZ or equivalent, to differentiate planning and inventory policies.

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Optimize inventory across finished products, materials, components, accessories, and relevant consumables.

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Monitor inventory value, days of inventory, stock turns, ageing, excess, slow-moving, and obsolete stock.

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Lead root-cause analysis and mitigation plans for excess inventory and potential write-offs.

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Balance product availability and working-capital objectives using quantified service, cost, and risk trade-offs.

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Ensure inventory parameters are regularly reviewed and updated when demand, lead times, service targets, or product strategies change.

6. Product lifecycle and portfolio-transition planning

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Lead supply-chain readiness for new lenses, coatings, frame collections, accessories, technologies, and portfolio changes.

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Coordinate demand ramp-up, supplier/material readiness, initial stock, system setup, deployment, and launch quantities.

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Manage phase-in/phase-out plans, substitution rules, and depletion strategies for discontinued products.

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Minimize write-offs, stranded inventory, and customer-service disruption during portfolio transitions.

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Partner with Product Management, Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Quality, and Regulatory Affairs on launch and discontinuation decisions.

Provide fact-based recommendations for SKU rationalization and portfolio simplification.

7. Customer service and exception management

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Monitor product availability, fill rate, OTIF, order fulfilment, backorders, and delivery performance.

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Lead cross-functional responses to major shortages, supply disruptions, unexpected demand changes, and customer-service risks.

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Prioritize constrained supply using agreed commercial, customer-service, and strategic-customer rules.

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Communicate supply risks, expected recovery dates, alternatives, and customer impact clearly and promptly.

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Ensure that expedite, diversion, substitution, and allocation decisions are supported by quantified cost and service implications.

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Conduct root-cause analysis of recurring service failures and implement sustainable corrective actions.

8. Planning systems, data, and continuous improvement

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Ensure the accuracy of planning master data and parameters in SAP and associated planning systems.

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Establish clear ownership and governance for lead times, safety stocks, lot sizes, planning calendars, sourcing rules, and product hierarchies.

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Improve forecast models, planning horizons, frozen periods, time fences, and exception-management rules.

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Drive planning automation, analytics, dashboards, and process standardization.

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Support ERP, APS, SAP IBP, and other digital supply-chain initiatives.

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Develop scenario-planning and decision-support capabilities for demand, supply, inventory, and network trade-offs.

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Maintain planning documentation, process controls, and audit readiness.

9. Team and functional leadership

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Lead, coach, and develop the demand, supply, distribution, and inventory planning team.

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Define clear responsibilities, objectives, decision rights, and performance expectations.

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Build the team’s analytical, commercial, systems, and stakeholder-management capabilities.

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Promote fact-based decision-making, accountability, and constructive cross-functional challenge.

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Establish competency-development and succession plans for critical planning roles.

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Build effective relationships with regional and global planning teams and relevant centers of expertise.

Key performance indicators

The role will be measured against an agreed scorecard covering:

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Forecast accuracy and Bias

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Fill rate and OTIF

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Backorder value, volume, and ageing

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Inventory value and days of inventory and Inventory turns

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Excess, slow-moving, ageing, and obsolete inventory

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Inventory write-offs and provisions

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Distribution/replenishment plan adherence

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Supplier or inbound-delivery reliability, where applicable

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S&OP plan adherence and closure of agreed actions

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Planning master-data and parameter accuracy

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Expedite, airfreight, diversion, and exceptional logistics costs

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New-product launch availability and end-of-life depletion performance

Qualifications and experience

Essential

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Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Statistics, Mathematics, Business, or a related quantitative discipline.

Typically, 7–10 years of supply-chain experience, including at least 4 years in demand, supply, distribution, production, or inventory planning.

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Demonstrated end-to-end planning ownership across demand, supply, distribution, and inventory processes.

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Experience leading an S&OP/IBP process or playing a significant leadership role within a mature S&OP/IBP cycle.

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Experience managing a large, variant-rich portfolio with significant SKU or SKU-location complexity.

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Strong understanding of forecasting, replenishment, MRP, capacity planning, safety stock, inventory optimization, and product lifecycle management.

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Advanced Excel and data-analysis skills.

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Experience influencing senior cross-functional stakeholders and resolving service, inventory, capacity, and cost trade-offs.

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Demonstrated team leadership, people-management, or functional-leadership experience.

Candidates must also meet at least one of the following experience profiles:

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Direct planning experience in ophthalmic lenses, eyewear, spectacles, frames, optical products, or optical retail; or

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Planning experience in an analogous high-SKU, variant-rich environment involving several thousand active SKUs or item-location combinations, long-tail or intermittent demand, assortment complexity, frequent product lifecycle changes, and differentiated inventory policies.

Preferred

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Direct experience planning FSV lenses, frames, accessories, lens coatings, or other ophthalmic products.

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Experience managing both imported and locally sourced or manufactured products.

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Experience with multi-echelon inventory or distribution requirements planning.

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Experience with SAP ECC or S/4HANA and planning applications such as SAP APO or SAP IBP.

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Power BI, Tableau, SQL, or comparable analytics experience.

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Master’s degree or MBA.

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APICS CPIM/CSCP, IBF, or equivalent supply-chain certification.

Leadership and behavioral competencies

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Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capability

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Ability to convert complex data into clear business decisions

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Confidence in constructively challenging commercial and operational assumptions

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Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority

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Clear communication and effective meeting facilitation

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Customer-focused and commercially aware decision-making

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Ability to manage ambiguity, constraints, and competing priorities

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Strong people leadership, coaching, and capability development

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High ownership, integrity, and attention to detail

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Ability to remain decisive and composed during shortages and service disruption

Your ZEISS Recruiting Team:

Manoj Badaik