MRP & Production Planning Leader

About the role

Ariston Group, a global leader in sustainable climate and water comfort, is looking for an MRP and Production Planning Leader in Centurion. You will drive the end-to-end production planning process, turning demand into achievable production plans while balancing inventory, capacity, supplier performance and operational constraints, so that material is available, production runs smoothly and customers are delivered on time.

Key responsibilities

• Lead production planning and develop schedules based on customer demand, inventory levels and business priorities.
• Translate forecasts and customer orders into feasible production plans, balancing material availability, capacity, labour and equipment constraints.
• Monitor execution and adjust plans in response to demand changes, capacity constraints and supply disruptions.
• Ensure raw materials and spare parts are available, optimise inventory levels and coordinate supplier schedules and material replenishment.
• Oversee raw material warehouse activities, stock counts and inventory-control processes.
• Keep physical inventory aligned with SAP transactions, maintain planning parameters and master data in SAP, and ensure inventory accuracy and traceability.
• Partner with Production, Procurement, SQA, Logistics, R&D and commercial teams, contribute to the S&OP process and support new product introductions and engineering changes.
• Lead Logistics Pillar activities within the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) framework and drive continuous improvement, including reducing obsolete inventory.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, Production Management or a related technical or business discipline.
• 5-7 years of experience in Production Planning, Materials Planning or Manufacturing Internal Logistics.
• Strong practical experience with MRP, production scheduling, capacity planning, inventory management and supplier scheduling.
• Valid South African driver's licence.

Required skills

• Solid experience with ERP-based planning systems, preferably SAP.
• Good understanding of manufacturing master data, inventory accuracy, material traceability and warehouse processes.
• Strong Excel and data-analysis capabilities.
• Analytical, problem-solving approach and effective stakeholder management.

Advantages: SAP planning experience or certification, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma Green Belt or WCM certification, and a Project Management qualification. Performance is measured on schedule adherence, OTIF, material availability, inventory accuracy, supplier delivery performance, inventory days, working capital and planning accuracy.