Production Planner

About the role

As a Production Planner, you are responsible for developing, monitoring, and continuously optimizing production and packaging plans to ensure customer requirements are met in the most efficient way possible. You play a key role in balancing customer demand, production capacity, material availability, and inventory levels while maintaining a high level of service and operational efficiency.

The Production Planner reports to the Production Planning Lead and works closely with the Production Manager, Quality Department, Technical Department, Warehouse and Customer Relationship Support teams. Within Barry Callebaut, you collaborate with Customer Care for liquid chocolate ordering and supply coordination, as well as with the solid planning team for intercompany production activities. Externally, you maintain close relationships with international liquid chocolate suppliers and tolling partners, coordinating orders, resolving supply issues, and managing production slot allocations.

In this role, you continuously evaluate the feasibility of customer orders, determine production capacities and resource availability, and proactively resolve planning challenges such as supplier delays, machine breakdowns, material shortages, or unexpected production disruptions. You monitor production performance against planned volumes and target production rates, making adjustments where necessary to ensure schedule adherence and service levels are achieved.

As a key point of contact between Production, Customer Relationship Support, Quality, Logistics, and external partners, you ensure clear communication and effective coordination throughout the supply chain. You support planning discipline within the production organization, contribute to monthly closing activities, and drive continuous improvement initiatives aimed at enhancing planning accuracy, schedule adherence, inventory optimization, and overall operational performance.

Key responsibilities include

Short-Term Planning

• Create, maintain, and adjust daily and weekly production schedules based on customer demand and tolling partner requirements.
• Assess the feasibility of customer orders and determine the required production capacity, materials, and resources.
• Monitor the progress of production orders and follow up daily on planned versus actual production volumes.
• Continuously optimize the production plan based on real-time operational conditions while respecting the frozen schedule.
• Resolve capacity constraints, material shortages, and production planning issues, including supplier delays, technical breakdowns, and production disruptions.
• Align priorities with Production, Customer Relationship Support, Quality, and Logistics teams.
• Act as a key point of contact for production staff regarding planning-related questions and coordinate escalation where necessary.
• Monitor KPIs such as service level, schedule adherence, inventory performance, and plan attainment.

Long-Term Planning

 Develop realistic medium- and long-term production and capacity plans.

• Determine future capacity needs for equipment, labor, materials, and packaging resources.
• Identify risks and bottlenecks related to capacity, machinery, personnel, or material availability and develop mitigation plans.
• Support the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process.
• Advise management on capacity expansion opportunities, campaign planning, and process optimization initiatives.
• Participate in monthly inventory reconciliation and financial closing activities by providing planning-related data and analyses.

Packaging Planning

• Develop and maintain packaging schedules aligned with production requirements and customer delivery commitments.
• Coordinate transfers of packaging materials with warehouse.
• Monitor packaging material inventory levels and ensure availability to support uninterrupted production, ensure timely ordering and call-off of materials to support the production plan.
• Place and follow up on purchase orders and call-offs for packaging materials.
• Identify and resolve packaging material shortages and proactively manage supply risks.
• Monitor inventory levels of packaging materials/raw materials 

About you

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent working and thinking level, preferably in Supply Chain Management.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience as a Production Planner, Supply Chain Planner, or Packaging Planner.
• Experience in a manufacturing environment, preferably within the food industry or FMCG sector.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across different departments.
• Structured and organized, with the ability to maintain oversight under pressure.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience as a Production Planner, Supply Chain Planner, or Packaging Planner.
• Experience in a manufacturing environment, preferably within the food industry or FMCG sector
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
• Good knowledge of Dutch and English
• Knowledge of the production process and the factory is an advantage
• Knowledge of ERP and planning software is a plus but not a necessity.