Summary /Objective
The Senior Production Manager oversees multiple product lines from procurement through production planning, ensuring accurate material planning, scheduling, and execution. This role translates sales forecasts and booking data into actionable production plans using tools such as MRP and Style Availability Reports.
The Senior Production Manager develops demand and capacity plans, partners closely with Sales and suppliers, and ensures production aligns with business goals while maintaining operational flexibility. This role is responsible for optimizing inventory performance, maintaining accurate product data, and proactively identifying risks or constraints that could impact delivery timelines.
Strong organizational skills, analytical thinking, and clear cross-functional communication are essential for success in this role.
Position Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
- Oversee the end-to-end production process across multiple product lines, ensuring all deliverables meet quality standards, production targets, and business timelines while supporting new initiatives.
- Analyze sales demand using sales forecasts, booking orders, and historical sales data to develop production plans and issue vendor purchase orders that ensure a continuous supply of apparel and accessories.
- Review Style Availability Reports to assess stock status and safety stock levels; proactively expedite shipments with suppliers to meet delivery and order fulfillment requirements.
- Manage product costing, including target costing, counter costing, and flash costing, and support Sales with accurate and timely cost information.
- Partner with Product Development to ensure raw materials and trim availability align with production timelines; prepare and present financial and production updates to senior management as needed.
- Manage inventory purchasing to stay within budget and management directives by optimizing order quantities, adjusting safety stock levels, reallocating surplus inventory, and closing out excess or non-working inventory.
- Coordinate fulfillment of critical backorders in collaboration with Allocation and Customer Service teams; communicate production schedules across the organization via AS400.
- Monitor and report on inventory levels, material availability, and production status, advising management of potential risks, delays, or delivery issues.
- Lead manufacturing planning across a multi-plant operation by aligning production requirements with factory capacity, commitments, and lead times.
- Work closely with factories to balance, adjust, and re-prioritize production schedules in response to changes in demand, capacity constraints, or supply disruptions.
- Monitor vendor shipping performance to ensure adherence to established delivery dates and escalate significant discrepancies that may impact customer orders.
- Oversee quality assurance processes, including inspections upon shipment arrival; negotiate and issue chargebacks when products fail to meet company quality standards.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to increase production efficiency and product quality, utilizing methodologies such as Lean Manufacturing.
Qualifications and Competencies:
- Strong knowledge of costing for apparel and hard goods is a must!
- Outstanding analytical and inventory modeling skills
- Organized with attention to exacting detail
- Proficient in project planning and support tools; experience in Production planning and/or project management
- Demonstrates a sense of urgency and flexibility in changing and/or ambiguous situations
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, written and verbal
- Import experience with knowledge of Freight consolidation/Logistics
- Strong excel skills/pivot table and BI tools.
- Experience in PLM systems
- Strong factory contacts and relationships.
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or Economics preferred.
- 5 + years in Production Planning and procurement/supply chain management.