SIOP Planning Specialist

Position Summary
The SIOP Planning Specialist is responsible for ensuring accurate, timely, and data-driven visibility of production capacity across all manufacturing sites. This role supports strategic decision-making by analyzing current and future capacity, identifying constraints, and providing optimized recommendations for workload distribution. The analyst will work directly with Operations, Planning, Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, and SIOP leadership to drive throughput improvements and support a stable, executable production plan.
 
Key Responsibilities
Capacity Planning & Analysis

Maintain and continuously update the enterprise capacity model, ensuring accurate reflection of labor, equipment, takt times, and throughput assumptions for all manufacturing sites.

Evaluate current capacity status across sites and communicate risks, constraints, and available capacity to Operations and SIOP leadership.

Review the 24-month demand forecast and assess the impact on capacity by program, model, site, and work center.

Analyze new demand (e.g., customer orders, program priorities, engineering changes) and determine the best feasible delivery dates based on available capacity.

Recommend optimal routing or site assignment for new work based on modeled constraints and resource availability.

SIOP & Planning Integration

Support monthly SIOP cycles by preparing capacity insights, scenario models, and risk assessments.

Work closely with Planning teams to align the Master Production Schedule with real capacity and ensure realistic, executable build plans.

Provide data-driven recommendations on load leveling, outsourcing requirements, or off-loading between sites to maintain schedule adherence.

Constraint Identification & Scenario Modeling

Identify bottlenecks across manufacturing cells and perform root-cause analysis for throughput limitations.

Develop "what-if" scenarios for volume changes, labor fluctuations, engineering changes, and process improvements.

Present findings and recommendations to cross-functional leadership in a clear and actionable format.

Continuous Improvement & Throughput Optimization

Drive or support continuous improvement (CI) projects focused on increasing throughput, improving cycle times, and reducing constraints in key production areas.

Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Operational Excellence teams to implement process changes, layout improvements, and resource adjustments.

Track the impact of CI initiatives on future capacity and embed improvements into the master capacity model.

Reporting & Performance Management

Develop and maintain dashboards and reports that visualize capacity, demand, and constraints at the site, program, and work-center level.

Provide weekly and monthly updates to stakeholders on capacity risks, available opportunities, and improvement actions.

Ensure decision-makers have clear visibility into short-term and long-term capacity trends.

Skills & Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Business Analytics, or related field.

Minimum 5 years experience in capacity planning, SIOP, production planning, or manufacturing analytics (aerospace experience preferred).

Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, work centers, routings, and throughput constraints.

Proficiency with advanced Excel models, ERP/MRP systems (IFS/SAP/Oracle), and analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau).

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to interpret complex data and turn it into clear recommendations.

Experience with root-cause analysis, continuous improvement, or lean manufacturing principles.

Excellent communication skills with the ability to present capacity insights to senior leadership.

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