Supply Planning Analyst - Inventory & Distribution

Role Summary

We are seeking an analytical and execution-oriented Inventory & Distribution Planner to support the US welding business with primary responsibility for inventory deployment, distribution planning, and network execution across the supply planning organization. This role translates supply availability, demand priorities, inventory policies, service requirements, logistics constraints, and network parameters into executable deployment actions that support customer service, inventory health, cost, revenue protection, and business continuity objectives.

The Inventory & Distribution Planner owns specialized inventory and deployment activities for the assigned scope, including E&O disposition coordination, network rebalancing, STO allocation planning, out-of-area shipment coordination, distribution exception management, and business continuity deployment response. The role works closely with Supply Planners, who own the integrated supply plan across the full planning horizon, and provides deployment, inventory, and network execution inputs that help translate planning decisions into action.

The ideal candidate will bring strong inventory discipline, analytical rigor, system aptitude, urgency, and cross-functional communication skills. Success in this role requires the ability to interpret supply and demand signals, identify inventory and distribution imbalances early, coordinate deployment actions across plants and distribution points, manage exception-driven priorities, and serve as a capable backup to Supply Planners when required.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Own inventory deployment and distribution planning activities for the assigned scope, including short-term execution priorities, inventory positioning, deployment exceptions, and coordination of actions across plants, warehouses, and distribution points.
  
• Translate supply availability, customer order priorities, inventory policies, transportation constraints, site capabilities, and network parameters into time-phased deployment and distribution recommendations.
  
• Coordinate inventory rebalancing activities across the network by identifying excess, shortages, aging inventory, regional imbalances, and service risks, then recommending and executing appropriate deployment actions.
  
• Own STO allocation planning and coordination, including prioritization logic, allocation recommendations, follow-up with sending and receiving locations, and escalation of constraints that impact service or inventory objectives.
  
• Lead E&O inventory review and disposition coordination by identifying excess and obsolete exposure, validating root causes, partnering with commercial, operations, finance, and supply planning stakeholders, and driving recommended actions through the appropriate governance process.
  
• Coordinate out-of-area shipment activity when required to protect service, manage inventory imbalances, or support business continuity, including alignment with Logistics, Customer Service, Supply Planning, Sales, and Operations on priorities, timing, and cost implications.
  
• Support business continuity response by developing and coordinating inventory deployment options during supply disruptions, capacity constraints, transportation interruptions, material shortages, plant outages, or other service-impacting events.
  
• Prepare clear inventory and deployment recommendations for the Manager, Supply Planning, including service risk, inventory impact, customer priority, logistics feasibility, cost considerations, and required decisions or escalations.
  
• Monitor inventory exceptions, distribution risks, STO constraints, deployment delays, service gaps, and network imbalances; validate root causes and coordinate mitigation options with Supply Planning, Manufacturing, Procurement, Logistics, Customer Service, Sales, and Finance.

Job Duties and Responsibilities, Continued

• Partner with Supply Planners by providing inventory, deployment, and network execution visibility that informs the integrated supply plan, while taking ownership of execution-oriented inventory and distribution actions assigned to this role.
  
• Provide inventory and deployment inputs for longer-range network decisions, including stocking strategy, warehouse positioning, inter-site flow assumptions, slow-moving inventory exposure, distribution constraints, and service recovery strategies.
  
• Partner with Plant Scheduling, Operations, Logistics, Customer Service, and Supply Planners to ensure deployment priorities, STO movements, out-of-area shipments, and network recovery activities are aligned to service needs and operational feasibility.
  
• Serve as a backup to Supply Planners when they are out of office or otherwise unavailable, including supporting near-term supply alignment, exception review, stakeholder communication, and continuity of critical planning processes.
• Maintain disciplined use of standard inventory, deployment, distribution, and planning tools, data definitions, calendars, and processes established by the Supply Planning COE, while identifying reporting gaps, parameter issues, or improvement opportunities.
• Support the supply review process by preparing inventory health summaries, E&O exposure, deployment outlooks, network rebalancing updates, STO status, service risk assessments, recovery actions, and recommended decisions for review with the planning manager and stakeholders.
• Track and analyze key inventory and distribution metrics, including service risk, inventory health, days of supply, turns, E&O exposure, STO adherence, deployment cycle time, out-of-area shipment activity, rebalancing effectiveness, and master data quality.
• Champion inventory discipline, deployment execution, data quality, root-cause problem solving, and continuous improvement within the assigned scope by reinforcing standard work and escalating systemic issues through the appropriate governance process.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, engineering, operations, analytics, or related field; in lieu of degree 7+ years experience is required 
• 3+ years of experience in inventory planning, deployment planning, distribution planning, materials planning, supply planning, operations planning, logistics, or related supply chain role.
• Working knowledge of inventory planning, deployment planning, distribution planning, STO processes, network rebalancing, E&O management, service recovery, and supply planning interfaces across short-term and medium-range planning horizons.
• Ability to analyze trade-offs across service, inventory, distribution cost, customer priority, network feasibility, and operational execution.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Experience with ERP, inventory, deployment, transportation, and planning tools, including SAP or similar ERP systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in a manufacturing, distribution, or multi-site supply chain environment
• Experience with SAP IBP, Kinaxis, o9, Palantir, Power BI, Excel, TMS, WMS, or similar planning and analytics tools

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: Manager, Supply Planning
• Direct Reports: None
• Key Interfaces: Manager, Supply Planning; Supply Planners; Demand Planning; Procurement / Materials; Manufacturing; Plant Scheduling / Operations; Logistics; Distribution Centers / Warehousing; Finance; Sales; Customer Service; Supply Planning COE; and IBP / S&OP stakeholders