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Job Title
（Tokyo）Director of Planning
CoorsTek is seeking a Director, Planning - Japan to build and lead the planning capability required to support customer service, revenue fulfillment, inventory effectiveness, capacity visibility, and SAP-enabled performance across five manufacturing plants in Japan.
CTJ is evolving from plant-local planning practices toward a standardized, matrixed, SAP-enabled planning organization aligned with CoorsTek global planning standards. This role will lead the design, implementation, and execution of that future-state model while supporting current supply, production, inventory, and Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SiOP) processes.
The role is both transformational and operational. In the first couple of years, the Director will focus heavily on SAP-enabled planning transformation, organization design, talent assessment, process standardization, and change leadership. The role reports to the VP, Operations COE, with operational alignment to the Senior Director of Planning. As CTJ's planning organization matures, the scope is expected to expand to additional plants in Asia.
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Lead the design and implementation of the future-state CTJ planning organization in partnership with Operations COE, CTJ manufacturing and commercial leadership, and the global planning organization.
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Develop the transition from plant-local planning toward a standardized, matrixed, SAP-enabled organization across CTJ's five plants. Over time, align plant planning under the regional organization while maintaining strong linkage to plant operations.
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Assess current planning capability, structure, role clarity, and talent across CTJ, including plant-level planning resources and planning-adjacent work performed by other functions.
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Define future planning roles, responsibilities, reporting relationships, skill requirements, career paths, succession needs, hiring needs, and retirement-related knowledge transfer.
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Build and sustain a CTJ planning organization capable of stronger SiOP execution, cross-plant planning discipline, SAP-enabled processes, resilient day-to-day operations, and reduced single-point dependency.
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Initially lead at least one direct report dedicated to the SAP Plan-to-Manufacture workstream; as the organization develops, establish additional planning management capability and resources.
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Build effective matrix relationships with plant planning personnel and plant management before formal reporting-line changes are implemented.
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Serve as the CTJ planning leader for SAP-enabled planning transformation, ensuring future-state planning processes support CTJ operational and business needs.
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Supervise and support the CTJ Plan-to-Manufacture Business Process Owner from a planning-process perspective, ensuring SAP process design balances mature planning practices, CTJ requirements, and SAP best practices.
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Support implementation of SAP S/4HANA, SAP IBP, MRP, production planning, capacity planning, and related planning tools and processes.
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Partner with IT, global planning, manufacturing, and other functions to define planning-system requirements, process standards, data governance expectations, and adoption plans.
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Establish planning master data governance for effective MRP, capacity planning, production planning, and SiOP execution.
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Lead CTJ's supply-side SiOP processes and ensure CTJ supply plans are aligned with global planning standards.
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Partner with the Director, Semiconductor Planning to incorporate CTJ supply plans, constraints, capacity assumptions, inventory strategies, and planning transformation status into the Semiconductor segment SiOP process.
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Partner with CTJ manufacturing, product management, commercial, finance, procurement, supply chain, and plant leadership to improve supply planning, capacity visibility, and decisions.
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Identify labor, machine, material, production-flow, qualification, and other supply constraints; develop options to improve customer service, revenue fulfillment, inventory performance, and financial outcomes.
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Establish common standards for production, material, capacity, inventory, supply escalation, and linkage between mid-term SiOP planning and near-term plant execution.
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Provide CTJ inputs for segment-level Semiconductor SiOP, including Japan plant capacity, labor, machine, material, qualification, inventory, and production-location considerations.
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Partner with plant managers and planning teams to improve production planning effectiveness, schedule reliability, order promising, material availability, inventory execution, customer delivery, and planning data quality.
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Establish escalation processes for supply constraints, customer-impacting issues, capacity tradeoffs, schedule recovery actions, and commitments requiring cross-plant or cross-functional decisions.
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Support inventory strategies by plant, product family, and item, balancing customer service, working capital, production efficiency, and risk.
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Support inter-site planning, new product launches, production transfers, qualification plans, capacity changes, and other initiatives requiring planning leadership.
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Apply external perspective from a mature manufacturing planning organization; coach plant leaders, planners, product management, and other stakeholders on planning roles, SAP-enabled ways of working, and SiOP expectations.
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Lead through ambiguity and organizational change, balancing current operating needs with long-term transformation objectives and future expansion to additional plants in Asia.
Success in this role will be measured through both transformation progress and operating performance, including:
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Sales revenue fulfillment and customer on-time delivery.
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Inventory effectiveness.
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Planning adherence and planning-process maturity.
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Forecast and supply alignment through SiOP processes.
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Capacity visibility and labor, machine, and material constraint visibility.
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ERP/MRP data quality, SAP-enabled planning readiness, and planning-system adoption.
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Development of CTJ planning talent, leadership depth, organization structure, governance, sustainable workload, and reduced single-point dependency.
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Successful progression toward a standardized, SAP-enabled regional planning model.
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Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Business, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, or a related field required; Master's degree or MBA preferred.
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10-15 years of experience in production planning, supply planning, capacity planning, manufacturing planning, SiOP, Integrated Business Planning, or related supply chain leadership required.
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Strong manufacturing background required; process manufacturing, automotive, industrial manufacturing, advanced materials, ceramics, electronics, or similar experience preferred.
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Experience working in a mature planning organization with enterprise ERP-enabled planning processes required.
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Prior experience leading a planning team and developing planning talent required. Experience managing managers, leading matrixed planning teams, or building planning leadership capability across multiple sites preferred.
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SAP experience strongly preferred; experience with SAP S/4HANA, SAP IBP, MRP, production planning, capacity planning, or equivalent ERP and advanced planning systems highly desirable.
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Experience supporting or leading planning-process transformation, ERP or planning-system implementation, or large-scale operating-model change preferred.
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APICS, ASCM, CPIM, CSCP, or related supply chain certification preferred.
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Deep knowledge of planning concepts, including supply planning, production planning, capacity planning, material planning, inventory planning, plant scheduling, ERP/MRP design, master data, routings, work centers, and capacity models.
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Strong understanding of SiOP and how it connects demand, manufacturing capacity, inventory strategy, financial performance, and operational execution.
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Ability to translate mature planning practices into practical processes for a multi-plant manufacturing environment.
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Strong change leadership capability, including the ability to influence stakeholders without full formal authority during organizational transition.
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Ability to assess planning talent, define organization gaps, develop people, lead managers or matrixed teams, and build a scalable planning organization.
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Strong business, financial, analytical, and communication skills, including the ability to connect planning decisions to customer service, revenue, working capital, cost, inventory, and capacity utilization.
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High proficiency with Excel and planning analytics/reporting tools; experience with Power BI or equivalent reporting tools preferred.
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Ability to operate effectively in both Japanese and global business environments. Native or business-fluent Japanese and business-fluent English required.
Reports to: VP, Operations COE.
Operational alignment: Senior Director of Planning for global planning and SiOP processes.
Works closely with the Director, Semiconductor Planning on Japan plant inputs to the Semiconductor segment SiOP process.
Tokyo, Japan.
Approximately 25%, primarily within Japan with occasional international travel.
Target Hiring Range
: JPY 0.00 - JPY 0.00
Actual compensation is commensurate with experience, skills and education. CoorsTek strives to give all qualified applicants equal opportunity and to make selection decisions on job related factors. Do not provide any information on the application which will indicate your race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by law or regulation.
If you like working for a company that makes a real difference in the world, you'll enjoy your career with us!
