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Supply Chain Planner

What is a supply chain planner?

A supply chain planner keeps a business running smoothly by ensuring it always has the right inventory level, either in stock or storage, to meet customer demands. These logisticians predict the organization’s inventory needs based on everything from their financial needs to changes in the market.

Read more: Supply Chain Management: Definition, Jobs, Salary, and More

What does a supply chain planner do?

Supply chain planners execute various tasks, including overseeing product acquisition and allocating supplies, managing business systems, and strategizing ways to contain costs. What a supply chain planner does largely depends on how a company divvies up the roles and responsibilities among its logistics team. Other team members might include:

Senior demand planner

Demand planning manager

Distribution manager

Logistics analyst

In some cases, members of the logistics team may even report directly to you.

No matter how the company sets up its team, your job as a supply chain planner is to ensure that the organization has the supplies it needs when it needs them so it can produce and sell products to customers. You might do this by forecasting sales, tracking performance, and keeping up with global trends and demand to create a strategic plan ultimately. Doing this helps the company's operations run more efficiently, often saving the organization money and helping it stay ahead of the competition.​