Senior Specialist, Planning Opti, PE - Abu Dhabi - ref. u42371015

Job description / Role

Employment: Full Time

Job purpose

Generate the production plan for semi-finished products for every polyolefin plant as one of the outputs from the balancing process.

Drive continuous value optimization in short to medium term planning and ensure business priorities are met.

Key accountabilities

• Create and facilitate user acceptance testing to drive adoption across S&OP teams for new business rules and reports deployed through modeling change and impact against change success factors.
• Assess and upgrade existing tools to respond effectively to S&OP mandates and processes based on dynamic and latest market situations.
• Customize and integrate the knowledge and tools developed in the market or created by external consultants into effective tools for different supply chain teams.
• Modify and maintain complex Excel-based linear programming (LP) tool that optimally balances supply, demand, and production plans considering constraints and securing business priority rules.
• Build comprehensive models of total network inventory including safety stock and ramp-up plans through process decomposition. Model the elements characteristics of material flows and integrate those elements into a suitable timeframe segment through statistics and mathematical modelling.
• Generate base case plan after challenging all constraints using Global Balancing Tool for all market centers to fulfill business priorities, business strategy, and assumptions.
• Govern GBT master data, structure, decision logic, built-in models, and business priority rules logic through creating quality controls to sustain feature outcome.
• Clarify to tactical horizon stakeholders both internal and external the GBT (Global Balancing Tool) logic basis and assumptions used to help reach consensus on company next 18 months' sales and production plan.

• Develop production cycle based on asset design utilization to ensure optimized production sequence in terms of working capital considering asset versus grade historical performance, product volume business plan, test run, and product launching plan.
• Recognize investment opportunities to improve asset performance in alignment with production limitation and actively involve in structuring business case and scenarios.
• Identify and mitigate risks toward achieving yearly business plan sales volumes and producing new products through gap analysis and developing recovery plans.
• Support each region sales by proposing different scenarios aligned with business opportunities to achieve higher company profit.
• Lead projects with internal and external stakeholders for best practices and knowledge sharing to identify areas of opportunities on production cycle optimization by enabling improvement that delivers optimum working capital at lowest product cost.
• Establish products database portfolio with road map considering existing product performance across assets, quality limitations, transition matrix, technology family, and product business plan.

• Develop allocation and production plan after evaluating all constraints and considering business rules, sales margin, business strategy, monomers availability and raw materials, full asset utilization, and predefined production cycle.
• Control working capital through long-term inventory planning to support management decision making on right balance for customer satisfaction.
• Drive the monthly balancing cycle meeting for short and medium term polyolefins based on pre-defined rules and criteria within S&OP.
• Review base case output of production plan and sales plan and create scenarios to showcase superior possibilities for profitability and sensitivity analysis.
• Drive continuous value optimization in the short to medium term planning by mapping potential sales opportunities to obtainable supply options.
• Assess material balance in the tactical horizon to ensure optimized and consistent supply toward forecasted allocation plan at the right inventory holding point.
• Create and maintain supply allocation plan key figures to be governed and controlled.
• Govern the agreed supply allocation plan for tactical horizon to ensure each step of the end-to-end planning process is controlled against product tolerances.

• Lead quick response team to proactively manage execution to mitigate partner customer and reputation impact through analyzing gaps and developing recovery plans during supply crisis or other unplanned situations to minimize the impact on business.
• Drive operational S&OP escalations to identify and propose solutions to S&OP chairman for endorsement.
• Assist all relevant stakeholders on any production loss or extra production with direct amend on allocation to timely respond to change by proposing alternative solutions to close potential gaps.
• Develop contingency plans for supply crisis or other probable situations (demand upsurge, quality, material handling issues, logistics delays, raw materials).

• Establish optimum business plan for allocation plan, production plan, and ending inventory volume consistent with product testing and launching plans to support different business centre priorities and business strategies with the new, available and revamped plants capacities, feedstock availabilities, and product segregated granularity sales margin and align with business optimization direction.
• Drive the yearly business plan cycle meeting for polyolefins to reach consensus on established business plan allocation plan, production plan, and inventory volume including safety stock proposal with S&OP platform and stakeholders.
• Manage and plan test runs based on risk level and ensure proper mitigation in place while meeting product launching and growth plan.
• Lead the development of production cycle outcome through actively partnering with execution owners to ensure business strategies are met based on volume and asset capabilities.

• Lead investigations that require advanced data analysis and understanding of supply chain management, and prepare management presentations to set expectation on way forward to eliminate root causes.
• Lead and actively involve in projects to drive value chain creation by integrating into supply chain processes, identification of the dashboard matrices, recommend and report on the S&OP performance improvements, to support the global balancing calculation for monthly and annual planning, and provide expert opinion on working capital through inventory models from statistical point of view.
• Maintain risk register to support developing mitigation plans to overcome crisis situations.

Qualifications, experience, knowledge & skills

• University degree in Actuarial Science, Industrial Engineering, or relevant statistical or mathematical disciplines. Masters in Operation Research is preferred.
• Sound knowledge and understanding to work with information management and systems.
• Knowledge of operation management, operation research, and analysis.
• Advanced knowledge in SAP, Microsoft Office; Excel solver and add-ons.
• Fluency in English language is a must; written and oral.

• Minimum of 8 years of total experience, with 5 years in planning occupations.
• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders, influence decisions and recommend a course of action based on data analytics.
• General knowledge of supply chain management process.
• Knowledge of sales and operation planning process.
• Solid knowledge on polyolefin operation, polyolefin business, and products application.
• Previous demand planning, supply planning, and inventory experience for at least 5 years preferably in customer products industry.
• Ability to analyse and evaluate data and make recommendations and decisions.
• Strong ERP (enterprise resource planning) system skills and MRP (material requirement planning) system skill for at least 3 years.
• Minimum 8 years of total experience in working with business mathematical or statistical modeling.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in an analytical role.
• Exposure to and knowledge of supply chain theories and practices.
• Hands-on developing the reporting and monitoring the performance.
• A completed project on developing the supply chain processes, standards or procedures is an advantage.
• Advanced ability to conduct data analysis.
• Recognized for being communicative, dialogue engaging, inspiring, motivating and setting direction for others within a multicultural environment.
• Advanced planning, reporting, and organizing skills.
• High level of detailed orientation.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Able to lead and work in a multi-cultural team environment.
• Expert level Excel skills (advanced is not enough to support the GBT tool).
• Advanced knowledge of linear programming methods (for GBT tool support).

• Certified APICS, SCOR is an advantage.
• Professional certification in supply chain (like CSCP) would be an advantage.

About the Company

We are one of the world's leading energy producers, and a primary catalyst for Abu Dhabi’s growth and diversification.

We operate across the entire hydrocarbon value chain, through a network of fully-integrated businesses, with interests that range from exploration, production, storage, refining and distribution, to the development of a wide-range of petrochemical products.

Since 1971, we have created thousands of jobs, driven the growth of a diverse knowledge-based economy, and played a key role in Abu Dhabi’s global emergence.

Today, we continue to look for new and innovative ways to maximize the value of our resources, pioneering those approaches and technologies that will ensure we are able to meet the demands of an ever-changing energy market, and continue to have a positive impact on the Abu Dhabi economy for generations to come.

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