Position: SAP Production Planning (PP) Analyst (Business-Facing Functional Role) Location: Waukegan, IL (Onsite role) Contract: 6+ Months Contract
Job Description:
Overview:
We are seeking a functional, business-facing SAP Production Planning (PP) Analyst to support the Unify Program, a major enterprise effort to consolidate multiple legacy manufacturing systems into a single, standardized SAP ECC platform. This is not a technical or configuration role it is ideal for someone with deep knowledge of supply chain, forecasting, and production planning processes who can engage directly with business stakeholders and guide them through functional adoption and process alignment.
What You'll Do:
- Serve as a trusted advisor to manufacturing and supply chain leaders, helping them understand, define and optimize planning processes in SAP PP across sites.
- Act as a functional liaison between the business and IT, gathering planning-related requirements and facilitating process adoption.
- Guide stakeholders through:
- Forecast interpretation and integration into planning
- Planning strategies (e.g., make-to-stock, make-to-order)
- Sales order management as it relates to production planning
- Discrete vs. repetitive manufacturing practices
- Conduct workshops and lead discussions with site teams to drive understanding and process standardization independently.
- Collaborate with technical/configuration teams by relaying business requirements no configuration work is required from this role.
- Support long-term efforts to transition from ECC to S/4HANA by ensuring clean, unified planning practices are established now.
- Focus entirely within the SAP PP module (no SD, MM, etc.), across S/4 HANA environments.
Ideal Candidate Profile:
- Strong background in SAP Production Planning (PP) from a process and business function perspective, especially within discrete and repetitive manufacturing.
- Familiarity with forecasting, demand planning, sales orders, and production planning strategies within manufacturing settings.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills able to translate technical concepts to business leaders and vice versa. Proven experience engaging directly with business users to explain planning processes and drive adoption.
- Experience with SAP ECC & S/4HANA
- Demonstrated ability to self-manage, run workshops, and lead functional discussions without relying on being assigned tasks.
Nice to Have:
- Exposure to FDA-regulated or highly structured manufacturing environments.
- Familiarity with SAP integration points (EWM, OpenText), though no hands-on config required.
Not a Fit If You:
- Are primarily a technical SAP PP configurator or developer.
- Prefer to work behind the scenes rather than directly with business stakeholders.
- Lack hands-on experience with supply chain and production planning business processes.