Inventory & Supply Planner

Inventory & Supply Planner

New Era Cap, LLC. is an international lifestyle brand headquartered in Buffalo, NY with an authentic sports heritage that dates back over 100 years. Best known for being the official on-field cap for MLB, official sideline cap for NFL, and official on-court cap for NBA, New Era Cap is the brand of choice not only for its headwear collection, but also for its accessories and apparel lines for men, women and youth. The brand is worn as a symbol of self-expression by athletes, artists and some of the most interesting people around the globe. New Era Cap encourages people to truly express their personal style and individuality through its products.

Since 1920, this family-owned business has hired employees who are masters of their craft. We are innovators, architects of culture, experts, and forward thinkers. We demand excellence because we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and the authenticity of our brand.

Interested in working with us? Check out this exciting opportunity at New Era Cap's Headquarters (HQ) building located in downtown Buffalo, NY. This role is 100% on-site, encouraging employees to collaborate and connect in person five days a week. HQ offers an inviting atmosphere, complete with an on-site caf, fitness center, and Flagship store.

Apply to join New Era's team!

The Inventory & Supply Planner is responsible for coordinating production planning, inventory management, subcontractor support, and cross-functional communication to ensure products are planned, produced, stocked, and delivered in alignment with business needs. This role partners closely with internal teams, production facilities, subcontractors, customer service, finance, IT, and commercial partners to support accurate inventory, timely production execution, and effective service to customers.

The Global Demand Planning team at New Era analyzes sales data and trends to develop accurate forecasts that support inventory and production planning. They partner with cross-functional teams to monitor demand, evaluate forecast performance, and ensure alignment between supply, demand, and overall business objectives.

Responsibilities

Planning Activities:

• Manage all cap machine activities
  • Work with business plans to identify all cap machine requirements for the year
  • Work with Miami facility to map out capacity plans
  • Work with the subcontractors to help estimate total volume for the year, and prepare weekly expected output required per vendor and the expected costs for New Era
  • Collaborate with the Finance team to identify the blended cap machine costs
• Lead cross-functional teams, including Licensed Management, Product, Miami Production, Planning, Sourcing and Global Production, to identify cap machine plans for the hot market and planned events
  • Identify times of the year for bottlenecks and ensure clear communication on expectations for lead times
• Maintain 6-month rolling capacity report for cap machine
  • Understand future events, obtain forecasts, and review constraints
  • Communicate with subcontractors and the Miami facility about expected needs
• Cap machine scheduling
  • Review customer orders and determine execution requirements
  • Release production orders to the Miami facility, communicate priorities with production team, and monitor completion and shipments
  • Work with subcontractors to issue subcontracting purchase orders
    • Pull specs and cost the caps based on cap machine criteria
    • Manage the inventory held at each subcontractor, ensuring accuracy
    • Ensure clear communication on delivery expectations to both the subcontractor and customer relations
  • Manage subcontracting relationships and act as liaison for New Era internal departments
  • Communicate with Customer Service on delivery expectations and where orders will be shipped from
• Manage all player cap activities
  • Work with business plans to identify all player cap requirements for the year
    • Lead cross-functional meetings to outline upcoming events and manage documentation of domestic vs global products
    • Release production orders per schedule to meet timelines
    • Work with Miami facility to map out capacity plans
• Lead planning activities for blank base caps and blank M2O apparel
  • Maintain proper inventory levels based on desired inventory
  • Review inbound inventory across all plants and demand to determine required buys
  • Create purchase requisitions and work with global production in line with priorities
  • Lead cross-functional meetings for the cap machine and M2O future activities to obtain proper forecasts
  • Identify hot market requirements and ensure blank inventory is available to meet the needs of the events
• Engage in heat seal activities for subcontracted products
  • Coordinate with Customer Relations on timelines for order delivery
  • Work with the subcontractor on schedule to meet delivery timelines
    • Provide subcontracted PO, BOMs and all other required documents
    • Follow through on issues and coordinate with internal partners
  • Manage inventory, including purchases of blanks, scrap transactions, and issuance of materials to orders

Inventory Control and Management Activities:

• Oversee all inventory related transactions including but not limited to inter-company receipts/STOs, issues, scraps, part number changes, and shipping transactions
• Work closely with Operations Management, Customer Service, Finance/Accounting, and IT to develop and implement policies, processes, and procedures which ensure timely inventory transactions, with the objective of maximizing inventory accuracy and customer service
• Assist with the creation, execution, and reconciliation of regular cycle count inventories
• Assist with the creation, execution, and reconciliation of annual year end physical inventories
• Coordinate inaccurate inventory investigations
  • Include root cause analysis
  • Include the development and implementation of procedures (SOPs) designed to eliminate or correct root causes
• Perform inventory adjustments as needed
• Manage all ECOM/Retail Discrepancy Reports
  • Work with ECOM/Retail Teams to resolve issues on Adjustments, Receipts, PGI/PGR Issues and shipments
  • Root cause analysis and recommendations for improvements
• Maintain monthly scrap report for all North American plants
• Work with accounts payable department to reconcile invoice/receiving discrepancies
• Perform reconciliations between SAP and CEVA WMS applications
• Perform reconciliations between SAP and Store Shopify applications
• Perform testing of inventory related transactions for all new system upgrades and enhancements
• Process routine transactions (transfers, receipts etc.) for all subcontractors not maintaining SAP
• Keep all sensitive matters confidential
• Other duties or tasks as assigned

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong knowledge and experience in maintaining accurate inventories
• Must be responsive to the needs of internal customers, employ diplomacy & tact, and work well in a team environment
• Sound interpersonal, mathematical and computer skills
  • Must be familiar with a major ERP system (SAP, etc.)
• Detail oriented; accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved showing concern for all processes and tasks, no matter how small
• Must have the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing with various levels of staff and outside customers/suppliers
• Understand goals and objectives established by the company and work towards satisfying them
• Enthusiastic positive person who embraces and facilitates change with a sense of urgency and persistence
• Challenges self to learn better ways of doing things (takes advantage of opportunities to improve skill set, attends courses and seminars to broaden knowledge) and demonstrates initiative

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain or related field required
• Three (3) to five (5) years of experience in an inventory