Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Outbound Wave Planner

🎯 Role Definition

The Outbound Wave Planner designs, schedules, and optimizes wave builds and execution plans for outbound fulfillment in distribution centers and warehouses. This role translates demand and order priorities into executable waves using the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and transportation management interfaces, balances labor and equipment capacity, mitigates exceptions, and drives continuous improvement to meet KPIs such as on-time shipments, pick/pack productivity, and dock utilization. The Wave Planner partners closely with operations managers, transportation planners, customer service, and IT to ensure smooth, predictable outbound flow and high customer satisfaction.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Warehouse Supervisor with exposure to scheduling and WMS processes
Logistics Analyst or Distribution Center Scheduler
Inventory Planner or Shipping Coordinator

Advancement To:

Outbound Operations Manager
Distribution Center Manager / Site Operations Manager
Senior Supply Chain Planner or Network Planning Lead

Lateral Moves:

Transportation Planner / Carrier Manager
Slotting and Capacity Planner
Order Management or Customer Fulfillment Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, build, and release outbound waves across multiple shifts and docks using the WMS (e.g., Manhattan, Blue Yonder/JDA, SAP EWM) to meet daily customer shipment windows, service-level agreements (SLAs), and volumetric forecasts.
Translate customer order priorities, cut-off times and carrier appointment schedules into optimized wave sequences that minimize travel time, reduce sorter congestion, and maximize picker efficiency.
Monitor real-time execution of waves, identify exceptions and bottlenecks (e.g., pick delays, missing inventory, blocked bays), and drive immediate corrective actions with operations supervisors and leads.
Balance labor and equipment utilization by modeling wave sizes, start times and pick routes to hit hourly throughput targets, minimize overtime, and maintain target labor productivity KPIs.
Create and maintain dynamic capacity plans that incorporate labor schedules, equipment availability, dock capacity, and transportation appointments to enable predictable outbound flow.
Produce daily and weekly operational plans (wave manifests, pick lists, pack worksheets) and communicate clear run-of-day priorities to floor leads and shift managers.
Coordinate with transportation planning and carriers to align inbound/outbound dock windows, consolidate loads where appropriate, and ensure on-time carrier handoffs.
Configure and tune WMS wave logic (rules, release thresholds, work class priorities) and test changes in sandbox environments to improve order batching, sortation, and consolidation.
Lead root-cause analysis for recurring outbound issues (late shipments, mis-picks, sort exceptions) and implement corrective action plans, standard work updates, and preventative measures.
Analyze historical order patterns, seasonality, promotions and SKU profiles to forecast wave demand and proactively plan resources for peaks and special events.
Maintain accurate documentation for wave procedures, WMS parameter settings, and decision trees to ensure adherence to standard operating procedures and enable cross-training.
Serve as primary owner for key outbound KPIs (OTIF, order cycle time, dock-to-load time, pick accuracy) and develop dashboards and reports to provide transparency to operations and leadership.
Collaborate with inventory control to manage reserved stock, backorders, and replenishment priorities that impact outbound wave effectiveness.
Manage exceptions for split shipments, partial picks, and expedited orders by coordinating with customer service, merchandising and transportation to ensure timely resolution.
Support go-lives, system upgrades and WMS/TMS integrations with wave logic validation, test case creation, and post-deployment monitoring to ensure continuity of outbound flows.
Implement continuous improvement projects (Lean, Kaizen) focused on reducing touchpoints, improving slotting for fast movers, and simplifying pick paths to increase throughput.
Work cross-functionally with safety, quality and operations leads to ensure that wave schedules respect ergonomic limits, comply with safety protocols, and maintain product integrity (e.g., temperature-controlled, hazardous materials).
Drive day-to-day decision making during peak shifts—prioritizing orders by SLA, revenue, or customer impact—to safeguard critical shipments and maintain service levels.
Provide training, coaching and support to schedulers and floor planners on wave building best practices, WMS usage, and exception management.
Partner with analytics and BI teams to refine forecasting models and build predictive alerts that inform wave planning decisions and reduce manual interventions.
Develop contingency and surge plans (e.g., alternate pick methods, temporary shifts, third-party labor) to handle unplanned volume spikes, system outages or transportation disruptions.
Audit outbound processes and data integrity regularly to ensure waves reflect accurate stock positions, unit of measure conversions and route assignments.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc reporting requests and exploratory analysis to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for outbound efficiency.
Contribute to cross-functional projects (WMS/TMS upgrades, site redesigns, capacity expansions) by providing wave-planning subject matter expertise and test cases.
Help define business requirements and acceptance criteria for new automation features or WMS enhancements that impact wave release and work execution.
Participate in shift handovers and pre-shift planning calls to align operations teams on the day’s waves, critical orders, and operational contingencies.
Train and mentor new wave planners and warehouse schedulers; develop quick-reference guides and classroom materials to promote consistent execution.
Support audit and compliance activities related to shipping documentation, carrier manifests and hazardous materials outbound handling.
Maintain continuous improvement backlog and prioritize initiatives based on ROI, operational pain points and leadership priorities.
Act as backup to weekend/holiday scheduling and escalate operational crises to management when required.
Collaborate with procurement and maintenance to ensure required picking and material handling equipment is available and properly serviced for scheduled waves.
Work with customer service and account managers to understand special customer requirements and apply specific routing or packing rules within waves.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Expert-level experience building and releasing waves using major WMS platforms (Manhattan, Blue Yonder / JDA, SAP EWM, Oracle WMS).
Proficient with Transportation Management Systems (TMS) concepts and experience coordinating ship windows and carrier appointments.
Advanced Excel and spreadsheet modeling skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, Power Query) for capacity modeling and KPI analysis.
SQL querying skills for ad-hoc data extraction, joining order, inventory and labor tables to diagnose issues and build dashboards.
Familiarity with labor planning and workforce management tools; able to translate wave plans into labor demand templates.
Experience with warehouse automation integration (conveyors, sorters, pick-to-light, voice systems) and how automation constraints influence wave design.
Knowledge of order lifecycle, fulfillment workflows, shipping documentation and EDI interactions (ASN, manifest transmissions).
Strong data visualization skills with BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) to present wave performance and trends to stakeholders.
Hands-on experience with slotting, pick-path optimization and SKU profiling to reduce picker travel and improve cycle times.
Understanding of Lean, Six Sigma or continuous improvement methodologies applied to distribution center operations.
Familiarity with cold-chain or regulated product handling when applicable to outbound planning and staging.

Soft Skills

Exceptional stakeholder management — able to influence operations, transportation, IT and customer service to implement wave changes.
Strong analytical problem-solving and root-cause identification under time pressure.
Clear verbal and written communication skills for shift briefings, escalation emails and cross-functional documentation.
Decisive and calm under operational stress; proven ability to prioritize shipments and make trade-off decisions.
Attention to detail when interpreting WMS data, exceptions and shipment manifests.
Collaborative team player who can lead change while gaining buy-in from front-line staff.
Time management and the ability to juggle multiple site priorities, projects, and operational deadlines.
Continuous improvement mindset with creativity to experiment, measure, and scale winning process changes.
Customer-focused orientation to ensure outbound decisions preserve delivery promises and customer satisfaction.
Coaching and mentoring skills to upskill schedulers and improve consistency in wave execution.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or GED with 2+ years of progressive warehouse/scheduling experience, OR
Associate degree in logistics, supply chain, or related field with relevant operations experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, or similar.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Supply Chain Management
Logistics & Transportation
Industrial / Systems Engineering
Operations Management
Business Analytics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years in distribution center scheduling, wave planning, or logistics operations; 3+ years preferred for complex or multi-site roles.

Preferred: 3–7 years experience with hands-on WMS wave configuration and execution, demonstrated record of improving outbound KPIs, and prior exposure to transportation coordination/TMS and automation-enabled warehouses. Experience supporting peak season planning, system go-lives, or cross-functional SCM projects is highly desirable.