Position Summary:
This role is focused on overseeing the team responsible for Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning process. This position will manage the consensus demand reconciliation, updated supply plan, and alignment across the organization including the Finance, Product, and Sales team. In addition, this position will regularly moderate, present, and engage the Executive and Management teams to illustrate upcoming operational activities needed to support the demand plan. This position will also be the subject matter expert of the Supply and Demand KPIs used to communicate forecast accuracy, inventory levels, excess & obsolete, and alignment to Financial and corporate targets set (budget / latest operating plan).
This person will be a key manager of people and processes as well as an integral liaison between the front-end functions (Product and Sales & Marketing) and back-end functions (Supply Chain, Operations, and Finance).
Essential Functions of this Role:
The essential duties and responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to:
- Oversee, summarize, and consolidate multi-channel brand/product category level forecasts using historical data, current order book trends, and statistical models to facilitate the agreement of a consensus business plan.
- Align with cross-functional partners in Finance, Sales, and Management to update the demand plan used in the Sales, Inventory and Operations process.
- Teach and mentor “Best in class” Demand processes, practices, and methodologies.
- Ability to interpret changes to demand and supply plans and effectively communicate the impact to cross-functional team members.
- Ability to develop and model strategic plans to adjust to dynamically changing demand and supply landscape balancing regional, channel, and product needs.
- Identify continuous improvement practices to increase forecast accuracy.
- Own the analysis, identifying risks and opportunities, that drives purchase decisions for supply and inventory planning for assigned product categories and generates purchase plans from requisitions.
- Responsible for inventory levels, safety stock analysis and settings, fulfillment strategies for assigned product categories.
- Support the annual financial plan and budgeting process.
- Accountable and responsible for development of the demand plan for new seasons / new product introduction and analysis summarizing growth expectations and drivers / drags of forecast.
- Tracking and reporting of KPIs and objectives Being able to present KPIs, Product Reviews, forecasts, etc. to Leadership team.
- Lead cross-functional projects that positively impact company performance and are recognized by upper management and leadership team.
Competencies:
- Strong understanding of Demand Planning and Sales & Operations Planning with the ability to drive continuous improvement.
- Ability to mentor, set foundational processes, and establish vision for team building.
- Proven successful track record on cross-functional team projects, including leading teams.
- Strong strategic skills with ability and vision to map out “future state” business processes.
- Demonstrate strong aptitude in analysis, root causes identification, and problem solving.
- Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from senior management.
- Excellent communication and analytical skills.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Review and evaluate team performance.
- Proactively identify training needs and drive continuous improvement of the planning team.
- Provide coaching and mentoring to subordinates to enhance team efficiency.
- Build capabilities and expertise within team through job rotation and succession planning.
- Generate and enhance a high level of teamwork and interaction between all departments.
- Lead demand forecast assessments for new product introductions while collaborating with markets and supply planning inventory strategies to fulfill demand.
Required Education, Experience and Skills:
- Familiarity with supply chain operations, S&OP processes.
- BS/BA in relevant field including Economics, Finance, Math or Business, MBA preferred.
- Minimum 10 year of experience in Planning / Analytics function (CPG preferred)
- APICS certification preferred
- High functional competency in SAP (or other ERP) and Excel preferred
- Experience in Word or Business Objects desired
- Experience buying and forecasting in a consumer products environment
Preferred Education, Experience and Skills:
Other Duties:
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.