The Demand Planning Manager leverages historic data trends and business inputs across sales channels (contract and retail) as well as external drivers to establish a demand plan for the company or assigned business unit. The Demand Planning Manager aligns the commercial and operational facets of the business to an aligned demand plan to execute the business and bring clarity to the assumptions constituting a demand plan and cycle-over-cycle change drivers. The Demand Planning Manager is also responsible for collaborating with the Demand, Sales & Operational Planning leadership to surface risks to the business plan based on the approved demand plan and propose mitigation actions to be positioned to deliver business objectives (revenues, margins, etc.).
Essential Duties and Responsibilities- Develop and own a rolling 12- to 18-month demand plan across all products for assigned business unit based on a statistical baseline based on historical data, business enrichments to account for promotions, seasonal trends and market indicators, and customer point of sale inputs.
- Capture, load, and analyze the forecast received from contract customers. Identify changes compared to prior month and highlight sales for review.
- Lead monthly Demand Reviews to align on the consensus demand plan across Commercial and Operations teams and review and refine assumptions and risks communicate in the Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) forum.
- Track demand planning key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure forecast accuracy and BIAS.
- Partner with Supply Planning in the improvement of Supply Chain KPIs such as Fill Rate by reviewing SKUs with BIAS and adjusting the forecast accordingly.
- Increase system utilization by analyzing and comparing customer forecasts against statistical forecasts.
- Partner with IT in any integration, migration, or new system adoption that requires Demand Planning support or coordination.
- Partner with Demand Planner(s) to look for synergies, benchmark, simplification, and standardization.
- Lead assigned weekly or monthly processes related to Demand Planning, such as demand control, forecast reasonability, root cause analysis, etc.
- Partner with product managers and sales team to ensure proper forecast loading of innovations, transitions, and/or discontinuations.
- Drive continuous improvement in the planning process.
Required QualificationsEducation & Experience:- Bachelor's degree in business, finance, supply chain or related field.
- 8 years' relevant experience in supply chain, supply planning, demand planning, or related focus.
- 3 years' experience leading demand planning and planning data analytics.
- 2 years' demonstrated cross-functional leadership including project implementation in the planning domain.
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities (KSAs):- Advanced Microsoft Excel expertise and solid Microsoft Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint skills.
- Intermediate expertise with business intelligence reporting systems (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau, Looker, etc.).
- Intermediate expertise with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (e.g., Oracle, SAP, JDE, AMAPS, etc.).
- Strong leadership, analytical, organization, problem solving, time-management, and planning skills.
- Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
- Must have the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and written, with internal staff and management. Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
- Must be able to demonstrate practical problem solving and trouble shooting skills. Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
Preferred Qualifications- Master's degree in a quantitative discipline (e.g., statistics, math, engineering, economics, etc.).
- Relevant Professional certification (e.g., APICS, CSCPM, etc.).
- Experience in consumer goods and/or food/beverage industries.
- Prior supervisory experience.
- Strong hands-on knowledge of demand planning systems (e.g., SAP IBP, O9, Kinaxis)
