Associate Manager Demand Planning at SC Johnson

In this role you are entrusted to develop and maintain professional relationships with local and remote supply chain planning partners. This position is charged with making decisions that impact the demand plan and communicating those decisions to stakeholders. The role expands to contributing to special projects and other supply chain and business strategy initiatives. This person is a well-rounded individual who encompasses analytical, communication and leadership skills. They can quickly identify deviations from expected results and other disruptions and are able to promptly resolve issues.

The Cluster Associate Manager Demand Planner is also the facilitator of the Pre-demand and Demand Reviews (Step 2) within the cluster and country for the S&OP process, ensuring an efficient, effective, and reliable review driven by an unbiased, consensus process.

Responsibilities

• Use and maintain current demand planning systems to create the best forecast possible using established processes and statistical feed in the system from their demand support hub
• Collect and analyze past/future demand inputs (such as distribution gains/losses, price changes, new/discontinued products and promotion plans) from sales and marketing, and calculate their impacts on demand
• Make recommendations to enhance business processes, and identify opportunities to improve operational efficiencies
• Work with various cross functional partners on projects such as new product launches, discontinuations, and transitions to evaluate assumptions (pre and post launch) – new product forecast, pipeline fill, and cannibalization
• Collaborate with Marketing, Trade Marketing (Customer Marketing), and Finance for advertising and promotional activities – time period, expected market penetration, reaction (uplift, cannibalization on other items/brands) and evaluate against performance from similar historical activities
• Work with the regional demand hub to help maintain cleansed history in APO at the appropriate level and ensure a 24-month rolling forecast in APO
• Ensure demand forecast is shared in level of detail and timing required by internal customers and supply chain partners with documented assumptions. Also communicating forecast confidence, including risks and opportunities
• Influence and collaborate with key partners in marketing, sales (field sales, corporate sales managers and directors), and finance to address input gaps as identified by forecast error/bias review & root cause analysis
• Measure, analyze, and communicate key process metrics and monitor adherence to key performance indicators, while driving continuous improvement
• Lead, coach and develop the cluster demand planning analysts to evolve demand planning, supply chain, and overall business skills and knowledge. Also handling daily management responsibilities of the analyst.

Position Requirements

• University degree in Economics, Supply Chain Management, Engineering or related field
• Minimum 5 years of experience in Demand Planning with the standard S&OP or IBM processes (preferable in the FMCG industry) and 2 years of people management
• Strong communication skills, with a proven ability to understand key concepts and communicate with business stakeholders
• Ability to drive action and influence decision making at all levels of the organization
• Strong organizational skills, as well as the ability to perform under pressure and manage multiple priorities with competing demands
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in process improvement
• Knowledge of finance, sales, marketing and R&D functions
• Experience using SAP and PC-based applications (such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word and/or Access)
• You need to be legally eligible to work in country of application