Demand & Inventory Planner at Colgate-Palmolive

Job Purpose:

• Execute CP Demand Planning Fundamentals for RSA products to deliver against case fill, inventory and DPA targets.
• To manage preparation, alignment, and communication of a high quality Demand with a planning horizon of 18 months and play a key role in the Monthly Discipline process
• Work with Customer Development to understand Customer plans, launches, distribution changes, fast tracks. Highlight and fix significant negative forecast trends.
• Identify and, together with SNP, help resolve key supply issues and constraints within the medium term horizon
• Set inventory budget & Ensure inventory actuals/forecasts are in line with budgets. Assess risk to case fill and suggest periodic changes to inventory profile.
• Manage SLOB and excess inventory through working with commercial and Marketing teams
• Work with Marketing on forecasting, planning and execution for all NPD and soft transitions

Main Responsibilities:

• Support new products planning and /life cycle planning – Lead Contact for CS&L in Category Gateway Process
• Work cross functionally through the Gateway Process to finalise pipeline volume for new products.
• Track/measure actual shipments & conduct post launch analysis.
• Build and review collaborative demand plan
• Prepare & participate in Colgate business planning discipline process to develop an aligned demand plan. Gaps & opportunities are identified, quantified & addressed. Business performance for most recent month, quarter, YTD vs. plan is reviewed.
• Ensure alignment of final demand plan to supply plan. Evaluate changes to demand, inventory, and customer backlogs. Identify resource constraints, potential solutions, and impact on “unconstrained demand plan”.
• Ensure demand plan forecast is translated into a inventory plan with clear safety stock management and target setting.
• Monthly management of SLOB process with commercial. Action plan for all SLOB items and proactive discussion with SNP around SLOB generating MOQ SKU’s.
• Monitor orders and shipments on a regular basis. Understand sources of significant changes & flag to commercial and supply chain partners.
• Measure, report, and drive improvement accuracy for the total subsidiary, and category level categorised by new products, regular items, & promotional items. Sources of Demand Planning bias are identified, addressed, and eliminated.
• Build organisational capability & drive change management
• Partner with Brand teams and Retail Marketing to achieve portfolio simplification.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Mathematics, Finance or Logistics.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in demand planning or customer service/logistics role in Consumer Goods or Manufacturing.