Summary:

The Senior Demand Planning Analyst is responsible for the demand planning processes for assigned product lines. This includes generating the statistical base forecast for their assigned portfolio and projecting future demand based on an analysis of history and future requirements. These plans will be developed and executed in support of the Business Unit requirements and company goals for those products. The Analyst will work to manage supply-demand alignment with key stakeholders in Sales, Product Management and Procurement. They will regularly update and aggregate forecast requirements by product line, customer group and category to support the IBP process. The Analyst will also disaggregate the total DecoPac revenue forecast by product line and customer grouping to provide comparison points as the Procurement team makes inventory planning and purchasing decisions. The Analyst will collect, analyze, consolidate, and report key data and metrics to improve the decision-making process and drive opportunities for process maturity and forecast accuracy.

Responsibilities:

• Create item and product family forecasts based on market requirements.

• Utilize the appropriate statistics to create the baseline forecast.

• Make forecast adjustments upon analysis of product changes and key customer plans.

• Understand and adjust forecast for distribution channel inventory and sales data.

• Work with the Business Unit to arrive at a consensus demand forecast indicating true market demand in both units and dollars.

• Work with Supply Planning to assess the support of the demand forecast and action any variances that arise.
• Participate in the S&OP process to present supply-demand alignment along with forecast accuracy improvement. Provides necessary data and analytics to support transparent discussion and communication of risk and opportunities through the IBP cycle.

• Measure and improve forecast accuracy through regular forecast analysis. Identify product families with higher forecast accuracy and differentiate the process from product families with consistently lower forecast accuracy.

• Work with the Business Unit and Procurement to optimally utilize available inventory through the influencing of demand and/or adjustments to supply when there is misalignment of supply-demand.

• Improve inventory stock ratio and aging through Forecast Accuracy and Inventory Deep Dive processes.

• Monitor and evaluate distribution channel inventory for any potential excess or shortage conditions.

• Partner with or lead others in driving the necessary planning improvement to achieve objectives on customer service and inventory levels
• Prepare other annual forecasts to facilitate this process, including revenue avenue/season revenue forecast, customer forecast by revenue avenue/season, and class forecast. Identify and report significant variances and collaborate with Product and Procurement to drive appropriate actions.

• Develops a culture of accountability around maintaining key supply chain inputs (both within the planning and with other key functions) that reflect actual performance as it exists in the current state
• Reports critical metrics (MAPE, BIAS) including rationale for trends/changes
• Conducts analytics to address business problems with an end-to-end mentality
• Other duties, as assigned

Qualifications:

• A minimum of a University Bachelors' Degree is required. An MBA or equivalent is preferred.
• Minimum of 8 years of related experience in Demand Planning, Distribution Planning, Financial Planning and/or Inventory Management is required.
• Experience with demand planning software